secret sauce

Issue 14, June 2014

Make a difference

01
proud
partner of
If theres one thing Ive learned since
joining ACT Clean (if I needed
reminding), is that the hospitality
sector is 100% about people; amaz-
ing and talented people delivering
fantastic customer service 365 days
a year. And in London, the undis-
puted global leader in 5* hospitality,
the customer service bar is set very
high indeed.
Most companies in this sector are
grappling with the challenges of
finding great people and develop-
ing their skills and potential and
thats certainly true for us. We under-
stand that this is the key to the future
of our business and that, no matter
what issues emerge - and they
frequently do - the key to overcom-
ing them is great people who are
passionate about what they do and
totally committed to their customers.

With our new Director of Talent, Fran
Butler on board, we are reviewing all
of our recruitment and training
programmes to make sure we
attract and retain the very best
people at all levels of our company;
providing them with best in class
training and giving them the chance
to progress their careers with us.
This root and branch review is specifi-
cally looking at how we recruit team
members for front line roles with our
clients across London, making sure
they are totally aligned to our values
Respect, Team, Honesty, Pride
and that they have the right skills and
motivation to work with our clients
teams.
Our clients rightly demand a consis-
tently high standard of service from
us. Everything we do in our company
- the recruitment and training of
team members, our compliance
procedures, our commitment to safe
working and the wellbeing of our
people, our quality monitoring
processes, our focus on client service
is all about consistently delivering
on our promise so that our clients can
concentrate on what they do best.
Delivering a 5* experience to their
guests.
Our commitment to make a differ-
ence is not just focussed internally.
Earlier this month we attended and
supported the Acorn Awards in
Hampshire recognising the wonder-
ful emerging talent in the hospitality
sector across the UK. It was a truly
inspiring event and reinforced the
importance of taking time out to
celebrate their amazing achieve-
ments. The energy and optimism at
the event was infectious. We are
proud to be a partner of such a long
standing and prestigious award.
We also recently met with Spring-
board, the fantastic charity that
works with young people to achieve
their potential. They also support
unemployed people of any age
back into work and help alleviate
poverty by supporting disadvan-
taged and underprivileged people
into sustainable employment. What
Springboard does is truly remarkable
and we are in discussion

with their team to explore ways of
deepening our relationship with
them by creating opportunities
within our company.
I continue to be amazed by the
dedication and hard work of team
members across our company. The
learning for me from the Acorn
Awards is that we need to take more
time to recognise our people and
the great work they do. This is going
to be our absolute focus going
forward and I look forward to launch-
ing a new Employee of the Month
initiative later this month.

It is people who make a company
great and, here at ACT Clean, we
have great people - the best people
Ive ever worked with. Thank you for
everything you do.
Michael
Michael Divers, Managing Director

Fran Butler, Director of Talent

make a difference Team | Pride | Honesty | Respect

02
.

Marin Betlemovi and
House Porter Sebastian
Haraszkiewicz
Reliable
Sebastian Haraszkiewicz has been a
shining star over the last few months,
working as a House Porter at Sheraton
Park Lane Hotel.
Head Housekeeper Marin Betlemovi
singled Sebastian out for special
praise, commenting that he is very
consistent and reliable. He is bright,
responsive and quick. A job given to
him is a job done.
It is clear that Sebastians hard work
has left a great impression on Marin
and the team, with Sebastians clean-
ing and work as a Porter being moni-
tored and rewarded with excellent
spot-check scores. Marin even went
on to comment that Sebastian really
deserves the spotlight on him as he is
100% one of the unsung heroes in our
industry.
High praise indeed. We are proud to
have Sebastian as one of our team.
Doing a fantastic job
Angelika Kopinska works incredibly
hard as a Room Attendant as part of
the Housekeeping team at Cheval
Three Quays.
Angelika has earned special praise
from the client, describing her as an
invaluable member of the team.
Deborah Iovine, Head Housekeeper,
commented Angelika always
achieves the highest standards of
cleanliness, and she always behaves
in a polite and professional way.
Housekeeping at Cheval Three
Quays would be an entire different
department without her.
Delighting clients
Zsuzanna Korcz is a key member of
the team at London Marriott Hotel
Kensington, and has been really
making a difference to the client and
her team.
Julija Zolobaila is Assistant Executive
Housekeeper at the hotel and she
singled out Room Attendant
Zsuzanna for special praise after
being so impressed with her commit-
ment to the job. Great work
Zsuzanna, you should be very proud.
Zsuzanna Korcz, Room Attendant
Deborah Iovine Assistant Heqd
Housekeeper and Angelika
Kopinska, Room Attendant


























