Tell us a little more about yourself and your career to date
I fell in love with hospitality during my school work-experience. At 17, I became a room attendant in a small country house hotel and had to learn to multi-skill so I had experience across all the departments. I committed myself completely and quickly gained promotion to manage housekeeping operations and learnt all aspects of the hotel’s operations. I completed an ILM Level 3 in management and with lots of hard work I won HTP Apprentice of the Year.
I wanted to develop my rooms knowledge so I became part of the opening team at Radisson Edwardian Guildford as guest relations team leader and quickly gained promotion to assistant front office manager. In addition to the key front of house management responsibilities I focused on training and rapidly built a successful team.
To develop my commercial acumen, I took the role of sales and event executive with Handpicked Hotels and stayed with the company for around 5 years. My extensive operational experience, success in conversion and strong customer relationship management, led me to being promoted to regional sales manager.
I knew people & development was where my heart lay so I took a big career leap and joined the award-winning Bankside Hotel in 2018 as a coordinator. I was asked to support both St Ermin’s Hotel and Bankside Hotel with their post pandemic re-opening plans in 2020 and was promoted to people & development manager.
Congratulations on your Acorn award! What were your first thoughts when you won?
My mind went completely blank. My nominator sat me down and showed me the email and I just burst into tears. Words simply can’t do justice to how I felt in that moment. To me, working for and achieving this huge goal, has been incredibly emotive. When I was 16, my Mom showed me a copy of the Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, and reading all the winners’ achievements was incredibly inspiring. I said then ‘I will be an Acorn Award Winner one day’. It had been the top line of my CV ever since that day, until I won.
For those that may not know, what is an Acorn?
The Acorn Awards are now in their 35th year and recognise the Top 30 hospitality professionals under the age of 30-year-olds. This is not just based on achievements but overall commitment to the hospitality industry as whole. What’s great is it recognises our entire industry and all the amazing people that work in it, not just hotels.
Why do you feel you became a 2021 Acorn winner?
Hospitality has never just been my’ job’. It’s my hobby, my career, and my true passion in life. During the pandemic I watched a lot of businesses sit down and re-evaluate what their focus was. For me, it was never an issue. As a people-lead manager, I have advocated personal growth, emotional intelligence, empathy and vulnerability in the working world for years and now these are attributes that businesses recognise as key to their future in the post pandemic world. My understanding and commitment to ensuring this continues industry-wide is why I believe this was my year to win.
Would you like to send a message to your hard working and supportive nominator?
I can’t thank them enough for nominating me. They knew when I joined the company almost 3 years ago that this was something I wanted to achieve, so they ensured I received as much support and further development in the people function as possible to help me achieve my career goals.
During your career, what’s the one thing you would have done differently?
Although I appear to be a very confident character, I have always dealt with significant self-doubt. Thoughts that I just wasn’t that special or good enough at what I did to make a difference. This pushed me to always improve, be more creative and ultimately succeed. But sometimes it led to some very difficult times for me personally. If I had the chance, I’d go back to that Jenni and tell her she was doing an amazing job and to have far more self-belief. Someone recently said to me “If you don’t believe in yourself, how on earth do you expect other people to”. I wish I had heard this a lot earlier in my career!
What made you join the IoH?
Being a member really does open up so many opportunities. Personally, a career goal of mine is to ensure the continuous promotion and support of young people wanting to join the industry and this is something the Institute excels at. From supporting education boards with their development, to offering networking opportunities to meet future talent, joining the IoH is a no brainer!
When were you most starstruck when meeting members of our hospitality family?
Funnily enough I have always been more starstruck meeting our hospitality family than I have ever been when meeting some of the famous stars who have stayed in some of the hotels I’ve worked in. But the most starstruck I can remember, was on my 21st Birthday. I was lucky enough to go to Le Gavroche for lunch and Michel Roux Junior came out into the restaurant to greet everyone. He came to our table, wished me a Happy Birthday and I just froze. I don’t ever remember being speechless in my life before that moment. Looking back, I am so embarrassed, but I had been such a big fan of the Roux Family’s work in our industry for so long that I just lost it!
Now you have an Acorn, what’s next?
I still have a focus on growing and developing myself as a learning and development manager and now see it as a responsibility and my mission, to ensure that the learning, mentoring and development opportunities I received are now openly available to all. I know I am not alone in this, but I hope this award allows provides me the profile to help make this happen across the wider industry.
The Institute of Hospitality has seen quite a lot of change during 2021, has anything stood out for you?
I’ve always been a big fan of the Institute’s work within the industry, but in the last 18 months I’ve really seen a huge change in their communication with the industry publicly. In a year where we really needed some strong representation, I felt the Institute was really out there and ‘in it’ with us, supporting us publicly in ways I’ve never seen before.
Do you have a signature dish?
I’m a huge fan of Italian cuisine and the culture in general, so a lot of my cooking comes from there. I’d say my go to, comfort treat, would be Saltimbocca. I’ve done it so many times now that although it’s not different or even what you would consider a true signature dish, it’s my thing!
Which elements of Membership did you use most during lockdown?
A huge part of my lockdown experience was developing my mental health management experience. I took it upon myself to become an emotional intelligence practitioner, which allows me to support anyone as a patient. I regularly did updates, hints and tips for our teams at home, so used the Health e-Hub app constantly for up-to-date news and information I could communicate to support our teams.
Why say #imin to the IoH?
I’m going to steal a quote from Kellie Rixon MBE FIH! I watched an interview with Umbrella Training during their No More Banana Bread Week and when asked a similar question she said, “Why not join hospitality?”. It was music to my ears as I’d been saying it for years! I love hospitality and the fully support the work of the IoH. That’s why I’m in #imin!
Do you have any advice for people considering joining the hospitality industry?
My advice? Enjoy every moment! Find a company that matches your values and grab every opportunity that comes. You will be joining one of the biggest and most diverse industries in the world! Hospitality is moving forward to truly understand what guests want, which is us being ourselves, not robots! Who wouldn’t want to go to work everyday and just be yourself? You’ll make friends for life and build a plethora of skills which can take you across the world if you want it!
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