Celebrating the industry as a great place to work!

Winners - Springboard Awards for Excellence 2007

Springboard Ambassador's Award Sally Bowden "Sally impressed the judges with the extent of her activities to enthuse and encourage fresh talent into the industry – contributing over 100 hours of her own time to the cause, in the Manchester area – Sally is one of the longest serving Ambassadors, implementing imaginative and compelling initiatives and thoroughly deserves her award." The Best Regional Initiative Trafford College "Manchester off to a flying start then! Trafford College rewarded here for their world class initiative to address a severe skills gap in tourism across Manchester attracting, skilling up and retaining new recruits – started as a public funded programme, it is now entirely supported by the private sector and shows a real return on investment." The Web Award My Pub Life "This professional site was described as excellent – informative, easy to navigate and achieved results in a challenging recruitment area – it also had massive potential to develop and make a real impact in the future" The Education Award (Large Organisation) Liverpool Marriot Hotel South "The judges felt that the work of the hotel and the experiences gained by the students thoroughly enhanced learning beyond the school and college gates and had achieved tremendous results in a deprived area of Merseyside – highly innovative" The Education Award (Small Organisation) Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf "What impressed the judges here was the way that the team had made huge efforts to connect with tutors and students at every level and went on to provide first class work experience with an emphasis on long term relationships – superb initiative and went beyond the industry norm!" Young People Award Cornwall College "This innovative approach shows how true partnership can work in practice to achieve results – with local employers working together with the college and other partners to inspire young people in a deprived area into the industry and using local produce – 100% achievement" The Best Student Placement Provider Crieff Hydro "An entry with a real Wow factor, a detailed and comprehensive programme supported and guided the student into a hugely worthwhile placement leading to employment. The documentation was impressive as was the supporting evidence. The judges were unanimous in their praise – Well done Crieff Hydro!" The Diversity Award The Compass Group "The judges were overwhelmed with this entry – it was a perfect example of a well thought through and holistic approach to embracing diversity – the results were impressive- such outcomes often difficult to achieve in such a large organisation" The Best Initiative to Attract Chefs Folio Hotels "The judges felt that Folio Hotels Chef School was an excellent entry – which had hit the ground running and had already achieved impressive results – great example of partnership working and imaginative approaches to attracting young people onto the programme" The Best Initiative to Attract People into Management Mitchells & Butlers "Mitchells & Butlers innovative strategy covered the entire gambit of attracting, developing and retaining people in management careers. The judges were impressed by the clear measures for evaluating success" The Best Employer Award – Hospitality and Leisure The Balmoral "The Balmoral had a simple structure with clear links to their overall philosophy of delivering great customer service and really walked the talk with a superb benefits package for all staff - impressive!" The Best Employer Award – Travel and Tourism Knock Travel "Knock Travel had taken extraordinary steps to be a first class employer, well rounded training programmes personalised to each employer, pursuing joint venture arrangements with partner companies to the benefit of staff, working with the local police to assist in burglar proofing homes and fulfilling green initiatives! The work environment provided a roof garden, bathroom & showers, massages, nutrition seminars the lot - got any jobs for me?" The Retention Award Swissotel the Howard "Swissotel impressed the judges with their innovative approach to improving retention – which consisted of a rounded approach including rigorous recruitment, reward and recognition schemes, internal promotion and transfer opportunities and some stunning improvements in retention. Their Casino Loyale Board Game was inspirational!" The Recruitment Award – Hospitality and Leisure Charles Wells Pub Company "The judges were impressed with the level of investment Charles Wells had placed in addressing a challenging recruitment problem in a sector facing severe image problems. One of the founder members of mypublife – they backed a sound recruitment process with an innovative and successful induction programme called CRISP!" The Corporate Citizenship Award Compass Group "This was an outstanding entry and one of the best examples of CSR that I have ever seen” quoted on judge on reading the Compass entry – a well rounded approach and their work with prisons and local communities was especially impressive as was their approach to self-responsibility!" The Career Progression Award Firmdale Hotels "The evidence of career progression at every level throughout the group was staggering. The judges felt that this was due to the well implemented and committed process of training, development, succession planning, staff consultation and on and off the job training. Agency Recruitment costs for managers was £0! Testimonials from staff were impressive." The Chris Beaumont Special Award Michael Gray & The members of the Springboard London Advisory Board "Andy Kemp Group Sales Director of 3663 remarked, this group of people demonstrated a sustained belief and extraordinary commitment to helping Springboard achieve its objectives of promoting careers and attracting people into London’s ‘showcase industry’. Michael Gray and the members of the London Advisory Board are real winners! Inspired and motivated by an infectious energy – they excelled in their commitment and active involvement for the cause. Through a collective will and partnership they offered key support to Springboard’s careers and education activities and smashed the year’s fund-raising targets for London through a host of innovative activities such as Mutton Master Classes, Speaker Seminars, the Slingsby Challenge Trolley Race and Christmas with Kaspar at the Savoy."