At the Pandora, our aim is to ensure every customer has an
enjoyable and memorable experience. While the food and drink are crucial parts
of what we do, our staff are really the key.
We work hard to retain a motivated team that can deliver
excellent service, quality food and high standards throughout the day-to-day
running of the Pandora. Managers Catherine and Lester Croft are totally
‘hands-on’ and always happy to answer any queries on anything from identifying
a gluten-free meal, highlighting an organic wine, or telling you the time of
the next high tide!
All new members of staff have induction training including
product knowledge, customer service, fire, health and safety. New dishes on the
menu are regularly sampled by team members so that they know what’s on offer
and can discuss options with customers.
To help ensure you find the right wine to accompany your
meal, our waiting staff all receive wine training and, yes, they get to taste all
17 wines sold by the glass! “The staff at the Pandora are always so
enthusiastic, it’s great to see and makes my job more rewarding,” said Ruth
Carter from our wine merchant, Walter Hicks, who runs the wine training. “We
discuss the different grape types and they get to smell and taste the wines and
it’s interesting to see their reactions and which wines they do and don’t
like.”
On-going training includes fire marshal training – which
includes setting off extinguishers and tackling a blaze (carefully set up
outside!), obviously training that is very dear to our hearts here at the
Pandora… Our staff also receive training in product knowledge, coffee training,
customer serving and good practice on beer and wine.
We also hold regular team meetings, run staff newsletters
and have a communication diary for messages, key training points and staff
suggestions.
While we employ lots of students over the busy summer
season, they all receive full induction training as a matter of course. Our
permanent staff tend to stay which is, of course, rewarding for all concerned
and 100% of the staff we employ live within 12 miles of the pub, with over 50%
living within walking distance, which dramatically reduces our carbon
footprint.
As you can see, we really do take ‘keeping it local’ very
seriously!
