Purple Patch Blog

To tweet or not to tweet and that be the question?!

Sally Brand – Sales and Marketing Manager shares her tips and techniques for using social media.

Social media, love it or loathe it you can’t escape it! The majority of people, and organisations for that matter, will be on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn (probably all three in some form or another!). Here at the Purple Palace we like to keep up with the times and find out about the latest HR and talent management trends to keep ourselves and our clients and contacts “in the know”. Twitter, in particular, is great for this as it’s such an instant source of information.

Continue reading Comments (1) 21 June 2010

Room to Change

MJ Flanagan talks about the importance of housekeeping within the hospitality industry and the key issues facing this valuable role.

Whenever I speak to hoteliers they talk about occupancy levels and average room rate achieved, events and F&B. And often when I attend meetings with them the GM, FD and other senior managers will be present; it is rare to have the head housekeeper in attendance. Yet with all hotels the occupancy rates and guest retention is dependant on the ‘non – negotiables’ - those factors that will make or break a guest stay. During a recent values session for a well known hotel these were identified by all the team members as: comfortable bed, clean room, everything working, great shower, WIFI, warm friendly service, deliver on the promise and problems solved efficiently without any fuss. Although food and drink features highly it may not be a deciding factor on a guest’s stay, if the other non-negotiables were in place they may well stay but not eat in.

Continue reading Comments (1) 18 June 2010

Winning the world cup…

Will we? Won’t we? Have we got a chance? Love it or hate it you will be affected by ‘world cup fever’. Even if you are planning to take yourself off to a silent retreat on a remote island somewhere or / go shopping/ watch Sex and the City or all eight series of ‘24’ on DVD for the duration, there is the likelihood that it will encroach on your life in some way.

If you are in ‘the world cup zone’ how are you going to watch it? Especially if the games are taking place during working hours (many of them are kicking off at 4pm). Maybe you’d rather not take a whole day off, and perhaps you don’t have the holiday allowance? And if your team wins and you have a few drinks, are you really going to feel like working the next day? And therein lies the problem for business of all sizes, how to manage world cup fever and its associated absenteeism, whilst staying fair and not discriminating against anyone.

Continue reading Comments (1) 9 June 2010

The Big Personality Test

Newest to the purple palace, David de Banke - Business Development Manager, takes a look at the personality profiling phenomenon.

How does your personality shape your life? Can it dictate whether you are in the right job, make or break your relationship, influence your health and even how long you'll live? Last weekend saw the BBC’s ‘Child of our Time: The Big Personality Test’ hit our screens, and made for great viewing.

As well as exploring the progress of a group of children who Professor Robert Winston has been monitoring for the last 10 years, the programme invited our nation to take part in an online personality test. Over a quarter of a million people took the test (myself included) and the results were revealed and explained in a brilliantly ‘viewer-friendly’ way. It marks the biggest ever investigation into the personality of the nation.

Continue reading Comments (2) 8 June 2010

Facedown bringing business up

Jon Reed looks at the phenomenon of facedown, tipping points and making things sticky.

Last week I was travelling back from Dublin reading a local Irish newspaper (which I always make a point of doing when I’m in another country... helps expand the mind!) and I stumbled across a story that really made me think either the world or I had gone mad!

The Irish Independent had reported a new craze linked to Facebook and Twitter where thousands of people all over the world are taking pictures of themselves laying down with their hands by their side in weird and wonderful places. Apparently it’s known as 'facedown'; a craze whereby ‘highlights’ includes a young man laying 'facedown' in a cheese counter in Tesco. Others balance on road sign, goalposts - you get the idea... According to the article, the idea came from an idea to ‘mess around’ with the regular concept of a tourist photo.

Continue reading Comments (0) 2 June 2010