60 seconds with…Lee Melton, Head of Learning & Development - The Coaching Inn Group

Looking back on 2020, which was your professional most successful initiative/achievement?

We launched a new development app called “Innspire”, which has completely revolutionised how we develop our leaders of the future. With a focus on accessibility for everyone, transparency over progression routes and a dynamic app to support it all, we have been able to launch a new innovative strategy that has taken us to the next level.

We also listed in the Top 100 Companies to Work For, which was amazing recognition for all of the great things every team member does in the group.

What are your most priorities in terms of planning for this year?

In the short term we are really focusing on the lead up to reopening, we are expecting a busy summer and our key focus will be supporting all of our teams. Following this we will be aiming to get back to a strong people agenda, with strategies formulating around new development initiatives, a continued focus on health and well-being, and we have invested in improving communication methods over the last year so a maintaining momentum there will be important

With the ending of the BREXIT transition period and new rules being here, what do you think the impact will be?

With the added criteria around employing from the EU, there will no doubt be a lot of questions raised this year, and it will be interesting to see how it all works in practice. I think in the short term a lot of businesses will be hesitant recruiting from this market place for fear of getting it wrong, however, I do hope this is short lived as we are an industry that benefits greatly from the multi-cultural background of our team members.

The Government has put in place several measures in order to help business owners and operators throughout the pandemic and lockdowns. What are your thoughts on what is available to you?

I remember watching the government’s announcement a year ago when they revealed the furlough scheme, and I was amazed by the level of support they were offering. We now take it for granted, but when it was first announced it was far more than anyone expected. That alone has saved many businesses as well as many jobs. On the whole, the support available has been great, however hospitality has been one of the hardest hit through the pandemic, and I’m not sure that the overall support reflects that, and without additional support it will be a rough road coming out the other side.

As we all know, employees’ and people’s well-being & mental health have been critical points during 2020. How have you incorporated them in your operations, and have you changed your ways of working in order to accommodate different working patterns (flexible hours, working from home…)? 

Absolutely, it has been a year focused on adaptation, we have been forced to think on our feet and move quickly, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I would say communication has been the biggest change, having to create a remote communication culture where face to face was the norm. By doing this we have been able to add a whole new depth to what we offer around well-being and mental health, offering more dedicated training, more people skilled to listen, more one to one support and a more tailored approach to supporting our team members.

What positive lessons do we need to learn from what the industry has been through?

 We have all had to embrace technology more over the last year, and I think without the pandemic, it would have taken the industry maybe 5 or more years to achieve what we have over the last year, utilising technology to engage with our teams, keep our business going and to update our ways of working. We were heading there no doubt, but it would have taken a lot longer. This ethos is here to stay. We are naturally a people centred industry, so technology will never take over, however, by embracing this tech into our ways of working, we can become more efficient, freeing up time to spend with people, which hospitality does better than any other industry

Lee Melton

The Coaching Inn Group