Front of House Team of the Year 2008: The Whitmore Arms, Orsett, Essex

An amazing commitment to front-of-house service and the team that provides it has brought the Whitmore Arms in Orsett, Essex the deserved accolade of Front of House Team of the Year.

A family-run business in the true sense of the world, the Greene King tenancy run by Margaret and Jim Orman and their son and daughter Victoria and Jamie continues to go from strength-to-strength, after already winning the Customer Service Award at this year's Publican Awards.

The pub has a real commitment to developing its front-of-house team, and although all staff have designated roles, most are multi-skilled and can cover both the bar and restaurant areas.

Victoria says: "Some of the full-time staff have taken on extra responsibility and are able to assist in admin roles such as liaising with suppliers and placing orders, completing staff rotas, table planning and payroll."

Many of the reasons for the Whitmore Arms picking up the award stem from the systems Victoria has put in the place following a career in IT in London.

A formal appraisal system developed by Victoria includes a development programme for the next 12 months. As part of this process a training profile is built for each individual working at the pub, including an analysis of ability, strength and weaknesses.

"Training and customer service is a huge focus of our business and we ensure that performance is continually assessed," says Victoria.

Training given ranges from access to a range of formal external courses from NVQs to Wine & Spirit Educational Trust schemes, to in-house role play sessions. "All of our staff are empowered to take full responsibility for customer satisfaction," adds Victoria.

"They are able to assess a situation and have our full support in making a decision. They are trained to defuse any potential situation, prevent it escalating further and provide a solution to the problem. The result is that customers have full trust and respect for our staff who can solve a problem without involving management and staff feel trusted, supported and valued to make important decisions."

Possibly uniquely among UK pubs, staff at the Whitmore are kept fully in touch with the business and their role within it via their

very own in-house intranet, developed by Victoria's son.

"The Whitmore is not just about our customers but also our staff," claims Victoria.

"Our staff are like family to us and they ensure that the pub runs like a well-oiled machine. We enjoy nurturing individuals and providing them with transferable skills to help them realise their ambitions, even if it means them running their own pub one day!"

And even it if means the multi-talented Whitmore Arms picking up another award. Congratulations!