THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
50 | PIPERDAM GOLF & LEISURE RESORT
Key to the consumer’s needs is a
level of accommodation that is at
least as good as they have at home
and preferably better. They want to
experience things they don’t have
time or access to in their daily lives.
Finally, they want service. To deliver
this, we have invested in high-level
accommodation, a variety of facilities
and equipment, and 158 members
of staff. In addition to cleaning,
maintenance and reception staff, we
need trained experts to facilitate our
park services: leisure staff, grounds
staff, golf professionals for the golf
course, bar and waiting staff, and
chefs and kitchen porters. We deliver
roughly 100 weddings, conferences
or functions a year, so we also need
people to organise and market them.
None of this would be possible without
our office staff to organise and
administer the business. We have a
diversity of individuals with a plethora
of skills, who all work as a team to
deliver an experience over and above
customers’ expectations.
Coppergreen Developments will
continue to invest in our employees
and improve the standards of every
aspect of all our parks. We want to
raise the profile of the industry to
attract more professionals and become
an acceptable career path, not just a
temporary job at the beginning or end
of a working life.
A difficult recruitment period
In this regard, the future looks
challenging. With low unemployment
and Brexit causing unrest for migrant
workers, we are facing the most
difficult recruitment period we have
ever experienced. Competition for
quality individuals is fierce, and remote
locations, where holiday parks typically
are, have a much smaller pool to pull
from. Competition for staff in the
area of Dundee is high. There have
been a number of new hotels in the
city centre offering jobs that are much
more accessible than us, as we are
seven miles out of the city centre on a
poorly served bus route.
Young people are a crucial part of
our workforce, often starting part
time while studying. Employing young
people has become more challenging
in recent years, with an increasing
number of issues surrounding social
media. There is a worrying trend
as younger people become more
unreliable, and this is very disruptive to
our daily routine. It has to be a concern
for every industry, not just ours, that
the future workforce is being exposed
to these challenges at such a young
age, which can make them unable to
cope with daily life.
It isn’t all doom and gloom, however.
We have had a number of successful
experiences with the apprentices we
have nurtured, including one who
is now managing a park and one
who has recently been nominated as
Apprentice of the Year. As a company,
we will continue to invest time and
energy in our young people and will
endeavour to mitigate the negative
forces in their environment.
Our directors
have forged a
close relationship
with Hoseasons,
the leading
marketing and
booking agents
for holiday rental
properties, who
work with
roughly 1,500
holiday parks
throughout
theUK
“
“
The perfect wedding
venue in Dundee
Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett
Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles