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make a
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act
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clean clean

03
Angela Downes,
Business Support Manager
Veronica Del Greco,
Senior Operations Manager
Annual Awards of Excellence
We are delighted to be able to
support the 32nd Annual Awards of
Excellence. This is a very exciting
opportunity for us as partners of these
awards. We have enjoyed and been
proud of our association with the
Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and
we are very pleased to have the
opportunity to further cement this
through our involvement in yet
another prestigious industry event.
Following Finals held at Le Gavroche,
The Connaught Hotel, University of
West London and Westminster King-
sway College, the Royal Academy of
Culinary Arts was proud to announce
the winners of the Annual Awards of
Excellence 2014.
For the full list of winners and details of
the awards please visit
http://www.royalacademyofculinary
arts.org.uk
Lizzie Eyres
We are very proud to welcome Lizzie
Eyres to the team as a Operations
Manager.
Originally from Devon Lizzie moved to
London about five years ago to start
a new career and to experience the
busy city life.
A keen sports fan Lizzie was delighted
to get a role as a Staffing and Logis-
tics co-ordinator at The Oval cricket
ground, witnessing many great
England Test victories. This then led to
working at Twickenham rugby
stadium as Assistant Contract Man-
ager, with highlights including being
part of the team working in the
stadium for an England victory over
New Zealand.
In her spare time there is nothing Lizzie
loves more than going back to Devon
to visit family and friends, and spend-
ing time on the beach in her flip flops.
.
Sharon Guilfoyle
Sharon has joined the team in the role
of Head of Night Operations. Sharon
has an extensive background in the
cleaning industry with senior roles at a
number of top cleaning companies.
Sharon brings with her a track record
of driving and motivating teams to
deliver successful operations.
Sharon joins us at a defining moment
for our business and is extremely
passionate about leading the Night
operations team to achieving all of
our objectives.
Welcome to the team Sharon!
Veronica Del Greco
Veronica joins us in the role of Senior
Operations Manager. Veronica has a
wealth of experience in Senior Man-
agement roles across the facilities
management sector and cleaning
industry.
In Veronicas spare time she enjoys
taking in shows at the theatre and is a
bit of a film buff.
Veronica has already shown her great
experience with some brilliant work
since joining, and we are looking
forward to her being part of the team.
Welcome to the team Veronica!
Tony Dabi
We are delighted to announce that
Tony Dabi has joined the ACT Clean
team as Senior Operations Manager.
Tony joins us with over 14 years of
experience working with high profile
clients such as Morgan Stanley and
HSBC HQ. Tony has a wealth of experi-
ence in improving performance
through the development of team
members and strong client relation-
ships.
In Tonys spare time he enjoys reading,
spending time with his family and
watching his favourite TV show The
Simpsons.
Angela Downes
Angela joined us in March and has
now taken up the role of Business
Support Manager. Angela is respon-
sible for supporting business excel-
lence in-line with our front line service
delivery and is co-ordinating the
operations function to meet client
expectations and contract terms and
conditions.
Angela has already made a great
start at the company and we are
delighted she is part of the team.
Angela has great experience in the
Hospitality industry, working previously
as Operations Manager at Gordon
Ramsay Holdings and then as Project
Manager at the Gorgeous Group.
Tony Dabi,
Senior Operations Manager
Lizzie Eyres, Operations Manager
Sharon Guilfoyle,
Head of Night Operations
04



