I have chosen this as during my internship
I was given the opportunity to assist in the interview of two potential
employees. During which communication skills and managerial skills are
essential in this process. Communication between the interviewee and the
interviewer firstly is essential whether it be asking the correct questions or
simple greeting the interviewee and creating the right atmosphere. Secondly,
managerial skills themselves encompassing things like professionalism are also
essential, you are there to asses this person potential to join your team after
all. This document shows the company
wide used standard questions adapted to each department, it consists of a how
to guide from the interviewer as well as questions determined to assess each
person’s ability in 3 sections.
Team member: To assess how well the potential employee
will fit into a team.
Customer: To ensure the same customer
values are shared
Shareholder: To assess their suitability
for the position
My
placement consisted of an operational aspect of management. The day to day
aspect of financial control, the recruitment process as well as stock
management. Three fairly different areas however, similar arsenal of transferable
traits and skills were utilised. Firstly, perhaps one of the most important
skills to develop is adaptability, this was a skill I used and cultivated
during my stock control day. One of the busiest days of the month and with the
added pressure of a time constraint it was essential I adapted to this new
experience quickly and hit the ground running. Additionally, communication is
something people don’t associate with an important management skill but in fact
I feel is one of the most important. Effect communication is essential whether
it be between colleagues, employees or indeed prospective employees. I believe
I showed effective use of this skill during my second day of my internship in
which I assisted on the interview process for potential employees and join I
discussion with my colleague where we shared our views on how it had gone.
These two skill are core skills and will serve me well in my future career as
they are adaptable into any industry. As a whole I truly enjoyed my internship
at the casino, as I obtained a very real life prospective of day to day
management which was varied as the casino combines different sectors under one
roof. (Licence trade and Gambling industry)Looking back, I hope I have displayed
willingness to learn and a hard work effort over my time there. The internship
core aim I believe was to provide a snapshot into the world of work/business.
Even though my age and work experience had already provided me with this, I
feel like the experience in a new industry than I had previously work was eye
opening. Working in a large management team was new experience to me and after
acclimatising to the team was an enlightening one. I feel I performed as best
as I could and achieved what I set out to achieve, this can be further
irritated in my goals attachment. In retrospect I believe the main point I will
take away from this placement is the functionality of working in a team and the
fact I can be an effective member of a team without having to be in control, a
position which is a natural go to for myself. Having previously association
with Judith and the others on the management team I feel they have developed an
understanding of what I’m capable of more than what they had previously in my
role as a barman. Where my opportunities to display my management or business
skills were few and far between. Therefore, I feel my placement review is a
true and fair assessment of my time spent there. The discussion had on my final
day of internship was enjoyable and confidence building I as was asked to
assist in further activities such as stock days and admin cover when the
manager in on holiday.
Day one of my internship was the monthly stock take, it
consisted of the food and beverage manager and the head chef and myself. This
is a very busy day the physical count itself of all stock from the bar, stores, kitchen fridges, and freezers are very time consuming and is
made even more stressful with the added timescale. As a nationwide company all
clubs are required to do a stock take and
send the reports to head office every four weeks by 5 pm, therefore it is essential to work as an efficient team.
My previous
employment has been in management roles, largely in the independent retail
sector. My previous roles were very much solo based, as it was an independent retail store it was purely myself
as the manager and the owner but not what you would class as a management team.
The task of working as an interdependent team is a concept I found difficult to
understand and almost alien to myself during my internship. Even in team-based
work in education I always find myself in a solo leading role and delegate task
out to the team.
The only way to have the task done in time was to split
individually and come back as input the figures into systems, then the count
will flag any shortages which are where
the most time-consuming task takes place, the investigations. Firstly, the f
& b manager took me to the Bar area to give me an example on how to record
the count of stock, more importantly, the
recording of measurements left in a spirit bottle. This was surprisingly more
an educated guess rather than an exact science, which she then explained was
allowed by head office as they provided an
acceptable variance in stock levels per month for this. After being showing on
a few bottles I was given a print out of all bar stock and left to my own as
she took to the cellar to repeat the process there. Once I had completed the
bar count, a longer process by myself a
novice than I’m sure it usually takes, we all met back in the admin office with
our individual figures to combine and place onto the system. The system in an in-house system used company-wide named symphony. This system record
incoming invoices and sales through the tills, therefore when we input the
count figures it will match them with last stock count plus deliveries received
and subtract sales which should ideally produce a figure that matches our stock count. (within an acceptable margin anyway) Lucky, and
according to the manager a rarity the
count did not flag up any large shortages which made me feel a little bit of
accomplishment for the team and myself.
