Interview candidates were ill-prepared

A proportion of last month was spent interviewing potential catering managers for a number of our restaurants. It's a job I enjoy, as it gives me a chance to meet managers from many areas of the hospitality industry. It makes you realise how big, how diverse and how interesting the industry is.

I have interviewed now for a number of years, but what surprised me this time was the difference in preparation interviewees had done before they attended the interview.

A few had used the Internet to find out about John Lewis: the democratic structure, the number and location of shops and what we sold; some, but only a minority, had visited one of our shops; but what staggered me was that so few had taken time out to view a restaurant that they hoped to manage. I found this amazing. How can you go to an interview and not know anything about the potential employer you are going to work for?

The makeover of the restaurant at Heelas, our shop in Reading, has been extremely well received by both partners and customers. Its success has enabled us to present to the board a major proposal to make over a further nine restaurants, and to our delight they agreed to release the funds.

It's now all hands to the pump, co-ordinating and installing the changes over a very short period of time.

It's the conference season again. After last year's conference it was obvious that the team needed more time to get to know each other. So this year, while we had some hard facts to deliver, the team put together a much more relaxed programme. What a difference! Our catering managers are a vocal lot, and when you get it right the great thing about them is they tell you.

Branch visits now start in earnest, as the vast majority need to be completed before menu trials start for the new restaurants at Solihull and Nottingham, due to open in early autumn. The months are flying by as we head towards these openings, and recruitment for catering staff is well under way.

The restaurants in each shop are very different, in both layout and colour. This has allowed us to look at different crockery for each location. We will also be introducing new graphics, which I hope will provide customers with the information they are looking for.

CAROLINE MORTIMER is general manager, catering, for the John Lewis Partnership

Next diary from Caroline Mortimer: 17 May