Saturday Briefing

By Una Murray

On Friday, 28 August, Executives, Management, and staff of Outrigger on the Lagoon - Fiji (FOR) gathered together to honor the outstanding employees for the month of August and to recognize members of our vuvale (family) who celebrated birthdays.

The program began with a prayer by Tepola Natadra. Then, General Manager Darren Shaw welcomed everyone and thanked them for continuing to provide FOR guests with the highest level of customer service, and shared some comments from the Guest Comment Cards.

Finding ways to improve the guest experience is paramount at the FOR and Darren was pleased to announce the Vale Ni Kana restaurant is now offering special lunch buffet menus for children. Also the Golf Training Facility now has new guest washrooms.

Litia Daunibau of Housekeeping then gave a presentation of the Housekeeping Community Bula Spirit program. She was pleased to announce that the employees raised over $900 dollars at their two fundraising drives. These funds were given to the Vatukarasa Kindergarten School who used them to change the carpeting, fix the louvers, paint walls, and install new curtains.

Manager of the Month Litia Daunibau; General Manager Darren Shaw, Front of the House Employee of the Month Sisilia Vikau and Back of the House Employee of the Month Mahesh Narayan

This month, two employees were honored with the Employee Recognition Award—Michael Osborne, who rescued a couple from drowning (See Saturday Briefing, September 5, 2009), and Paulina Yavaca who found and returned a substantial amount of money left behind by a guest when they checked-out.

Ravikash Nand then announced the honorees for the August Employees of the Month. Congratulations to:

Mahesh Narayan
Back of the House Employee of the Month

Sisilia Vikau
Front of the House Employee of the Month

Litia Daunibau
Manager of the Month

The event concluded with everyone singing Happy Birthday and enjoying afternoon tea and cake.