Staff from various branches of Tanoa Hotels bonded yesterday during the Tanoa Hospitality Championships in Nadi.

Reddy Group/Tanoa Hotels director Kalpana Reddy said the event was mainly aimed to see the progress of older staff and up skilling of younger staff.

“It’s a measure of how well they have taken to the training. It’s basically about how well they have done throughout the year and whether they meet the requirements of the Tanoa way in terms of performance so there’s a pre-determined criteria for the Tanoa way,” she said.

“It gives staffs an opportunity to come and show off their skills compared to other peers.”

The training is an ongoing initiative where modules and standard operating procedures are observed and each staff refers to a comprehensive training plan.

However, according to Ms Reddy the relaunch of the Tanoa way took place 14 months ago.

Competitions included bed making, owl folding, flower arrangement and for food and beverage there was napkin folding, wine tasting, cocktail mixing and the barrister competition and for the kitchen category there was  designing of  a showpiece reflecting the theme of staffs respective hotels.

The last two competitions were for live carving of fruits as well as other items and a theme based booth. Staff were given a specific time to complete all tasks. Ms Reddy said: “It’s still about them going out there and having fun it’s very important, there is quite a lot of work that goes into making up the teams especially when they pick out who will represent their hotel.”

She said there are no external stakeholders but there are certainly many supporters like suppliers specifically Coca-Cola, Bakels and Yees Cold Storage as it was primarily an internal event.

“For staff its important it gives them confidence and there will be people who take way trophies and medals, from picking their own teams to picking their own uniforms and concepts it’s all about them,” she said.

Hotel staffs were in for a surprise when an unexpected event for the directors was also planned, this involved directors partaking in similar competitions that the staff had competed in.

“The response has been amazing they love something like this and while there is a serious side of it there is also a fun side, and it’s also good because we’ve got our branches in Fiji coming down for today they don’t always get to meet each other,” she said.

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