Contract Catering Awards interview

“Yes, I enjoyed it very much! I was lucky in that my award was one of the first to be announced, so once I had it in my hands I could really relax. Many of my team were there too so we all celebrated together.

“Across CH&CO and its brands, we were shortlisted for a total of seven awards, which is fantastic. We had a lot of workmates at the event, so it was great to celebrate with them and share in their successes too.”

'The big winner on the night'
Liam Hatcher is recalling his – and his colleagues’ and company’s – success at the 12^th annual Contract Catering Awards, which were held back in March. CH&CO was the big winner on the night, picking up a total of four gongs. Noy only did the cater clean up in the CSR and People Development categories, its Gather & Gather and Vacherin brands won the Area Manager of the Year and Business and Industry awards respectively.

Hatcher himself was responsible for the HR victory, being head of people and development across CH&CO and its sector-specialist brands, covering workplaces, leisure, stadia, venues, events, education and healthcare. “My team supports over 10,000 people throughout the employee lifecycle,” he explains. “This ranges from onboarding and professional development to talent management, employee engagement and benefits, and much more in between.”

The specific work, however, that got Hatcher nominated in the first place was his achievements in spearheading many transformational change initiatives over the previous year. “They focused on every touchpoint of the employee lifecycle and contributed hugely to the development of our teams and their overall satisfaction in the workplace,” he elaborates. “This included recruitment, onboarding, e-learning, talent and performance, engagement, apprenticeships, learning and development, and internal communication.”

'A positive benefit'
As to how this then translated to victory on the night, Hatcher says: “The initiatives that I delivered, together with my team, had tangible impacts across the board, that clearly show a positive benefit to the working lives of our people, and they created meaningful two-way conversations with all our people.” Some examples include CH&CO’s labour retention and engagement scores both increasing, it delivered over 55,000 learning hours and all staff now having their birthdays off as an additional holiday.

A true people person, Hatcher maintains that despite all these achievements, winning still came as a shock, due to the high standards set by his colleagues across the bigger picture. “You never expect to win an award, as my peers in the industry are also doing fantastic things,” he says. “However, my team has worked really hard on delivering positive change and I really wanted to win for them. So, when my name was called out, I was overjoyed – not only for me but because this was recognition of my team’s incredible talent and hard work.”

With the benefit of a few months to take in the win, Hatcher appropriately enough says that the main benefit has been the effect it has had on his team, having had their hard work and dedication recognised by the industry. “It’s a great confidence boost for them and it’s also been fantastic for morale,” he concludes. “On a personal level, it’s raised my profile both internally and externally. I’ve always believed in what we are doing to benefit our people, but to have our accomplishments recognised in this way has confirmed this, and has provided a great confidence and morale boost for me too.”

You may also be interested in…