Knowing we were under a rough timescale for the day and the fact I was to learn as we went made me feel somewhat like a liability for the task. Fortunately, both my teammates for the day were well versed in delivering clear instructions on what to do. Still the fact I was left on my own to accomplish my individual part mate me concerned that when it was time to input the figures, my figures would throw the entire day off. Numeracy has always been a shortcoming of mine, right down to basic arithmetic. However, I would not let my own self-doubt get in the way of the team. The ease of communication, relaxed atmosphere and the feeling of shared need to complete the task was an almost perfect storm of teamwork, I did not feel like an inconvenience or hindrance once we got into the swing of it in fact I have been asked to assist in future stock counts and to cover the admin side of the manager’s job when she is on holidays, which is a real confidence boost in my abilities.
Communication
Your
verbal and/or non-verbal communication skills allowed you to make a meaningful
difference to a situation
How did you approach this and what was the outcome?
Management in practice is largely creating a to-do list then spending most
of your day putting out fires. (figuratively) This is what happened during my
second day with the food and beverage manager, situations called her away for
and a short period of time such as the
count, which is the physical count of cash from previous
day which as you can imagine is a very
secure situation. This did not make me feel neglected as I was aware some
situations may arise in which I could not be involved in.
Luckily, the casino has a strong team of managers and the senior
operations manager offered me to accompany her on interviews for new members of
staff for the cashier position. It would consist of her, myself and the
potential employee. Usually this would be done by two managers, or the very
least a manager and head of department for which the person is interviewing.
The manager gave me a set of company
standard questions for the position and asked me to take notes of the answers
and to feel free to ask any additional questions myself. This statement filled
me with a little dread as at that exact moment my mind had gone blank, almost
like all questions that could be considered relevant had disappeared from my
mind which annoyed me slightly. The interview started pleasantly enough with
ice breaker questions, almost a group discussion, I believe having myself there
as an employee for the company offered a more relaxed situation and a different
point of view. Fiona, the manager took the lead in the interview periodically
involving myself to confirm various statements related to the company training
programs and employee moral etc.
After the interview Fiona asked me to sit and discuss the interviews and
asked my opinion on the interviewees, this made me feel more like a peer rather
than an employee which was a strange but
pleasant feeling. After much discussion,
it was decided the lack of experience in cash handling, unfortunately, wouldn’t
make the interviewee a successful applicant. However, during the interview, I noted the answers given were very
much customer service based and he would be ideal in a position for club
receptionist, which I had previously noted had a position to fill. Although
this was not Fiona direct department she agreed and would pass on the C.V to
the correct manager and suggest an additional interview be set up.
A: One of the leading
multi-channel gaming operators comprising of Grosvenor Casino, Mecca Bingo and
Enracha Gaming Business. Clubs include gaming table, restaurants and bars.
What industry do they operate in?
A: Gaming Industry
How many employees?
A: Rank have approximately 10,000 employees engaged in the UK, Spain,
Belgium, Malta and Gibralta
How many offices and where are they located?
A: Great Britain is the largest
of Rank’s markets, generating approximately 83% of Group revenue. The Group has
a total of 142 venues in Great Britain and its online bingo and casino
operations are licensed out of Alderney and the UK.
Is the business owned by another company?
A: Grosvenor casinos is owned by parent group Rank group plc
Who are the customers?
A: Wide range of age groups –
Large majority of customers are 55+
Why do the customers buy from this company?
A: One of the largest Gaming operators in the UK with huge brand
awareness. Late licence for alcohol means facilities are popular with younger
generation.
Who is the competition?
A: William Hill, GVC Holdings,
Paddy Power, Bet 365, BetFair
Has the company been in the press recently and if so, why?
A: News Story August 2018: Rank Group suffers 41% slump in profits as bingo and casino customers drop
A: They hire primarily for attitude, behaviour and values – with the right raw materials we know we can train in the necessary technical skills. Above all we want to be confident that every one of our customer facing employees will deliver THE most exceptional customer experience possible – and this is first and foremost down to personality 000000000
Why I have chosen Company Research
I have chosen the company research template on the belief that it is important to know all aspects of your workplace, no matter how short your time there me be. I personally find this especially important with Grosvenor. Since being only one part of a larger company, I feel it is essential to complete proper company research as details regarding the parent company as well as other branches of the company all have a direct effect on each other. This is important because detailed information helps create informed decisions as well as make you feel more confident about speaking out and adding to discussion in the workplace. I believe it is also critical to apprise myself of all competition and the struggles that face the industry I feel be joining as well as the reasons behind these struggles such as legislation or shift in industry to digital platforms.
