US HOLIDAY GIANT USES ERANGO TO FASTTRACK OPENING OF UK PARKS
In 2019 international holiday park operator Cove Communities, which runs 28 sites across the US and Canada, announced its plan to take over West Sussex-based holiday park Bunn Leisure.
Banking on the growth in UK staycations, the acquisition of the 265-acre site in Selsey was the company’s first step in developing a premium UK holiday offering as part of a substantial investment in the UK holiday park sector.
Fast forward to April 2021, when the UK Government announced that self-catering accommodation could reopen following the removal of some of the restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic, the new owners faced a race against time to ensure its 800 team members were prepared and fully trained to welcome back the 11,000 holidaymakers and holiday home owners the park hosts each year.
The objective was to ensure that the parks opened safely and that all team members had received the appropriate training. Erango was chosen because of its speed of deployment and its ability to make HR managers’ lives easier by giving them access to reliable data on employees.
Fast and effective deployment
Ross Cumming, Software Development Manager leading the deployment of Erango commented, “Park Managers were under pressure of a deadline to reopen the parks safely. Erango was chosen to help track employee skills and competencies for many reasons. These included the speed of deployment and its ability to help with health and safety compliance.”
Erango can be set up and deployed in most instances in less than a day. The intuitive platform is easy to navigate and so far, it has been used to track 350 employees who have completed food safety courses, hygiene training and accreditations, health and safety training courses, GDPR compliance and allergy training courses.
The software can also be used to record transferable skills such as lifeguards who may also have the skills and competencies to work in hospitality and could work in other roles in restaurants and bars.
Accurate up to date training records
Ross continued, “The overarching benefit is that businesses that use Erango know the skills of their workforce and will be able to demonstrate accurate and up to date training records. This is an invaluable part of a proactive approach to managing risk, because should an incident occur, companies that use Erango have a full audit trail of its entire workforce and can accurately evidence the training each individual has received.”
The decision to deploy Erango was approved by Antony Smith, Culture & Development Manager and Owen Broomfield, Culture & Development Adviser.
Commenting, Smith said: “The purpose of this investment was to provide the platform capable of developing the most capable team to deliver first class customer service. We were against time to ensure everyone was trained and ready for the reopening date and Erango has provided us with an off the shelf solution that was easy to set up. We now have a training record for each individual employee and have been able to assign them the approved online training courses they need to complete and track completion. This has created an audit trail recording their training history which help us to track and demonstrate compliance with the applicable health and safety standards.”