Why did you enter the Investors in People 2023 Awards?

The focus of the Adam Handling Restaurant Group, and something that has been the case since the opening of our first restaurant in 2016, is developing and growing people and promoting from within, taking core skills and strengthening them, so an award like this is a chance for us to demonstrate how much this is prioritised in our Group.

What has it meant to you, your team and your organisation to be shortlisted for an Investors in People 2023 Award?

We made a conscious decision a couple of years ago to up our training and development emphasis even further. We have even invested in a specific space for this to happen – our staff training facilities in our new offices.  We have also widened our outreach across the hospitality industry, including with our apprenticeship programme and partnerships with local schools and colleges. It’s so gratifying to see that these initiatives have been acknowledged to the extent that we have been included in the shortlist of these prestigious awards.

What would it mean to your organisation to win an Investors in People 2023 Award?

Staff retention is a major contributor to commercial success and consistency in hospitality.  Retention and development have been prioritised within the Group, since we started. In winning an award, we could show that that there is one company in the industry doing things as well as other industries, particularly when hospitality overall hasn’t received the best reputation for looking after its staff over the years.

How important is it for your organisation to be a part of the Investors in People community and engaged in awards and events like this one?

Being involved with Investors in People gives us the opportunity to engage with businesses across many other industries, to explore what they’re doing to nurture their people.  As we are a small business, it’s always beneficial to see if we can implement other ideas that we pick up to make our operations even better places to work.