Ask for Angela: How to Keep Safe in the Hospitality Scene

Eren Bessim00:00:00

People upskilling their staff, that's the most important part.There's lots of people with new to the industry, there's lots of people who have been in the industry for a very long time but things are always completely changing, aren't they? For me it's really preventative.It's about identifying at the very beginning who is vulnerable, who they're coming in with and using that real key power of. Hello. So it's going back to that old fashioned customer service approaches and it has actually so.But it's a fantastic scheme where someone, if someone's in an awkward position, they're being, getting attention, feel like they're being followed or you know, dates gone wrong, people know actually do you know what, I'm going to be looked after here.And it's really helped to promote businesses as well because actually it helps, you know, bring more people and attract people into that business and organization. Go actually look, that's a safe environment. I'm going to go there and I'm going to keep going back.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:01

Eren, thank you so much for joining us today here at Talking Hospitality. It's good to have you on board.

Eren Bessim00:01:05

Oh, thank you very much, thanks for having me.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:07

Who are you and what are you doing?

Eren Bessim00:01:09

So who am I?So I'm Eren Bessmi, I'm head of training and development for Safer Business Network who are a not for profit organization and my role is also to deliver training but also to work in partnership with lots of organizations, businesses, hotels, hospitality industry, NHS football clubs, to bring welfare training to all these types of industries really. So where have I come from? I was a police officer for quite a long time in Brixton.I left, moved up north to sunny Durham and then I found myself, I was came into the training world through private sector and then found myself back training nationally, working with lots of different partners.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:53

So what is safeguarding?

Eren Bessim00:01:56

So safeguarding. So it's got, there's two sides of it really.I think there's obviously there's always safeguarding is about how we putting the right policies and procedures in place to support customers coming into our premises but also making sure that we're, that businesses are covering the law when they need to be. And then also there's the other side of it is that actually people working in the hospitality industry are working in a safe environment.And that's really important is it? As we've seen this day and age and how things and roles have changed, it's not just about the hospitalities, it's actually more of a welfare officer.Now isn't it as well. Which is difficult especially as the industry as it is.There's so many laws changing, there's so many things coming into place like Martyn's Law, which is to do with the Manchester arena bombings and then there's sexual harassment law changes. So businesses are having to. And organizations especially the hospitality are having to keep up and understand what they need to be doing.

Timothy R Andrews00:02:59

I was just wondering if you could talk through maybe a couple of examples that employers should be thinking about when it comes to looking after people.

Eren Bessim00:03:08

Yeah, a lot of this is to do with prevention, isn't it? And people upskilling their staff.That's the most important part is that the first people you know and as we know it's a sort of, it's a transient community, isn't it? There's lots of people with new to industry, but there's people.Tim, like we spoke at your hotel is like there's lots of people who have been in the industry for a very long time but things are always completely changing, aren't they? So for me it's, it's really preventative.It's about identifying at the very beginning who is vulnerable, what maybe what looks vulnerable, who they're coming in with and actually really putting some real great interventions and using that real key power of hello that those back in the day when everybody said hello to each other and I think I use, always use it in my trading. I, I live up north and everybody's very. I can't even walk the dog because you speak to so many people along the way.But it makes you feel warm and safe, doesn't it? Because it makes your creator communicate it. Yeah, great community but no different to actually any organization.So it's going back to that old fashioned customer service approach, isn't it? It's actually, actually when a part of our engage.I'm putting that prevention in because I'm starting to think about that person, how they're going to behave, who they are as a person, how, how far I can engage with that person.

Timothy R Andrews00:04:35

So yes, to Ask for Angela. Some people have heard about it, some people haven't. But you pretty much most of us might have seen the sign on a bar somewhere.What is that and what's its purpose?

