Silver service from hospo staff

Julie Edwards confidently sells and matches products at Parnell pub The Paddington, following her Lion Ambassador training. Photo / Ted Baghurst

While hospitality is a respected career choice in many countries overseas, in New Zealand there's a perception that it's mostly a "filler" job – a short-term, part-time way to bring in a bit of cash while studying or to fund overseas travel. Staff often have little training or experience, and staff turnover is high.

Julie Edwards, assistant general manager of Parnell pub The Paddington, says it can be difficult to source experienced staff who have long-term goals within the industry.

"Hospitality is not seriously considered as a career choice, which is unfortunate because there's massive scope for movement across the industry."

Alcoholic beverages company Lion has been working to change that perception.

Frankie Walker and his team of six ambassadors travel the country to deliver free education sessions to hospo staff, with each training session focused on either beer, wine or spirits. The sessions cover everything from the history of beverages and how they're made, through to service, bartending techniques and how to understand and recommend beverages to customers.

"The sessions we run are hands-on, so you might find yourself blending pinot noir, assessing different hop types or distilling gin using fresh botanicals," says Walker. He says sessions are focused on quality over quantity, encouraging Kiwis to enjoy finer beverages in smaller quantities.

Walker believes it's worth investing in upskilling hospo workers to build a valued workforce and legitimise hospitality as a career choice. Lion has, so far, invested $800,000 on educating staff on the company's own products and the industry as a whole.

The Lion Ambassador training involves sessions at Bronze and Silver levels. "Our Bronze programmes are like a 101 — everything we can teach you in two hours about beer, wine or spirits," says Walker.

The Silver programmes are a step up and take place in four half-days over several months.

"With Silver we go into depth and detail, with a huge focus on tasting, food matching, selling and recommending. Participants go back to their workplace and practise and refine what they've learned on the job before attending the next session. We also offer first-hand experience by providing opportunities to visit wineries and breweries and giving access to industry experts."

Bronze isn't a prerequisite for Silver, but Silver builds on what is learned in Bronze. Almost 1000 hospitality workers have attended Bronze this year and more than 750 are so far registered for Silver.

Walker says there's a huge amount of positive feedback for the programmes from staff and owners. "I meet people all the time who say we opened their eyes to wine, or beer, or rum, and that it's changed the way they think about food or drink. Almost everyone says our courses build their confidence, which impacts on all aspects of their work, and people are also surprised by the amount of content we cover and the tools and support we give them."

At The Paddington, Edwards highly recommends the Lion Ambassador sessions to her staff, and says The Paddington's owners, Front Row Hospitality, are also fully supportive of Lion's initiative.

"This makes signing up and participating easy and accessible to a great number of staff at all levels, whose newfound product knowledge increases confidence in selling the product and imparting some of that knowledge to the customer. This sparks a conversation and makes it enjoyable for both employee and consumer."

Edwards has benefited from the Wine Up and Raise your Spirits Silver sessions. "Both have been absolutely fantastic but, in particular, the Raise your Spirits session has given me huge insight into how to really appreciate the production involved from crop to bottle, and how to truly understand the intricacy of the feel and flavours of the finished product. It's an essential tool to be able to confidently sell and match products and to open dialogue with existing and potential customers."

Edwards says customers appreciate her staff's increased knowledge of beer, wines and spirits. "Customers acknowledge that our people have much more insight into the products we provide but, more importantly, our regular clientele really notice the confidence they've gained."

She says staff now better understand the scope and depth of the industry and where they can move for promotion or different career paths within hospitality.

Walker says he would like to think they're helping hospitality workers and the profession in general to be taken more seriously.

"When your waiter or bartender really knows their stuff but is also able to read and understand your wants and needs as a customer, you appreciate and recognise that. When you see the person serving you as an expert who can help give you an awesome experience, that has to make a difference."