The Power of Saying No | Ep 15 w/ Holly Giddings

Hiring the right people and keeping them engaged is a constant operational challenge for local businesses. In this episode, Holly Giddings shares her extensive experience in volume hospitality recruitment and life coaching. We discuss why you need to take the administrative burden of hiring away from your creative staff, how centralized application systems are failing young local talent, and why investing in training is the only real way to guarantee excellent customer service. We also cover the practical application of professional coaching, unlearning bad leadership habits, and why "no" is a complete sentence in both personal and business negotiations. Guest Links Holly Giddings on LinkedIn   / hollygiddings   Houx (Recruitment) Website https://houx.co.uk/ Houx Knew Website https://houxknew.co.uk Resources: Unreasonable Hospitality https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBRBWWZB Key Takeaways: Remove admin from creatives: Stop forcing your general managers and head chefs to spend hours reviewing CVs. Let them focus on running your operations and outsource the administrative volume of recruitment. Respond to every candidate: Improve your local employer brand by ensuring every single applicant gets a response, even if it is a polite rejection. Ignoring applicants damages your reputation in the community. Treat 'no' as a full sentence: When negotiating fees or setting operational boundaries, practice saying no without immediately offering a long explanation or apology to fill the silence. Chapters: 00:00 The power of saying no to clients 01:00 Launching a business during a pandemic 04:06 Why the recruitment industry gets a bad reputation 06:38 Let your creative staff focus on their actual jobs 09:22 Handling volume recruitment with a fixed-fee model 12:31 The current state of the UK hospitality sector 20:04 How poor management directly impacts customer service 23:26 The flaw in centralised hiring for young applicants 25:47 Transitioning into coaching specifically for men 35:38 Stop people-pleasing and learn to use silence 38:30 The danger of promoting staff without leadership training Hosted by local business owner Ben Baldwin (Chuffed Productions) each episode of Berko and Beyond features relaxed conversations with business owners, leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and community leaders from Berkhamsted and the surrounding area. If you’re interested in the people behind the businesses, projects and initiatives making things happen in this part of the world, this podcast is for you. New episodes every week. Listen to and watch Berko & Beyond: YouTube:    / @berkoandbeyond   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7wabUdC... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/105... Follow Berko & Beyond: Instagram:   / berkoandbeyond   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... Web: https://berkoandbeyond.com/ Follow Ben Baldwin on LinkedIn:   / benbaldwinchuffed   Follow Chuffed Productions on LinkedIn:   / chuffedproductions   Web: https://chuffed.video/ Produced by Chuffed Productions https://chuffed.video The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. #businesspodcast #berkhamsted #dacorum #localbusiness #businesscommunity