Eren Bessim00:04:47

So should I give you where it originally started from? Because I think that's really in part important. And Angela was actually a real person.Unfortunately she was in a real coercive, you know, domestic abusive relationship. She went out to bar, she went to shopping. But because that relationship was so Coercive. She was never able to out be reach help or, or be signposted.So unfortunately got to a point where Angela was murdered by a partner and inspector Haley Crawford from Lincolnshire Police actually produced that program. So that program is absolutely fantastic. It's very reactive obviously because. And I'll come into wave in a bit.Wave Welfare and vulnerability engagement is about being proactive, but the ass range is reactive. So. But it's a fantastic scheme where someone, if someone's in an awkward position or they're being.Getting unwanted attention, feel like they're being follow road or dates gone wrong. They can go up to the bar or go up to somebody and ask for Angela, either discreet or loudly.And when we train premises especially specifically the hospitality, that means that person puts a process in place to support that person to seek what happens. Really, really good actually.It's really, really, really, really powerful because we'd actually start to implement it just further than that into gyms as well. And we're starting to see it into football clubs. So. And we are starting to see those behavioral.Because if you go into tick tock and things like that, you're seeing lads on there and going on saying, oh, if you go out, you don't want to get Angela'd. So they're already, that perception, they're already starting to think about their behaviors, about it. Interesting, isn't it?Because you don't want the negative, but actually in a positive way they're already starting to think about it.

Joe McDonnell00:06:23

Yeah, but that's what it's about, isn't it? It's, it's, it's, it's calling out bad behavior that on with a, with a, with a megaphone because you had any.Making people stop and think and reflect on their own behavior. Anything that does that is a good thing, right?

Eren Bessim00:06:42

Absolutely. And calling it out, that's, that's where we need to be. We need to be those active bystanders, upstanders.Because if, if we don't call it out, it's just going to continue. I'm sure most of us have been in groups of friends and they, they've thought about, oh, why are you saying that? That's, that's really a bit awkward.Or if we see something on the tube or the train or we're out and about, we're like, mate, please just take it a little bit step far.

Joe McDonnell00:07:07

What's the phrase? Anything necessary for evil to prevail is. I think the phrase is for good men to do that. But it's. Yeah, it should be Good people.But yeah, the only thing necessary for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.

Eren Bessim00:07:19

Oh yeah, absolutely. And we work with lots of really great organizations like White river and it's about allyship and having men being part of that conversation.Because I was at the Labour Party conference this week talking with White Ribbon, actually. And let's talk about the. The Labour Party really want to tackle violence against women, girls by 50% which is a huge task.But this is where working with a hospitality industry, it's going to be really effective because the more you're. You're empowering people. And that's what it is, isn't it? It's empowering people to do the right thing. And it's. And, and as we.There's different cultures within the hospitality industry. So again, that's really having to upskill, understand what the laws are, what we can and. But also what supports out there.

Joe McDonnell00:08:10

The festivals that I, that I work at, that I'm involved in with their hospitality operations, really proud to say all of that, all of their bars are all aspirin bars. And in, in the management briefings that we do, it's always explained to the managers and it's always a point of call that they have to do with.You might have 500 staff coming on site in a day and they might not all be there the next day. And part of the brief for everybody is this is what askarangela means. It's checked by operations that the signage is available.So festivals are incredibly chaotic environment, naturally. So just to have that there in a field, it must give a huge amount of confidence and yeah, I think it's brilliant initiative.

Eren Bessim00:08:51

Yeah, well, there's so much vulnerability, but the ultimate. Everyone wants to have a good time and that's what it is. But when you start getting intoxicated, everybody gets a little bit excited, don't they?Or they start thinking that things are doing things which they would never probably, maybe not naturally do, but festivals, yeah, actually we're really working close. Look like next year we're going to have a massive gear up with festivals, which is really, really important.We started this year, but some of the work we've been doing is 100, a huge amount of people in one location. There's. There's sort of. Obviously they've got to meet their licensing objectives, but obviously they just want to make it fun for everybody.That's the ultimate goal is everybody wants to go and have a good time, don't they? But we need to make sure we do it. In a safe environment.

Joe McDonnell00:09:41

These initiatives, they're not being the fun police. No, it's the opposite of that. It's ensuring that fun can happen because you can relax.

