This year has been tough for everyone in catering and hospitality, but with positive vaccine news, we can start looking forward to next year and a return to a new kind of normality.
All catering and hospitality businesses have had to face unique challenges this year and had to overcome problems that they had never envisaged.
We know that here at KSB Recruitment, we have performed in a way that every single member of our team should be incredibly proud of, and I’m sure that many other business owners out there can say the same about their teams too. The pandemic brought out resilience in us that we didn’t think possible.
Today I am reflecting on a challenging year, and celebrating the unexpected success that KSB Recruitment has enjoyed even in the face of adversity, culminating in a prestigious honour being awarded to one of our team by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
Serving the Ministry of Defence
At KSB Recruitment, we have a long-standing history of providing services for the Ministry of Defence, and this is something we are extremely proud of.
Throughout this year, we are delighted to have continued our relationship serving the MOD and the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes with our catering recruitment services.
We believe that our hospitality teams have played an instrumental part in the protection of U.K. residents throughout the Covid crisis. We are proud of the fact that our services have contributed to the health and wellbeing of the nation, by supporting the MOD as they worked to serve our country.
We have worked for many years with the MOD, being their trusted recruitment supplier to provide them with the staff and services they need to run their strategic operations smoothly.
This year, the location of exercise had been changed due to Covid, providing a more challenging process in terms of logistics and the mobilisation of staff. However, we overcame the challenge and provided the same successful catering service we deliver year after year and for all our other clients too.
The Covid Challenge
As a catering & hospitality recruiter, mobilising large teams of workers to specific locations was increasingly challenging this year, as we had to work around such stringent Covid restrictions.
The safety and security of our catering & hospitality teams were always of paramount importance, and I am pleased to say that we were successful in keeping the Covid risk to an absolute minimum.
We were stringent with our Covid screening; we created colleague bubbles, provided full PPE and handwash stations, and every one of our 200 employees had their temperatures checked daily prior to every shift. Every possible step was taken to make our operation as safe as possible.
This year in our workforce of over 200 temps, there was only one case of asymptomatic Covid-19 detected; we identified this early on. We placed the individual immediately in a two-week quarantine period to isolate the case so that it did not spread. This was a complete success; no other individual was affected, and the individual concerned was eventually cleared of COVID.
The handling of the risk in this way allowed the rest of our team to carry on with their essential work in serving the MOD, and no-one else was affected as a result.
Even despite the considerable disruption to everyone’s work and personal lives, the KSB Recruitment team have done themselves proud this year with one member, in particular, receiving highly distinguished praise for their actions and efforts.
Jon Bannister Receives the Commander’s Coin
KSB Recruitment Operations Manager Jon Bannister was singled out in our team’s efforts this year and was awarded the Commander’s Coin by the commanding officer at site by the MOD for his services in supporting the defence of the nation.
Jon’s dedication to serving the army in providing only the highest quality catering services to allow them to do their job of protecting our country has been recognised and rewarded. Receiving the Commander’s Coin is something that both Jon and the entire KSB Recruitment team are incredibly proud of.
A spokesperson for the MOD said, “He put himself on the front line and in danger to make life better for others, and that will not be forgotten.”
The Commander’s Coin is one of the various ‘challenge coins’ which are awarded to soldiers when they achieve certain career goals. It is a prestigious honour, one that is issued sparingly and we are extremely proud that Jon’s hard work and dedication this year has been recognised in this way.
We believe that Jon being awarded this distinguished coin by the MOD is the perfect way to summarise our year – overcoming challenges and using difficult situations to push ourselves to provide an even better service when our clients need it most.
Looking Forwards
While this year has been challenging in many different ways, we can reflect that it has taken us to places we never thought possible.
We are strong as a team, and I am incredibly proud of every one of the KSB Recruitment team who worked to make our operation a success this year. A special thanks also to the in-house team for all of their efforts in ensuring the success of KSB.
We look to 2021 to build on the success we have had this year, taking forward the pride of our accomplishments into everything we do.
Thanks,
Dawn
