Written by Scott Thompson and Jason England
With two hospitality businesses in operation, one of which includes off-site catering, a question asked of us is “how do you manage your time?”
During the business planning stage of Odyssey, having worked long hours and frequent split shifts in previous roles, we identified the need to examine the pros and cons of previous experience, and operate our business model based on what we deemed important values and expectations for our team.
One of the key questions was – how do we maintain a healthy work life balance?
For Jason and me the answer was obvious! Open manageable hours in order not to over work our staff or ourselves.
With the frequency of menu changes – it can change from day to day depending on fresh produce availability, we identified that creativity was one of our most valued assets.
To achieve both work-life balance and ensure creativity, we decided not to open typical hospitality hours; instead, we would operate over four nights with three lunch sittings per week.
This decision has resulted in a well-rested team who are enthusiastic and creative at the beginning of every week.
This philosophy has been essential to creating a dining experience that delivers exceptional quality and ensures a consistent dining experience each time our guests return.
We also recognised the importance of physical well-being and encouraged our staff to live active lifestyles or attend personal training and gym classes.
Members of our team attend personal training or classes at LIFT with Josh Hoodless and his trainers and reap the benefits of regular exercise.
Organised social and individual sporting activities are also popular. The resulting benefits are a healthy and fit work team who maintain good immune systems and who rarely take sick days.
Most importantly there is one more strongly held belief; you need to have fun at work!
Hospitality is often an intensely busy and sometimes stressful environment.
However, there is always room for a laugh and a joke. This lightens the load and makes us all feel good about being at work.