August 2, 2013
CEO Newsletter
I have never been prouder of working and leading a company as I am with Centerplate. We have an engaged executive team and an awesome 2000+ management and support team that powers our 45,000+ employees to deliver Event Hospitality of the highest level in the industry across North America and the UK. I would not trade our team for any other; there is no comparison. The loyalty and dedication of our team members to the company is second to none. In fact I would like to take a moment to recognize three outstanding leaders for their continued service. I spoke with each of them this week and you can rest easy, they all stated that they have a lot left in the tank – Marsha Graber with 33 years, Michael Jennings with 37 years, and Dan Guest with 40 years of exceptional service to our company. Please join me in saluting them and celebrating their achievements over the years – a true E3 moment!
Recently I challenged you to complete the company survey on Glassdoor. The response has been terrific and should be no surprise. Already more than half of our team has engaged and reviewed the company. I ask that those who have not done it yet to please take a moment and do it now.
The feedback on Glassdoor so far has been tremendous and the comments provided informative and relevant. They will be reviewed and acted on. These are not hollow words. Attached is a list of many of the comments you have logged so far in “Advice to Senior Management”, none have been edited for there is valuable learning in all. It will be my personal mission and pleasure to make sure that we address all opportunities identified. Please take the time to review the full list and make sure you are addressing any gaps in your operation.
This feedback is a precious gift and will be treated as such. Personally, it is encouraging to see that our efforts to make Centerplate a great place to work are in fact taking hold. Especially pleasing is how many times “continue” and “keep doing” were used. Training and orientation made the list several times as did respecting and rewarding all venues. I am very fond of the advice stating we need to get our act together, trust me we need to be focused on that.
It is clear that a common thread is the need for strong and consistent communication. To make sure people have a voice and that as a company we take steps to continuously improve. There are a few reviews stating that we should listen to the field or departments more. I ask that you reach out directly to me or any of the executive team with your ideas and suggestions. Encourage your teams to send in their thoughts or better yet log them into the feedback stream of my weekly update on Centerplate Spark.
I am pleased to announce that Lindley Heritage has been awarded the contract at the Twycross Zoo where catering services were previously handled in-house. In addition to providing services at each of the cafés and restaurants at the zoo, we work closely with our client to increase awareness of the venue’s extensive facilities for corporate and private functions. Great job by Jon Davies and everyone involved in securing the account!
The reality, as I have often stated, is that we win or lose together. So let’s all get to working on developing a brighter future together. To be recognized as the best, we have to be the best.
Onwards!
Lindley Heritage Extends Visitor Attraction Portfolio with Twycross Zoo Partnership
Glassdoor Comments (To Date)
Advice to Senior Management
- Some of the upper management needs to have more encouragement.
- Ask for suggestions, opinions about what can be done to make the company even better.
- I truly enjoy the Team Updates from Des. It is great to know and understand the perspective of the CEO and the direction of the company. Continue to communicate as you do, the transparency from top to bottom is refreshing and appreciated.
- Involve account staff in more long term planning. Pay attention to what your VP’s are doing. Don’t forget the basics; there are some things that never change. Most accounts are seasonal and staff works extremely long hours. There should be a way to balance that with additional time off during down seasons. Also, allow staff to travel to other units just to watch the operation with the hope of exchange of ideas and best practices AND team building across the brand.
- Please continue open communication and accessibility.
- Continue to keep field staff informed on company growth and opportunities.
- Remember not all procedures and processes that work great for the large stadiums and convention centers, may not work as well for the smaller venues.
- Please continue making us proud to be #1 in hospitality.
- Keep doing what you’re doing, because the results so far are great.
- I would personally like to see the company evolve into adding “Contracted Facility Management” to its repertoire of core business services for convention center and entertainment venues. This would expand market share and create additional professional growth and promotional opportunities.
- Continue to support your employees with the friendly environment and no micro- managing by allowing the employees to perform in the positions they were trained to do.
- Keep on track with the great leadership.
- Keep doing what you are doing! Through your guidance and leadership our company continues to outshine the competition. Your strength and determination has catapulted Centerplate to the top and I am proud to be a part of such a wonderful team!
- Keep striving to improve every day.
- I suggest we introduce an exciting customer service training class and combine that with our orientation.
- Keep the path you are on. This company has gone from good, to better, to best in the years that I have been here.
- Continue to consider managers in the field for corporate or regional promotions.
- The only con I have is I would request to have an improved training/onboard program for new managers.
- Develop and set the systems in place to decrease the use of paper and rely more heavily on the use of electronic systems.
- Spend more time with Employees in the field. There are a lot of good ideas from the field that can only be seen for someone to know that they exist.
- Less Ra Ra and stronger operational support from Regional VP’s, 75% / 25% Operations and Sales.
- Like to get more training materials in form of videos that are more detailed then currently available materials.
- Continue to train mid level managers, provide support to GM’s in the field and offer opportunity to our mid level managers when it is available. Include senior GM’s in roundtable discussions or projects that could ultimately lead to opportunities in helping our team provide great product and service.
- Would like to see more on-line training pertaining to company standards. This would allow managers across the company to view the same consistent message at their convenience.
- Keep doing what you are doing and listening to the team.
- Keep creating more opportunities.
- Continue to keep field staff informed on company growth and opportunities.
