Red Carnation Graduate Management Programme: how it works and what two general managers who came up as trainees say about the first years

The Red Carnation Graduate Management Programme is the family owned group’s structured way in for a graduate who already has a year in the industry: two operational stints of 12 months each across its hotels in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Switzerland, one in Rooms Division and one in Food and Beverage, with a senior mentor, exposure to the central office and a line to the chief executive. This page describes the programme as Red Carnation presents it in its own listing and then turns to what a listing cannot tell you, which is what the years inside a programme like this feel like, told by two general managers in my books who started as management trainees themselves.

The programme, as Red Carnation describes it

Red Carnation recruits for the programme through a single listing on its careers site, titled Graduate Management Programme (UK, Ireland & Switzerland) and based at the company’s central office in London. The company describes itself as a “family-owned collection of luxury hotels and restaurants” in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland and Southern Africa, and frames the programme around its HEART values: Hospitality, Excellence, Aspiration, Respect and Teamwork. Its stated purpose is to “develop leaders from within,” and the leaders it wants are ones who “lead with heart, integrity and purpose.”

The structure is the clearest of any programme on this site. The first operational stint is 12 months in Rooms Division, covering Housekeeping, Concierge, Nights, Reception and Reservations. The second is 12 months in Food and Beverage, covering Room Service, Kitchen, Events, Restaurant and Bar. Around the two stints sit exposure to the central support departments, the company’s “award winning learning and development trainings,” which it says begin “from day one,” and support from a mentor drawn from the senior management or executive team. The listing also promises “Direct access to CEO, Mr Jonathan Raggett,” which is unusual for a graduate scheme and tells you something about the size of the company and the way it is run.

After the first year, the top performers can win what the company calls the Management Programme Excellence Award: up to two weeks at a sister property abroad, with flights, accommodation and meals covered, time in different departments, shadowing of general managers and managing directors, and a presentation to the CEO and senior leaders at the end. The exit is described as “Permanent operational management opportunities when you are ready,” and the company says that “Many of our senior managers came through the programme,” naming Front Office Manager, Restaurant Manager, Food and Beverage Manager and General Manager among the roles its alumni now hold.

Who it is for is spelled out. Red Carnation asks for a degree and at least 12 months of experience in the hospitality industry, excellent written and spoken English, eligibility to work in the UK, Ireland or Switzerland, and a list of qualities that reads like a character reference: a passion for hospitality, a desire to grow and take on responsibility, strong attention to detail. The process is an individual online interview followed, for those who pass, by an assessment day. Pay, benefits, the closing date and the start dates for the current cohort are on the listing and change every year, so I have left them out. Red Carnation also runs a Hospitality Management Degree Apprenticeship for school leavers, which is a different route and not covered here.

What two general managers who started as trainees say about the first years

No one in my books came up through Red Carnation. But two of the general managers I interviewed started exactly where this programme starts, as management trainees in a hotel company, and one of them is a Londoner whose first leadership job was at Heathrow. Their accounts are the honest companion to the listing.

Stephen Ansell, then general manager of Ararat Park Hyatt Moscow and now Hyatt’s managing director for the Middle East and Africa, was born in London and came into the industry through a management training programme with Hilton International in Munich. He is unambiguous about what it gave him.

“Looking back at all of my early management experiences, this is where I learned the most. The program gave me insight into all aspects of a hotel, including a six-month position in charge of stewarding. I was constantly reminded that in our business, the most important people we work with every day come from all walks of life, often with different backgrounds and life experiences.” Stephen Ansell, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

Six months in charge of stewarding is the kind of placement a Red Carnation trainee should expect from the Kitchen and Room Service months. Ansell’s first leadership role came next, as an assistant restaurant manager at Terminal 4 at Heathrow, and the company went into receivership while he was there. “The remaining supervisory team was asked to continue operations, ensuring staff like myself still received salaries. Suppliers were refusing to make deliveries and stock was running low.” He learned, he says, “that imaginative problem-solving, determination, and sheer resolve can, in fact, save a business.” The programme teaches the hotel; the first job after it teaches you.

George Cozonis, then general manager of The Plaza Hotel in New York, came through a management training programme at Boston’s Parker House and remembers the humbling that came first.

“After studying hotel management, I truly believed I would be hired as a general manager upon graduating. It was a wakeup call when, in my first job as a management trainee, I could barely keep up answering telephones at the reception desk.” George Cozonis, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

The job offered to him at the end of the programme was laundry manager. He took it, and what he learned there is the best argument I know for the Housekeeping months that open the Red Carnation programme.

“Working on the laundry team also made me realize that it isn’t the relatively few glamorous jobs that make a hotel what it is. Every person’s work is not only useful, but essential. Imagine if there weren’t clean pillowcases, bed sheets, or dinner napkins. The hotel would come to a complete standstill.” George Cozonis, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

Mentoring and the CEO’s door

The mentor and the access to the chief executive are the parts of the Red Carnation listing a graduate is most likely to skim past, and they are the parts the general managers in my books would tell you to read twice. Ansell describes how the hotel he ran handled every new recruit, and it is a fair picture of what a mentor is for.

“After passing the induction, a personal coach is assigned to you in your department for the first three months. This is a critical process, as every new member of the team has a go-to person to take care of them, answer all their questions, help them face their first challenge, and ensure they make the right decisions.” Stephen Ansell, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)

He also says that “One of the most rewarding aspects of the job is providing mentorship and growth opportunities to the team,” and encourages his people to travel and work in other countries because such opportunities “perfectly compliment formal training programs.” Red Carnation’s placement at a sister property abroad, with its shadowing of general managers and managing directors, is a small version of the same idea. A family owned company with a chief executive who makes himself available to trainees is offering something the large groups cannot, which is that the people deciding your next job will know your name.

What to take from it

Get the 12 months of hospitality experience first, since the company asks for it, and both trainees in my books had worked in a hotel before their programmes began. Expect the Housekeeping, Nights and Kitchen months to be the ones that teach you the most, and take Cozonis’s laundry room with you into them. Use the mentor and the CEO access rather than waiting to be noticed; the alumni roles on the listing went to people who did. Treat the first management job offered at the end, however small, as the start of the career rather than a verdict on the programme. And read Ansell and Cozonis in full on the Voices pages above before the assessment day. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.