Open and Transparent
M
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Quality Monitoring... watch this space!
Normally we would be reporting on our monthly Quality Monitoring Sites of the
Month and winning teams.
However this time we are excited to tell you that Quality Monitoring is under
review for a total re-launch.
During our review and re-launch you will still see the Quality Monitoring team
(Danuta and Kate) early in the morning rain or shine, monitoring the job done
by our hard working teams on-site to ensure company standards are met and
reporting back on our findings.
We are looking forward to sharing our exciting updated programme (including
incentives for the teams) with you in the coming months.
All will be revealed of the new improved Quality Monitoring, in the next Secret
Sauce..
New Employee of the Month initiative to be launched
In previous issues of Secret Sauce we would normally announce the winners of
the Employee of the Month awards. However, there has been a review of the
awards and we are delighted to announce that the Employee of the Month will
be relaunched soon in an exciting new format.
Further details of how the new Employee of the Month initiative will be rolled out
will be announced shortly, so look out for more news.
Acorn Awards
The Acorn Awards, recognising the
future stars of hospitality, is now in its
28th year and we are delighted to con-
tinue our long term partnership as
proud partner of the awards.
Designed to acknowledge flair and
reward good work, each year the
Acorns recognise 30 people under 30
who are nominated by their peers and
colleagues for having made an
impression in their field.
The 2014 winners were announced at a
glamorous awards ceremony held at
Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire on 1st
and 2nd June 2014. The winners arrived
at the venue on Sunday and were
greeted with welcome speeches from
Mark Lewis, group editor of Caterer
and Hotelkeeper, and Robert Beaugi,
one of the founder and owners of ACT
Clean.
Robert said: "We would like to extend
our congratulations, not only to each
and every winner, but also to those
nominated. Each winner joins a very
elite band of the highest achievers in
our industry and should be very proud.
As part of the activities over the two
days the attendees faced a number of
challenges as part of a team building
boot camp. Below are some photos of
the platoons in action:
For the full story of the event, the full list
of winners and for more information
about the Acorn Awards please visit
www.acornawards.co.uk.
Our Quality Monitoring Team Danuta Nudds and Kate French


05
ACT Clean Golf Day
On Friday 13th June golfers from the
hospitality industry met at Richmond
Park Golf Course to take part in the
ACT Clean Golf Day.
The weather was incredible as it was
the hottest day of the year so far, so
sun cream, shades and sun hats were
very much the order of the day.
The day started at 9am with bacon
rolls and tea and coffee followed by a
10am shot gun start which saw the
golfers nervously tee off.
There were competitions on the day
for nearest to the pin, longest drive,
team score, highest Stableford winner
and worst golfer. So it was a competi-
tive game, and a great deal of fun for
all involved.
The golf was followed by a barbeque
and the prize giving at the club house.
Well done to all the golfers, it made for
a memorable day for everyone
involved.
Noel Gonzales
Noel joins us as an Operations Man-
ager. Noel has great experience in
commercial contract management,
event management and contract
management.
Join the team
We are delighted to confirm that we
are currently looking for new recruits
to join our Operations and House-
keeping teams.
We are looking for talented candi-
dates for roles working Day or Night
shifts. Weve worked really hard to
build up a reputation for not only
working with the best people in
London but doing it with honesty,
integrity and professionalism.
If you know someone who would be
interested in joining the team them
please encourage them to visit our
Support Centre; ACT Clean, West-
minster Business Square, 1-45 Durham
Street, Vauxhall, London, SE11 5JH,
bringing passports and relevant
documents between 9am and 4pm,
Monday to Friday.
I want to be a Supervisor
We are currently looking for potential
Supervisors in the Operations team.
We will be holding assessments in
June, July and August, so if you are
part of the Operations team and
fancy making the step up to be a
Supervisor then please make sure
you send an email asking to be con-
sidered to:
I wan t 2 beas u per v i s or @act -
clean.com
Fran Butler, Director of Talent
Bocuse dOr
We are very proud to sponsor the UK
team at the Bocuse dOr, and are
delighted to hear that the UK entry has
made it through to the world final. The
UKs Adam Bennett was placed sixth in
the European selection for the Bocuse
d'Or in Stockholm on Thursday 8th May.
Bennett, supported by commis chef
Josh Allen, represented the UK in the
competition, which saw 20 countries
fight it out for 12 places in the Bocuse
d'Or world finals, which take place in
the French city of Lyon in January 2015.
In first place was host country Sweden,
with Denmark taking the second spot,
and Norway rounding out the podium
in third.
Founded by culinary legend Paul
Bocuse the world finals has taken
place in Lyon, every two years, since
1987. It provides a professional spring-
board for some for the most talented
chefs in international gastronomy and
is a showcase for the diversity of
culinary traditions worldwide.
For a full report on the European event
visit the following website:
www.catererandhotelkeeper.co.uk
Fran Butler
Fran joins us as Director of Talent. Fran
has extensive experience of supporting
businesses improve and grow by
making sure they have the right people
with the right skills and behaviours.
Having previously worked for a major
global cruise company with responsibil-
ity for resourcing and training 14,000
team members, she brings consider-
able experience of the hospitality
sector to her role combined with senior
HR and talent management experi-
ence from across a number of sectors.
Fran is responsible for putting in place
the programmes and support to help
our team members in delivering the
best possible service to our clients.
Noel has always
enjoyed running,
and is hoping to
be part of the
W e d n e s d a y
l u n c h t i m e
running club.
Welcome to the
team Noel!
Noel Gonzales,
Operations
Manager
Follow us on
social media...
www.twitter.com/act_clean
www.linkedin.com/company/act-
clean
www.fb.com/actclean.makeadiffer
ence


