Case Study for Team Development

A BRILLIANT! Team

Olly Swayne is Operations Manager for Select Service Partner (SSP) at Bristol Airport responsible for providing catering facilities for some 6,000,000 passengers each year.  Olly leads a team of between 100 and 200 people, depending on the season, who work in businesses representing global, national and local brands such as Dexters, Starbucks, Burger King, Soho Coffee, Bar Zero 9, Caffe Ritazza, Caviar House & Prunier. His business is 24/7 and aims to deliver brilliant operations and brilliant offers through a team of brilliant people:  The team are passionate maintaining SSPs position as a the UK's Food Travel Expert.

Since taking over the reigns in August 2009 Olly has restructured the Management team and implemented a gradual business improvement programme to drive productivity, profitability and engagement.  Part of this process has focussed on identifying and developing talent across the business in order to build 'bench strength' and provide strong succession to sustain growth over the long term.   However, Olly realised that there was still a cultural and behavioural challenge ahead:

'Once I had the right management team in place one thing that had struck me was that managers appeared to operate their businesses in silo's, rarely exchanging best practice, ideas or resources.  If I could get the management team to work better together as a team the potential for growth was obvious. I felt we had to improve our overall team game:  There was a lack of a team values and there was a need for some simple leadership development in order to improve the engagement of our wider team and their relative performance.  To achieve this I felt that we had to really get away from the intense working environment and invest in a Teambuilding event that would prove memorable, fun and inspiring!'

Olly contacted HR & Training Solutions who specialise in designing team transformation programmes and together established the specific objectives for a tailored teambuilding event that could tackle both the teambuilding and leadership development over a two day off-site teambuilding event.

Having a challenging budget to work with, HR & Training Solutions had to design a unique event which was tailored to the specific demands and pressures of a catering environment, working with a management team of 24 and identifying and securing a unique yet appropriate venue that would make the event truly memorable.

Nick Harris, Manager of bar Zero 9 said:

'A highlight for me from the event was the 'Come Dine with SSP' evening dinner activity, which required the management team to work in four competing teams, before the weekend itself, to prepare one course of a carefully budgeted Dinner menu that each team would cook and serve for their colleagues. I was part of the team preparing the Main Course and we managed to cook three different dishes for everyone with our budget and I think we won the overall challenge because of our attention to our customers' needs and expectations, and their overall experience.'

Olly commented:

'I was so impressed with the whole event and by how well my team came together during our couple of days away - it has given us all a shared perspective that will help us all communicate better than ever before. It has truly brought the whole team together and released the potential of everyone working all together better.  I think we are now much better placed to sustain our current successes into the future and ensure that the whole SSP team share that success!'