Carol Brookes

Carol Brookes

HR Generalist & Training Facilitator

“No comment is consent – if you see someone do something wrong and you don’t say anything, technically your silence is giving them permission to do it again” - Carol Brookes, HR Generalist/Trainer & Jay Webb Associate

We are delighted that Carol has joined our band of Consultants here at Jay Webb Consultancy Services Limited.

Carol has over 25 years’ experience as an HR generalist and trainer, primarily working in the hospitality industry for both national and international quality hotel brands.

Although Carol started her career working in food & beverage operations for Crest Hotels, in 1989 she became Food & Beverage Trainer at the Holiday Inn Slough/Windsor. In this role, she developed a structured induction programme for all operational departments of the hotel that was recognised as best practice across the company; co-ordinated and implemented the hotel’s transition training during the re-branding from Holiday Inn to Marriott in 1992; and was seconded as trainer for the opening of a new hotel, designing and implementing operational, technical and systems training for food & beverage employees at all levels.

In 1993, Carol became HR Manager of the Portsmouth Marriott. She rebuilt the HR function, reduced labour turnover by over 40% and gained the Investors in People award for the hotel. In 1995, the Whitbread Hotel Company acquired the UK Marriott franchise and Carol co-ordinated the TUPE transition within the hotel. In 1999, she moved to the Marriott Goodwood Park Hotel & Country Club, again as HR Manager and continued to develop her recruitment & retention skills whilst working within a rural environment.

In 2001, Marriott ‘clustered’ the management of its non-operational functions and Carol became Cluster HR Manager/Director of HR for two city centre and one country club hotel in the East Midlands. This gave her experience of co-ordinating HR activities across multiple units, effectively working in remote teams and strategic planning skills, as a member of each hotel’s executive team.

On the training side, Carol is a qualified facilitator and was a member of the Marriott International Management Training Network from 1992 to 2008, delivering Foundations of Leadership and Effective Training Skills workshops to Marriott managers from the UK and Europe. In 1995, she was a transition team trainer, introducing her new Whitbread colleagues to Marriott brand standards and ways of working. Throughout this period, she also worked with various corporate project teams, designing and delivering induction programmes, customer care packages, supervisory development programmes and duty manager workshops that were adopted by all UK Marriott hotels.

She has experience implementing both EPOS and HR/Payroll management information systems, including MICROS, PeopleSoft, Oracle and iTrent. On such projects, she has helped with both the build and the design/delivery of end-user training.

Since leaving Marriott in 2008, Carol has provided independent HR & training support to a variety of small, non-unionised businesses across different sectors and industries, including start-ups.

As an HR generalist, she provides advice and guidance on contracts, policies and procedures, absence and performance management, employee engagement, HR metrics, recruitment and redundancy.

In her spare time, Carol is a community governor at a local primary school and works with Leicestershire’s Governor Development Service as a freelance trainer. She has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) since 1995 and is currently a Chartered Fellow.