Supportive


Job well done
06
Park and Tower run
On 6th June 2014 four of our team
(Kasia, Robert, Simon and Suzanna)
competed in the Mayfair Park and
Tower Run to raise money for a great
cause.
Our team ran 4.5km around Hyde
Park and then scaled 28 floors of
stairs to the top of the London Hilton
on Park Lane to raise money for
Galvins Chance, an inspirational
into work programme leading to
an apprenticeship, college
programme or sustainable employ-
ement for disadvantaged young
people aged 18-24.
The team did really well and all
made it to the finish, raising an
impressive sum to help make a
difference.
Five years of sterling service
Congratulations to Dalia Morkuniene, Kasia Marszal and Ilona Nazarova on five
years service. We are very proud that Dalia, Kasia and Ilona have been part of
the ACT Clean team for five years. Their sterling service to the company has
played a big part in the growth of our business, and we hope they continue to
make a difference as part of our team for many years to come.
Adam Reynolds promoted
Adam joined us on 2nd September
2013 in the position of Day Operations
Manager. From the very start Adam
showed excellent commitment, dedi-
cation and an eagerness to make a
difference with his team members and
his clients by training his team to the
standards required by his clients as well
as creating strong relationships.
So in April 2014 Adam was rewarded
for his hard work by being promoted to
the position of Senior Day Operations
Manager.
Adam is a great example to all of the
team, showing pride and respect in all
he does. Well done Adam!
Dalia Morkuniene, Ilona Nazarova and Kasia Marszal


Follow all of our latest news at
www.act-clean.com
Adam Reynolds,
Senior Day Operations Manager
Robert Beaugi, Kasia Marszal,
Suzanna Parry and Simon Bull
On your marks... get set... go!






