Coba Restaurant at Viceroy Anguilla was the scene of a special formal awards ceremony and dinner on Tuesday this week, March 8, in celebration of nominees and winners of the 2015 Rewards and Recognition Program. This year the event, Toasting Our Stars, was themed Lighting the Way. It was coordinated by Carolyn Yard (Director of Training), Marynka Ruan (Human Resources Coordinator) with support of the rest of the Human Resources Team, Couture Concepts and Coba Food & Beverage and Culinary Team. The MC was Vernon Carty, Fitness Manager.
The delightful occasion was accentuated by an array of attractively adorned tables and chairs and a high level of formal attire worn by Executive Committee Members, employees (known as Colleagues) and the significant persons who accompanied them.
General Manager, Mr. Jon Gersonde, who has just passed his two months in Anguilla, set the tone of the event by commending the colleagues for their performance. He spoke about Viceroy’s aim to ensure that it is the best resort in the Caribbean and the importance of working towards that end. He was pleased to be among those who presented the awards in between the dinner servings.
The awards were competitive in that while there were 25 nominees, there were only four who were actually winners in the different categories. The lucky winners were Dennis Bradshaw (Half Shell Chef), Colleague of the Year: Heart of the House; Alluard Banton, (Front Desk), Colleague of the Year: Front of the House; Jason Webster (Lifestyle Supervisor), Supervisor of the Year; and Manager of the Year, Nekyra Rogers (Special Events Manager on the Sales Team).
Ms. Dorla Hodge, the Anguillian Director of Human Resources and a member of the Executive Committee, explained the process of the awards: “Toasting our Stars is our opportunity to celebrate excellence. This is the time when we are celebrating our 2015 winners of Colleague of the Month, Supervisor of the Month and Manager of the Quarter and our Colleagues of the Year, Supervisor of the Year and Manager of the Year.
“The Colleagues of the Year will each get a cash prize of $400, a trophy and one-night stay for two at Viceroy with a $200 credit for anything across the resort; the Supervisor of the Year will get a cash prize of $800, a trophy and a two-night stay with a resort credit of $400; the Manager of the Year will get a cash prize of $1000, a trophy, a three-night stay at the resort and a resort credit of $600.”
Responding to a question about excellent performance, Ms. Hodge stated: “If you must have good results, you have to reinforce that matter. Tonight we are celebrating excellence and it is an event in which everyone wants to be a winner, but only a select group will be winners. It is a motivating factor for all colleagues across the property to really work hard this year so that this time next year they would be celebrated as the best of the best. We always have the event in the current year for the previous year. So last year we had it around this same time when we celebrated the 2014 winners. It is actually a very competitive process. We get a lot of nominees each month for the Colleague of the Month as well as the Supervisor of the Month – and then we get a lot of nominees every quarter for the Manager of the Quarter. So when you win these awards you know that you are the best of the best. Then to win the Colleague of the Year, Supervisor of the Year or the Manager of the Year there is a lot of notoriety that goes with these.”
Resort Manager, Mr. Andreas Naegele, was grateful to everyone for their involvement in the event, and congratulated all the nominees and winners for their service of excellence both to the resort and the guests. He stressed the need for the colleagues to exceed the expectations of guests who, in turn, would be good ambassadors for, and repeat visitors to, Anguilla.
