Acorn winners 2017: Adam Mohammed

Guest relations manager, Hilton Newcastle Gateshead

Nominated by Sharon Hay, HR manager, Hilton Worldwide

Proudest moment "Being awarded Hilton Worldwide's Spirit of Blue Energy Award for the implementation of a recruitment tool using QR codes. To be one of 12 selected from more than 100,000 applications was mind-blowing."

Greatest inspiration "My dad, Masood. He gave me my work ethic, passion and determination and taught me not to give up on my dreams; to be happy and to love what I do."

Ambition "Guest relations gets me out of bed in the morning, but I have a degree in graphic communication and design, so my dream is to find a design and marketing job in hospitality."

Adam Mohammed joined Hilton Newcastle Gateshead in 2009 as an F&B team leader, moving to front of house supervisor before being appointed guest relations manager in 2014. And the evidence suggests he has had a remarkable impact on the hotel. Mohammed is passionate about self-development and is trained to cover any head of department, from shifts in reception to checking rooms for housekeeping. His content for the hotel's social media channels has garnered a 110% increase of followers and an improved engagement score of 95%.

Somehow he finds the time to act as chair of the hotel's community and wellbeing initiatives, and the team have achieved the Better Health at Work external award each year since 2013.

Mohammed's success in leadership has created a motivated team. In 2016, staff retention was 12.6%, which is remarkably low compared with Hilton's overall turnover of 45%, while sickness absence was 1.3% for the year to date, a reduction of 1.96% since 2015.

Mohammed's talent at exceeding customer expectations has seen an increase of 7.8 in the efficiency of arrival score to 67.6 in 2016 and this is reflected in other areas he assists in, such as housekeeping seeing an increase of 1.6 and 19.2 respectively in the cleanliness of bedrooms and bathrooms.