- Continue to listen to your employees; they often have great ideas as well as a wealth of knowledge and experience. When you have a hard working employee let them know you appreciate them.
- Ask for suggestions, opinions about what can be done to make the company even better.
- Keep the daily operations in the hand of local managers. Continue the excellent field support. Most importantly, do not force the idea of one size fits all.
- If we are developing core let’s stick to core and not use as a guide. Treat everyone the same. No special treatment. Don’t try to do what all other competitors like the Levy’s, Aramark’s of the world did, let’s do CP things. Let’s make CP the way we do things. Let’s be original. Don’t piggy back off other companies.
- I think the company needs to work harder to promote from within more. It seems that when high level jobs come available they are filled with people from the outside.
- I also think they need to recognize the hard work the managers of small venues do. Venues under $1.5M do not seem to get the recognition the larger venues do because they don’t host huge events but they work just as hard as everyone else.
- Develop a plan of support employees who are available to help out in each region or area of the country so those units that don’t have large accounts next to them will be able to get the help when needed.
- Listen to the field managers and get input on new programs
- Don’t lose sight of the little people; they are the foundation of our success.Celebrate the smaller operations as much as the larger operations.
- Keep up the positive and upbeat messages that are broadcast to everyone that demonstrates how much staff are appreciated. Keep up the good job, and keep inspiring your staff to do the same.
- Give lower management some type of reward when they exceed expectations.
- Continue to listen to and provide opportunities for employees at every level to provide information about our business from the perspective of the positions they represent.
- Sharing of information in a timely fashion, appreciation of commitment and accomplishments could only enhance the staff’s dedication.
- Continue to pursue venues where it makes sense financially.
- Don’t work your people to the point of exhaustion. If they are paid for 40 and work 80 to 90 hours a week in season, they should not be expected to work 40 hours off season.
- Keep the ship headed on the same course and we will become #1 in event hospitality.
- Continue to communicate goals and objectives with front line employees
- Put more focus on enhancing the smaller accounts to enable them to sport the “Centerplate” look.
- Take a deep look at the culture in this office.
- Keep smiling and providing “Stars” to the staff that shine.
- Improve lines of communication between the units and home office.
- While it is true that the young are the future, the older employees are not relics and many of them can still lead, still learn, and still be a vital part of any team. Just because they may be over 40, their value is not over!!!!!!!!!!
- Communicate with staff. Don’t send someone else to do your dirty work. Remember, people can forget what you say, people can even forget what they see, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
- Don’t hire lazy people to run your facility. Talk to some of the employees that aren’t in management, they may give you some insight.
- Continue making the efforts to differentiate, and give us the tools to stay ahead of the curve. Please communicate more effectively.
- Create the ability for employees to switch departments and roles to see if there are other areas of interest and employment growth.
- Please continue the healthy growth and pushing the envelope in all matters of Event Hospitality.
- Continue to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in the operating areas.
- Consistency on communication from the top down and maintain equal expectations for all, management staff members equally would make our work environment more conducive to success.
- Keep turning over each rock to further develop more learning opportunities for both full & part-time staff. Develop regional work shops to train & share best practices among similar units.
- Continue building staff for the future of the company
- Continued improvements for streamlining with ease the time & reporting functions in the field.
- Continue on the present with the current leadership.
- Listen more and follow thru with staff on needs and spend time trying to understand every position that it takes to run operations etc….
- Keep going, I love that Steve and Adrian are accessible. I can’t say that about other accounts I work in the city…
- Make sure your employees receive the pay to which they are entitled–doing so would avoid costly litigation.
- Get your act together.
- Pay attention to what your Managers are doing. Centerplate should focus more on putting more assets back into the local places they manage.
- Remember the staff members.
- Keep up the great support from the corporate office.
- More consistent communication with staff and set clear, attainable goals for managers to be able to advance within the company.
- Respecting employees don’t downgrade or talk poorly about those of higher management or other co-workers in front of others. Employees that are respected up sale, motivate & prove that over the top experience for the customer.
- Acknowledge your top selling employees and stop catering to non profits/temp organizations. You have workers that need to be rewarded for their skills.
- Know your staff better and spot those who stand-out and should be given promotions, rather then those who know how to kiss-up better.
- When you recognize that you have a valuable, loyal employee, do a better job of letting them know that you appreciate them and wish that they remain a member of the team.
- Keep up the good work.
- A little better at communication. There isn’t any clearly defined job description.
- Screen your schedulers and supervisors before you hire them. If they are rude beyond belief then they should not have a career doing what they are doing.
- Budgets need more flexibility…if you pay your management team more, you will get more out of them.
- Need more supplies for smaller venues. Quest forms redundant and too time consuming. Some questions do not relate to a particular department, tweak it and shorten it.
Des Hague August 9, 2013 at 6:18 pm
Team- we need your help. We have 2 of our hospitality venues in the running to be MiLB of the year; Louisville Sluggers and the Durham Bulls. While typically I’d like to see us take the top 2 spots it looks like the Sluggers are most likely to prevail but we need your help. Over the next 4 days please vote once a day for them. Link is below. Let’s get another #1 spot to go with best NFL, best MLB, best convention center, best college football and best college arena. Let’s get the vote out.
: http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-minor-league