MEININGER Trainee Workshop, 2nd-4th Nov 2018
Our trainee workshop this year, the “Azubifahrt 2018”, proved to be another successful and invigorating event. We believe all that attended will benefit hugely from it as they continue to learn and grow as part of the MEININGER family.
This workshop was attended by all our apprentices from our 4 hotels in Austria and 11 hotels in Germany. Also, the Operation Managers, Regional Manager and HR Talent team attended.
Begin in Berlin HQ!
First of all was our Berlin headquarters on Friday. Thomas Hagemann, MEININGER Chief Operations Officer and Eric van Dijk, Head of Hotel Operations, opened up and gave an introduction about MEININGER hotels. Also, they spoke about the exciting expansion plans and the fundamental MEININGER spirit that makes us so special!
Because they were at Berlin headquarters, the apprentices were lead on a tour through all the departments. This gave them the opportunity to meet each department face-to-face and understand the core HQ functions.
Afterwards, the group made their way down to MEININGER Hotel Berlin Airport, where Anika Svenja Behrendt, the Operations Manager at Berlin Airport, and her delightful team welcomed all the participants. They then sat down for a well-deserved dinner. However, the fun really began afterwards, when a competitive edge came into a play at the networking games event! They were divided into teams and challenged to master 5 games. The first was to solve a puzzle under time pressure.
There was also a song guessing game, an interactive online quiz about the house tour. Also there was a MEININGER Group coordination task. They finally had to guess how many beds MEININGER currently has in total (all the teams got pretty close to the correct figure!).
Workshop and Managerial Wisdom
After Friday night´s fun, the group spent Saturday morning and afternoon in their teams attending five different workshops to improve their knowledge and confidence. Also, There was the “Workshop Complaint Management” that was run by Cathleen Smid, the Operations Manager for Berlin Alexanderplatz.
Also, there was “Workshop Service” taught by Claud Linhard, Operations Manager in Salzburg and “Workshop Project ‘Key to the City’” by Markus Pettinger our Regional Manager for Germany, Austria and Hungary. We also had “Workshop Azubi: Web” run by Susanne Lehmann of Generation L and the “Career Development” workshop for dual students, taught by Irina Kornyushenknova, Talent Acquisition and Development Manager . The managers who ran each of these did a fantastic job passing on their wisdom to the apprentices and dual students.
After a day of working hard, some fun was definitely in order for the group! This began with a trip to the city center where they went to the Berlin Dungeons. The walked through 800 years of Berlin´s history- a truly fascinating interactive experience! Exhausted yet satisfied from a long day, the group ended the evening with a trip to Berlin Hofbräu, as they sat down for a satisfying and delicious Bavarian dinner!
And the votes are in…
Final day on Sunday involved the teams presenting their project to all the others. They were provided feedback for their presentations. Then they answered questions from the audience and also took part in a vote for the best project. Our winning team was decided and properly rewarded for their valiant efforts!
All in all, we found it to be a great success story for the MEININGER family. It proved a great opportunity for all the apprentices to meet each other, share their experiences and learn together.
