Head of people and communications, giraffe restaurants
“You can’t work at giraffe if you don’t love people as we’re a people’s business. It goes without saying that you’ve got to love food and restaurants too. To work in HR or learning and development here you need to have real operational insight and understanding. You need to experience things to really understand them – when you are recruiting chefs, for instance, you have to know what goes on in the kitchen so we have cook-offs every month.
“I look for people who are interested in being closer to the business, who really care about it and who are prepared to get stuck in and help out when necessary on the restaurant floor.
“We like people who are a bit different – maybe even a bit theatrical – at giraffe, so it helps if you recruit HR people who have large personalities. My team needs to be able to identify with the kinds of people we have in the business and if you are one of them so much the better.
“The ability to work in a team is important, especially in a mixed team like ours where you’ve got HR, recruitment and learning and development. Much of people’s time is spent in restaurants talking to and developing our teams so I look for self-starters too: people who like a clear brief but can do their job without having their hand held.
“We’re a growing business [giraffe was taken over by Tesco in March, with the first in-store restaurant opening in Watford this month] so there are lots of opportunities for people. I love getting people into roles and then developing them – it’s really satisfying to see them change and develop. I always look to give people an opportunity when we open new restaurants and that includes our own staff. Sometimes the best people are already in the business.
“With retail and hospitality being so fast-paced, we need people who are up for the challenge, who are not adverse to change and are resilient and connected to the end goal. I look for drive and real passion and personality, someone who walks in and has a great presence. It’s about driven people who want to be a success and who enjoy being part of the daily operation. If people want to sit in an office from nine till five, that’s fine – but it’s not the right fit for us.”