Rank as a company is as much employee based as customer
based with strong core values expressed company wide. On research I came across
Ranks 5 core values
Rank’s values
Service: We start with the customer. We do
everything in our power to deliver special service every time
Teamwork: We pull together across brands, channels and
locations to perform at our very best
Ambition: We challenge the way we do things and explore new
ways to excite and entertain our customers and outshine the competition
Responsiblity: We understand our responsibility to all in our
communities. We act with the highest integrity and honesty in everything
we do
Solutions: We act positively to get to the heart of problems
quickly and find ways to solve them
It appears rank cares about its employee’s
opinion with such things as employee engagement surveys done bi-annual named
‘Your view’ which is designed to keep employee and management exchanging
different opinion and ideas. With a company as big as rank I feel this is a
great way to keep employee engagement high which should increase employee
productivity with a much more relaxed company culture. The company is also
committed to diversity and inclusiveness with programmes such as the woman at
rank networking breakfast and others. These are the kind of programmes I feel
will appeal to many people and make rank a ideal prospect for a career with
many movements such as the ‘Me too movement’ being at the forefront media
coverage recently. It is an important issue.
Rank is also a company committed to charity work, with each club being responsibly for charity events such as sponsored walks etc. Above is a event organised from the Dundee branch of Grosvenor casinos also below is a link to a video regarding Rank group and carers Trust Scotland’s relationship.
Why I have chosen company culture blog
I have chosen to write a short blog post on company culture of Rank group as I feel currently it is a very important aspect of a company. Perhaps ten years ago or so a company had no need to create a proper company culture as the career employee would settle in at a company for 20+ years. However, in this globalised economy and plethora of career choice a company must work harder to make itself more attractive prospect for employees to stay as well as attract the skilled workforce it needs. It is my believe that factors such as work-life balance, company beliefs and values should be important factors when chosen a company. If I had two job offers equal in both pay and position as is a common occurrence for the skilled workforce, factors such as company culture are often looked at as plus for job seekers.
I have chosen to use an Infograph to represent Rank group and its subsidiary’s company research as it is a detailed account of financial information. Infographs are great ways to display information that may be overwhelming in a more data or written context. It was my reasoning that an inforgraph would be unique and visually pleasing as well as packing a punch of useful information for the reader. It also has the benefit of being engaging as well as easy to share with other individuals. They can be adapted easily to promote brand awareness and a quick decisive message. Since I wanted to focus on the financials of Rank an Infograph was the ideal choice for me as it allowed me to insert a table of financial numbers as well as explain the main points in a quick and to the point manner.
My interview process wasn’t a traditional interview as I am currently employed part time as a barman for Grosvenor casino a subsidiary of the parent company Rank Group. This allowed me a foot in the door, since the business had never done an internship, I had to get special permission from not only the manager but from head office too. The manager made this request and it was quickly approved which made me feel particularly grateful as I was told it was only because I was a valued member of Grosvenor staff and they would be glad to help me in my studies. My main reason for chosen Grosvenor is I felt as a business it gave me the opportunity to be exposed to different industries under one roof, from the restaurant industry, bar industry and gambling industry each with their own challenges and legal rules. Although I will only be focusing on the food and beverage aspect of the business due to legal rules around alcohol and gambling it is important for me to have a well-rounded knowledge base. Through this opportunity I hope to gain a better understanding of the financial aspects of business as I feel it is always something I have struggled with and I believe exposure to real life examples will help. I hope this internship give myself a more practical view of management rather that purely theoretical. In retrospect a more relevant choice for the industry I wish to progress in may have been more suitable however I believe the skills I will have the chance to learn will be universally transferable. When it comes down to preparation for the placement I feel like I have an advantage with already being an employee of the company however I have still felt the need to do more research into the company as well as Dundee restaurant and bar industry. My main research has focussed on the parent company Rank group as what effects the top will trickle down to all aspects of the company, through this I have discovered I industry in trouble and a company needing to adapt to growing change in digital. My main goals revolve around the financial aspect of the business, learning and improving my understanding. I feel these goals will challenge me the most. I feel this is my weakest attribute and one which I always strive to improve. Although this will be my main goal I have also set myself a goal of learning more about the manager – employee relationship as I feel this is a difficult line to walk between being to friendly and being to harsh with employees. It is my hope the placement will meet all my expectations and I achieve my goal, although I will not be to disappointed if all my goals are not met, as I am aware in the world of business and management things rarely stay on schedule and we have a very short amount of time to get everything done.
Marc McCabe Internship Portfolio 