Valuing everyones
contribution
Team
07
Electronic payslips
If you dont yet recieve your payslips
electronically then please come to
the Support Centre and give your
email address to us. Each month we
will then send your payslip direct to
your inbox.
Truthful to ourselves and
others
Honesty taking personal
responsibility
Metropolitan police Operation
Fairway: ID document awareness
training
Last week we hosted a detective from
Operation Fairway, based at the
counter terrorism unit at New Scotland
Yard. Held at the ACT Clean training
centre, the detective was here to
provide some very valuable and prac-
tical training on the identification of
fake documents.
Everyone has a role to play in helping
to make the UK a hostile place for
terrorists and criminals and in turn help-
ing to save lives. Part of Operation
Fairways remit is Operation Trammel
the misuse of identity documents to
facilitate access to employment or
travel.
We were urged to report any concerns
we may encounter to the;
Anti-terrorist Hotline: 0800 789 321- if
you suspect it, report it.
As the leading hospitality support
services employer in central London,
working with prestigious high profile
clients, we understand the importance
of our role in ensuring the safety and
security of our team members and
clients. This training provides a level of
assurance over and above the stan-
dard legal obligation of right to work
documents checking.
The interactive training sessions
allowed the detective the opportunity
to view and understand our company
processes and we were most pleased
with his responses;
ACT Cleans identity checking
process is the most stringent of any
business in this field.
ACT Cleans security measures are
excellent and I have been very
impressed having spent time in the
business.
The entire welcome centre team, HR &
Compliance teams and the House-
keeping team attended.
Send us your ideas
Wed love to hear more of your ideas
and talk about the things that you want
to hear about in future editions of Secret
Sauce. Even more exciting would be to
have guest columnists.
So for every idea that is published in
Secret Sauce or every article you provide
that gets printed wed like to pay you
50 for your trouble. E-mail any sugges-
tions you have on the things youd like to
read about or articles you have written
to secretsauce@act-clean.com
Remember, were looking for things that
everyone in the company is interested in
and the more quirky the better. Wed
love to hear about stories of success and
be able to share and celebrate them.
But its your magazine tell us what
youd like to read about.
Business Briefings
In May and June a series of Business
Briefing sessions were held at the
Support Centre. The sessions were led
by our Managing Director Michael
Divers, who emphasised during the
briefings that he wants the team to
know what the Leadership Team are
doing and what the future looks like for
the business.
Feedback from attendees at the brief-
ings showed that the Business Briefings
are a good way of communicating
with our team members, and were
very much appreciated.
At the first event Michael shared news
of forthcoming projects, new clients
and he gave the first showing of our
wonderful video starring Training Com-
pliance Manager Vicky Chhabria and
Operations Supervisor Onyeka
Ogbuku.
The video can be viewed on the home
page of the website (www.act-
clean.com) and the Business Briefing
slide pack can be viewed on the
shared drive in the following location:
X:\Business Briefings
Health and Safety update
We continue our exciting journey as a
Primary Authority Partner with West-
minster City Council and we are now
in the process of reviewing our entire
Health & Safety policy, a major under-
taking as I am sure you can imagine.
This coincides with the re-launch of the
ACT Clean Health & Safety Team
Forum.
Ensuring team members and clients
enjoy the highest possible levels of
safety is key to us and we are always
looking to use best practice for Health
and Safety standards within our
business. The partnership with West-
minster City Council demonstrates our
commitment to always doing the right
thing with professionalism and integrity.
Secret Sauce June 2014
Hospitality News

New clients
08
We were delighted to be invited to partner with the British Hospitality Associa-
tion and ITN in the creation of a dedicated news programme to showcase the
success of the Hospitality sector.
The Hospitality News programme is made in partnership with a number of lead-
ing hospitality and tourism companies. As one of the leaders in the Hospitality
Industry we are proud to have been included in this one-off news programme,
making its debut at the Hospitality and Tourism Summit on 5th June 2014.
The video included star turns for our Training Compliance Manager Vicky
Chhabria and Operations Supervisor Onyeka Ogbuku and can be viewed on
the homepage of our website (www.act-clean.com). Below are some snap-
shots from the video of us in action.
Here we are half way through 2014
and the ACT Clean portfolio is ever
growing!

We are extremely proud and abso-
lutely delighted to be providing the
kitchen porters and night cleaning
team for the Goodmans Groups
latest Burger and Lobster on Little
Portland Street.

Also expanding is the ever growing
Corbin & King empire, with the won-
derful Fischers opening on the
vibrant Marylebone High Street,
again we are delighted and proud to
provide them with a dynamic team
of night cleaners and kitchen
porters.

March was a great month seeing the
opening of the luxurious Chiltern
Firehouse Hotel, Andre Balazs first
hotel outside the USA. We were
thrilled to be able to part of this excit-
ing new opening, starting the night
cleaning, kitchen porters and house-
keeping at this fantastic star studded
hotel was a great honour for us.
May soon crept upon us and the
world famous Shangri-La at The Shard
opened its doors on 6th May. What
an absolute delight it was to be the
chosen partner to provide this iconic
5 star hotel with night cleaners and
kitchen porters.

Then in June we were proud to grow
our relationship with Cheval Resi-
dences further by providing House-
keeping services for the opening of
Cheval Harrington Court.