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Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts | WINSTON CHURCHILL

September has proven to be yet another challenging month for workplace hospitality, particularly in light of the policy developments announced in the last few weeks, which make the “return to work” timeline more uncertain.

At TAF Catering Consultancy, we strongly believe that with every challenge comes an opportunity. For this reason, this month we’ve been engaging with all caterers in our network to find out the latest in terms of innovation: new catering models, ongoing technological developments and more agile ways of working that are at the core of the evolution of foodservices right now.

We were inspired by the caterers’ resilience, determination and commitment to adapt and evolve to offer the best solutions to their clients, feeding the people that matter the most to them.

We are confident that the industry will gradually bounce back, despite all the adversities. Caterers are analysing, processing, experimenting and adopting a proactive approach to deliver the best possible outcomes. The overwhelming message is one of optimism: creativity, flexibility and ability to adapt service delivery models to changing requirements is what will get the foodservice industry to move forward and succeed.

If you’re a corporate client organisation with a workplace staff restaurant and need fresh, forward-thinking, app-savvy, sustainability and safety-focused support to establish the best catering solution for you moving forward, email me directly on

#workplace #contractcatering #contractcaterers #returntowork #foodservices #foodservice #workplacecatering #facilitiesmanagement

Last week’s CACI report “Adapting to the New Consumer Reality” corroborates TAF’s findings that today’s employee, emerging from lockdown, is very different to the one that went in, in March.

TAF has engaged with caterers, consultant peers, foodservice suppliers and workplace client organisations in recent weeks and has been repeatedly asked to predict workplace foodservices.

To think ahead, we had to first take a look at the consumer… the customer … the employee NOW and understand how they have emerged from lockdown (and WHY).

This is why I cast my mind back to when I was at Cardiff University and introduced to the studies of Abraham Maslow. I reconsidered what Maslow had studied, and thought about “The Maslow Effect’ having applied the thoughts of Abraham Maslow to foodservices in the workplace, and the specific ‘needs’ challenges employers face.

Maslow, wrote a paper in 1943, A Theory of Human Motivation, having developed the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ proposing healthy humans have certain needs which are arranged in a hierarchy or a five-tier pyramid (see diagram).

• Level 1 | Physiological needs
• Level 2 | Safety needs
• Level 3 | Belongingness needs
• Level 4 | Esteem needs
• Level 5 | Self-Actualization needs

Below: Workplace Foodservice Covid-19 – The Maslow Effect, According to Tracey Fairclough, MD

According to Springboard data (https://www.spring-board.info/news-media/social), the retail analyst, covering hospitality businesses, it was encouraging to hear of reported visits increasing by almost 30 %, at 3pm on Monday 4th August, versus the previous week, with Opentable, the restaurant booking platform, reporting a 10% increase in the number of diners compared with the same day last year.

This month, August 2020, Chancellor Rishi Sunak inventively and commendably launched the “Eat Out To Help Out” incentive to encourage diners to dine out this month at one of 72,000 participating cafes, pubs and restaurants.

By way of an overview of the offer, which appears to have caused some initial confusion: ”eat out to help out” offers people of the UK (not on any kind of local lockdown) a discount of up to 50% when eating or drinking (soft drinks) in a participating restaurant or food establishment – Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout August.

With no news from Chancellor Sunak on extending his £500 million scheme… as catering consultants, we wanted to apply best practice from our own “eating out” experiences to ‘helping out” workplace catering and foodservices by sharing our Foodservice Firsts – from dining in (at home) and dining out (at restaurants) during and post lockdown.

Whilst hospitality is one of the UK’s biggest employers and hit hard by lockdown, a survey published last month suggested Britons were still uncomfortable about eating out at a restaurant, sadly something that’s since been corroborated by celebrity chefs, such as Tom Kerridge and James Martin, reporting customer “no shows”.

