A fine dining experience at the Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness for Executive Magazine's business lunch
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From hosting guests in elegantly decorated rooms to fine-dining experiences and the provision of corporate and event space, the Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness has a stellar reputation across the globe.
Executive Magazine were lucky enough to experience the service excellence the team at Kingsmills pride themselves in, by sampling a handcrafted menu in a private dining room for this month’s business lunch.
On arrival at the hotel we were greeted with a warm welcome from our host for the afternoon, Kingsmills operations director Craig Ewan alongside the hotel’s chief executive Tony Story.
Craig and his team were quick to offer us a liquid refreshment to parch our thirst on the hot summer’s day, as our other guests, Sandy Grant managing director for Tulloch Homes, and John Smart, partner at Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie followed quickly behind us.
We were all seated at a beautifully decorated table, in what I can only describe as a regal room and introduced to restaurant supervisor Kelly who looked after us for the afternoon.
Having worked at the Kingsmills for four years, Kelly provided exemplary service with a smile on her face as she took care of all our needs throughout the lunch.
With all of us tucking into our lunches made by Geoff which not only looked good but tasted incredible, our discussion soon turned to how each of the industry leaders had been tackling recruitment challenges being faced in the region at present.
Craig said: “We are alright for staff just now but that’s only because we did a massive recruitment drive in May.
“After struggling to get experienced people to work for us, we decided to go for a younger market, so we brought them in and trained them all up.
“It creates more work, but that way you can mould them and they don’t take any bad habits in with them.”
Sandy, who works in the construction industry, said that they are also struggling to find staff and in particular site managers.
He said: “We’re struggling like everyone else – trying to find site managers is a problem for us.
“In the past we have brought younger guys into the business and trained them up.
“Learning good disciplines and the culture of the business to begin with is more beneficial as it’s much easier to teach, than to bring someone in and try to change them.”
“We are fortunate as we have a good young bunch at the moment who have come from different backgrounds such as trade and we also have an ex-footballer.
“They don’t all have a construction background but they have the ability to progress and learn and be part of a successful team.”
Sandy added that getting people to stay within the industry is also a problem at the moment as wages have become more competitive.
“We are trying to make it hard for people to make the decision to leave, and pay is only one part of that,” he explained.
“There is much more to a job than pay such as job satisfaction.
“We had a few people wanting to leave, and we had to explain to them, ‘here’s your route and what we can offer you’ and thankfully we have persuaded them to stay.
“I think that will be a conversation we have to have more often than not now.”
The discussion then took a natural turn towards the fact that there is a difference between the work ethos that is present in young people now compared to when they first started working.
Craig said: “One thing we notice when interviewing now is that a lot of young people want to work for you but not full time.
“They just want to work three days a week and I think ‘how do you make it work?’
“Me and my HR manager have had to take a look at ourselves and we’ve had to accept that we’re coming from an old-school background.
“We just need to respect it. We hire them for three days a week and don’t give them more unless they want it.
“It feels so wrong though.”
Sandy added: “It feels wrong for me too. It feels the same with trades – 30 years ago if the offer of overtime was there, there would be a queue.
“Now people don’t want to work extra and I understand people have other things that are important to them.
“But the majority of people just want what they need to live and have no ambition beyond that.”
Craig explained something he had learned: “I was working with agencies such as Skills Development Scotland and the term ‘portfolio careers’ was described to me.
“This is the theme of young individuals – they have one job for a year or so and then move onto something else.
“There is not really such a thing as a career anymore.”
John responded: “Some people are looking for more than one job.
“But I think burnout is a factor in the mix too – people had a big life change over Covid and are reassessing what they want to do professionally.
“And if we look at politics the Scottish Government are looking at a four-day week and if young people are tuning into that, it’s probably not surprising they want to work less.”
John has not faced recruitment challenges, but says the shift away from office working to home working can sometimes impact productivity.
“We have a hybrid system at present, with people in the office a minimum of 40 per cent of the week.
“I think Covid has provided us with more of a work/life balance but sometimes there is an issue with productivity when people don’t get into the office.
“I would like to see it move to more of a 60/40 ratio in the office.”
Sandy added: “For us Covid was good in some ways as it forced some of our team who would be in the office to go out on site.
“The office team had to then interact with site managers and suddenly a penny dropped with them that there’s value in this and they are now on site more.
“We have hot desks for people to have a hub they can work from.”
The discussion then moved onto the lack of housing that there is in the area which is causing an issue for attracting skilled workers to the Highlands.
Sandy said: “We do the very best we can to provide as much accommodation as possible but there are obstacles at play such as the planning system.
“While the national government is making all the right noises about the lack of accommodation, it doesn’t seem to be relaying at a local level.
“There’s also not enough people in planning to deal with all the planning applications.
“Additionally there is a strong lobby which is anti-development.
“There is a housing crisis but its not that we don’t have enough land but we don’t have enough to build homes on.
“There needs to be a way to free up more land which is available to build on.”
John asked: “Is housing stock being seen as investment stock an issue?”
Sandy replied: “Yeah – I think that is right.
“It’s the classic supply and demand.
“There is a lack of supply everywhere. People who have the money come in and get a holiday home for example, pushing the houses into an unaffordable level for a lot of people, which means the marketplace that really needs to be served is still missed.”
Handcrafted Menu at The Kingsmills Hotel
STARTERS
Seafood Platter – Connage Dunlop Cheese Soufflé – Smoked Chicken & Truffle Presse
MAINS
Coffee Roasted Venison Loin – Heritage Carrots & Chesnut Tart Tatin – Grilled Seabass Fillet
Our guests
Name: Sandy Grant
Job: Managing director at Tulloch Homes. Having worked for Tulloch Homes for over 20 years, Sandy got his current role when Springfield acquired Tulloch last year.
Name: Craig Ewan
Job: Operations director at Kingsmills Hotel and Ness Walk in Inverness. Craig has been in hospitality all his life.
Craig completed the NC500 in a mindblowing 33 hours and 59 minutes in 2021, raising funds for Maggies Highlands.
Name: John Smart
Job: A partner at Wright, Johnston and Mackenzie, John assists businesses to buy and sell commercial properties.
John is ranked in Legal 500 for his commercial property and environmental expertise.