Eren Bessim00:09:48

Absolutely.And yeah, and say that we, where we do, we, we do lots of work with Freshers and because this obviously Freshers is here at the moment, Fresh has just started and we always survey freshers but everybody else, we train and they say that they would rather go to premises where they've had some sort of training rail run for welfare and vulnerability engagement or they've implemented an Ask for Angela scheme because people know actually what I'm going to be looked after here and it's really helped to promote businesses as well because actually it helps bring more people and it tracks more people into that business and organization go. That's a safe environment. I'm going to go there and I'm going to keep back because it's friendly, people are engaging and they have all.

Timothy R Andrews00:10:24

These initiatives in place for our international listeners. Freshers are people who've just started university, so obviously Ask for Andrew is very reactive.It's like trying there somebody's presenting with an issue and then it's responding to that and trying to protect that person. I think from a business point of view and some of our listeners not interested, how can we be proactive, like more preventative.So could you give us some advice on that, perhaps?

Eren Bessim00:10:56

Yeah, absolutely.So and this is where our WAVE program, so WAVE stands for Welfare and Vulnerability Engagement and it's all about understanding where vulnerability comes from. So what's the start? So again, we spoke about it a little bit earlier, didn't we?Intoxication, it could be drugs, it could be someone with a disability or a hidden disability, it could be equality and diversity and there's a number of factors that may cause an issue. We've seen it recently, haven't we, with in London and surrounding the uk where we had some riots, didn't we?Where actually that really impacted the community because we saw that they were bashing in Greg's for goodness sake.But that would impact those staff members and make them feel vulnerable and also if there's work people, customers in there, that that increases that vulnerability and then it's about actually understanding where it comes from, what can they do?So it could be maybe, maybe it might be ID checking, it could be not overserving if someone's too intoxicated or more maybe just maybe helping them out with a glass of water or actually give them some food, etc. And just really engage with them. To see what level they're at. But it could be also just as I talked about, hidden disabilities.There, you see in the hidden disability scheme, the Sunflower Scheme, is that actually how you doing? How's things? I see you've got hidden disabilities on. How can I help you out?Because actually what it does, it makes that person feel safe again, doesn't it? Goes back to that. Actually this is a great environment. They're really trying to support me. So it is about.And as we said with the hospitality industry, there's so many different cultures, there's so many different skills levels and this is really grassroots. It's actually let's go from the basics, let's understand, let's give people the confidence, the skills and the knowledge of what they need to do.Because also some people in the UK we have those licensing objectives. Not all staff aware of that. They're not all license holders, are they? They're, they're going to be all.Actually I didn't know I have to play a part in that. It could also be being first aid trained or mental health first trained. Again, another skill adding to their value. But also, again, it helped.I think it helps them professionally and personally because their skills are adaptable with their own life as well, not just at work.

Timothy R Andrews00:13:05

Yeah, I mean we're totally, I mean we're in.What we're doing at the moment is following the wave training that you gave us in the hotel is we are now looking at mental health support and how can we embed that within the whole of the organization, which is a spin off of the work that you did for us. So now we're going to be working with Kelly's Cause because they're an organization with similar idea.

Eren Bessim00:13:27

Fantastic. Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:13:28

Where unfortunately suddenly committed suicide. And so we, we bring them in and we just sat down with them and say, okay, so very well as training.But how does that become a whole part of a long term strategy? It's going to take a year to embed that change and we have to be prepared to do it.You can't do a training course and say, well, thanks very much everybody. Now you're all trained because people leave. Right? Yeah. Joe's laughing because we. Yeah.

Eren Bessim00:13:53

Why?

Timothy R Andrews00:13:54

And, and it's really important because we actually don't want people to leave. Right. So part of that reason is we need to make them feel safe. And I think this is what a lot of employers miss. Right.Is that, oh, the training is for the customer. And so it's almost like, well, it might not happen on Our watch. Da da da da da.What they're actually not thinking about is the benefit that the team get from knowing what to do in that situation. But of course, what if it happens to them? We're also protecting them. And I think this is so. This is why this work is so important.We cannot forget that every person that comes to Joel's got their own problems. We have three hundred and fifty people, we've got another hotel crossroad.50 people like each one has their own set of problems and issues and they have their own set of experiences and this training is crucial for them, let alone all the people that come through a door.