In terms of my own confidence as a customer in “eating out” throughout lockdown, irrespective of the “eat out” scheme incentive and undeterred by neigh-sayers, here’s my story:

• In May, I dined in, at home with high street chain, Côte Restaurants’ Cote At Home (Home Delivery).
• In June, I trialled Goodwood’s Secret Cinema (Drive In) dying to eat food not prepared by anyone in our house.
• In July, I dined in, at home with Clink At Home (Home Delivery), supporting the prisoner rehabilitation charity.
• In August (to date), I dined out at two local restaurants, neither participants in the “Eat Out” scheme:
  • Kinghams in Shere, Surrey (for Dinner at their restaurant) and
  • The Talbot Inn, part of Bespoke Hotels in Ripley, Surrey (for Afternoon Tea at their restaurant).

ADAPTING TO INSTIL CUSTOMER CONFIDENCE

What’s been inspiring is how foodservice providers are adapting and evolving:

• Extending the Brand / Brand Extensions | Some restauranteurs have evolved quicker by providing takeaway services during lockdown, offering an important extension to the brand, to continue providing foodservices via an alternative channel (i.e. delivery) and using a Central Production Unit or CPU (to make significant labour savings whilst delivering the same quality of food). A very resourceful way of evolving.
• Evolving the Brand / Brand Evolution | Some restauranteurs have adapted quickly to reopening with dining-in services post lockdown, engaging customers in surveys, and promoting vital “social distancing” measures to show they’ve HEARD and KNOW customers like me. This has enabled their core brand to continue. I opted to dine-in locally to support my local community and was EMPOWERED, ENGAGED AND DELIGHTED.

Our Foodservice Firsts demonstrate WHAT type of provider is open and ready for business, WHERE they operate, HOW they inspire confidence and WHY they’re the source of inspiration for workplace catering, with the UK economy seeking to repair itself. Important to take stock of the word ‘Restaurant’ which derives from the French verb “restaurer”, meaning to restore!

Irrespective of money off incentive, the above experiences have given me every reason to believe there are ways and means to inspire foodservices to cater to restore employees in the workplace. What do YOU think?

If you’re a corporate client organisation with a workplace staff restaurant that needs to open again soon and need some fresh, forward-thinking, app-savvy, sustainability-focused support on best practice from the high street, like this, or to project manage any other catering consultancy needs, email our Managing Director, Tracey Fairclough, today ">.

To see the detail in the Foodservice Firsts, please refer to our article featured in Hospitality and Catering News by CLICKING HERE NOW: https://www.hospitalityandcateringnews.com/2020/08/dining-shared-experience-review/

#workplace #contractcatering #contractcaterers #returntowork #foodservices #foodservice #workplacecatering #facilitiesmanagement

TAF is proud to announce that its consultants have completed and passed the City & Guilds and ILM e-learning module that equips individuals with the essential health and safety knowledge regarding Covid-19.

With fifty million face masks bought by the UK government back in April 2020 not being used because of safety concerns, have YOU considered the best face mask options and how best to protect your workforce, colleagues and customers?

Tracey Fairclough, our Managing Director, contemplates the market, given that quality of masks is a hot topic amongst TAF’s corporate client company organisations who ask her advice on the best options for catering staff having more face to face interactions with workforces.

Tracey Fairclough, TAF’s Managing Director, comments in a key article today in Hospitality & Catering News, one of the foodservice and hospitality sector’s leading journals, saying:

“Foodservice is now more than ever a priority for employers, creating workplace foodservice that helps employees to choose to stay inside workplaces during work hours minimises transmission risk, and maximises productivity.”

READ HERE to see who else commented in the same piece to show you how the contract catering landscape looks at the beginning of August 2020: https://lnkd.in/dM7nq2r

If you are a corporate client organisation with a workplace staff restaurant that needs to open again soon and need some fresh, forward-thinking, app-savvy, sustainability-focused assistance, contact us to project manage your catering consultancy needs.

#workplace #contractcatering #contractcaterers #returntowork #foodservices #foodservice #workplacecatering #facilitiesmanagement

Post Pandemic Food Service Customer Engagement
5 Elements of Workplace Catering Customer Experiences that matter to Employees

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. | MARGARET MEAD

UK foodservices have worked tirelessly to adapt, evolve & create a “new normal”. See what 23 Caterers say (see below), in representing the hard working 2nd largest sector in the UK and the mood of the foodservice sector.