Eren Bessim00:14:45

Absolutely. Because we all get vulnerable in our own daily lives, don't we? Whether at work, traveling, things, going at home. And that's the fact of life.That's what happens. And yeah, and it has that massive personal effect as well. And I'll give you some really good examples, actually.So it was actually last Saturday, someone emailed me. They work in a. A shopping center out of London. They were doing their patrols, been on the Wave training.They spotted, spotted a guy, he was talking to himself, he was pacing up and down, went into the shopping center, went up to the top floor and there was potential that he was going to try and commit suicide. Again, just some trigger warnings, just obviously because we're talking about this subject, because I.He emailed me the guy and email said I would never have followed him or recognized it if I hadn't been on that training.Because what I'd done is I followed him, went up to the top, use that powerful O, engaged with a person, talked him down and got the support he needed. And that's their real life's examples. And again, that doesn't have to be at work, that could be just out and about.And we see that taking place because everybody suffers. There's potential of people's state of mind and mental health and the impact of it.Another example, someone last week, a venue, they've been on wave training. There's two females are quite upset in the venue. They came up to stuff. They said, we think this guy's just spiked our drink.Detained the mail, supported the victims. You reviewed the cctv, secured, secured the drink and the evidence and you had them watch ctv.It puts drugs into their drink and that's how impactful it is because it actually really makes a difference. So. And they're really good things and it's. And again, it goes that thing. If people are going out and about, they want to feel safe.So actually watching their drinks and making them aware.

Joe McDonnell00:16:42

Can I ask Erin, have you got advice for hospitality operators now who. Let's say they've got something in place. They might have done, they might have done a one off training with the team.But as we know repetition gets results right and it's not a case of we might have had half the team leave, we might have had half the team come back and we haven't done that refresher training. Are there any bits of advice that you could give to operators of how to embed this into their culture?So it, so it's not a, it's not a sporadic thing, it's much more of a sort of a daily practice almost.

Eren Bessim00:17:15

Yeah, absolutely. And you're right and I think there's a key word you said there. It's making those cultural changes, isn't it?Because as Tim, you touched on, it's actually it's not going to be just a one year or a two year project actually it's forever training.I think the first point of call when you're inducting someone, actually take them through that training, review it every three months, try those scenarios with again with Martin's Law coming out that will be actually a lot of scenario based. So organizations will have to practice if, if there was a terrorism incident. Likewise this spike in legislation is changing.So what they really need to do is start updating their policies and procedures but also get that person at the very get parts beginning because you can't set those standing operating procedures three months later because actually you're actually. That person's not learning, are they?Actually if we get them from the very beginning and we take them through that journey, they, they start six months later refresh or team meetings or debriefs and actually you're continuously just using those keywords and actually going through those standing operates procedures of what we should do and then actually it becomes part of day to day business because you're continuously talking about it, you're continuously up pressuring people, you're continuously adding, maybe adding mental health or first aid trading and also that person feels a bit more valued because actually utilizing their skills.

Timothy R Andrews00:18:43

So what is Martyn's Law if someone's listened to this because you mentioned it a couple of times.

Eren Bessim00:18:48

So Martyn's Laws come from the unfortunate Manchester arena terrorism incident there, the bombings and Figan Murray who who unfortunately lost someone has really worked to change legislation and how organizations and businesses change how they work. I can't say too much because it hasn't completely signed.Signed off but what all businesses will need to do is make sure they've got procedures in place in an eventuality. So again, it's linking it back to that vulnerability, isn't it? So like Joe just said, it's got.Actually, from the very beginning, let's start upskilling someone as soon as they walk through the door, not three months later, because actually they might have seen some bad working practices.

Timothy R Andrews00:19:29

Right, okay, Erin, obviously this is quite an important topic. So where can people go to find out more and maybe get in touch with you?

Eren Bessim00:19:37

Yeah, absolutely.Well, they can go to safer business training.org.uk or email trainingakerbusiness.org UK find me on LinkedIn to reach out and yeah, and they can find us on there. We've got all types of accessibility, so we've got E learning in house training if you want to bespoke it virtual.So there's, as we said, the industries with that transit community, we've got to make it really accessible for everybody.

Joe McDonnell00:20:03

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