Welcome Stranger Celebrates over 100 Years in Staff Tenure
At a time when almost a third of our members feel that retaining staff is a challenge for their business, the iconic Welcome Stranger Hotel on Bourke Street is celebrating 110 years of tenure among five long-serving staff members.
Many would be interested in the secret behind the success of the venue’s ability to retain its staff for decades. In reality, there is no ‘top-secret’ to this achievement. When you’ve got staff members who have been with you for years and years, it’s important to honour their service and respect their expertise. They have seen the organisation evolve and grow over the years, and they have been part of its success. This experience allows them to provide valuable insight and advice to their colleagues and superiors, and they often act as mentors to new employees.
The Welcome Stranger operates seven days a week, and has a wide selection of domestic and imported beer, wines, coffee and cocktails. However, it is dearly loved by the customers for airing their favourite sports on the large plasma screens, complimentary WiFi and full TAB kiosk facilities. Yohan Karunatileke has been managing the venue for over 18 years, and his positivity radiates from miles away to every person that steps foot into the Welcome Stranger.
When asked about how he manages to keep the constant smile on his face, Yohan said, “It is interesting, when I was first employed by the Welcome Stranger, my thought was ‘how could I ever last in the city?’ I can tell you that I love working in this city, it is probably the city customer I enjoy the most. You have your regular workers who are in Monday to Friday, then you get the domestic tourists on the weekend who are always in a good mood.”
For a venue that operates seven days a week and late nights every day, how do they keep long-serving staff motivated and engaged? We spoke to three of the longest serving staff members at the Welcome Stranger, and gained insight on a different aspect from each. The longest serving member Tanya Bastasin started working with the establishment eight weeks after they opened. Upon completing her hospitality course at the William Angliss Institute, she started her journey as a kitchen hand, then moved to bar shifts and eventually became a duty manager. “It will be 29 years in May. I love what I do, and consider myself so lucky, they have been so good to me. I am glad I could swap my shifts and watch my kids perform at their school functions growing up, and I would in-turn help someone else when they couldn’t make it for their shift. That is how we have helped each other grow here. We have completed 110 years of service but I can tell you that we have also put in 100 per cent of hard work.”
The one common theme in all the conversations we observed was the sense of pride in their work and the relationships they built with the regular customers who they referred to as their family. Hibo Darmar has been with the Welcome Stranger for 21 years and sees no reason to look for a change in her daily schedule. “I love working in gaming. I have worked at the bar, as a cashier for a short while but above all, it has been gaming. I come in full-time, and I do it for the lovely customers. They don’t call me Hibo, they call me ‘Hi-boh’. There was one time when I had an operation done to my hand and I hadn’t come in for nearly three months. They thought I left and I heard they were so upset, but when I came back, I felt so much happiness and they felt it too.”
As it got closer to the evening, the bar started to get busier and we heard a loud cheer from Roydon Barboza, a casual staff member who has been working at the venue for just over a year. “My man, I see you’ve got the goods”, he exclaimed to a customer he was serving a large beer. To our surprise, he opened the packet to reveal some sweet-smelling mangoes followed by a fist bump and a few words of thanks to the customer who had bought him the treat. Curious to hear his views, we asked him how he felt as a newcomer in the presence of such a long-standing team. “I got drawn towards the Stranger because it was one of the busiest venues in the city and I wanted to be at the heart of something that was really well known for its craft. The work culture at the Welcome Stranger is stringent, yet relaxed, you know? The community that we build here is quite well knit within the city so it kind of reflects on us and the people that work here. It comes down to the rapport that each one of us has built with our customers, it kind of blurs the line between being a customer and a friend that walks in.”
Over time, long-serving staff may become comfortable with their current role and responsibilities, to which Tanya commented that the presence of younger staff in the facility had helped her find new challenges to keep her role interesting. “I can say that even after 28 years, I still learn new things. I learn about the new technology that we are using from my younger colleagues, and with over 30 years of experience, I can teach them a few things about customer service.”
Managing a team that is diverse in all aspects requires dedication and consistent planning to ensure the venue’s success. Yohan seems to have a straight forward approach to this, “When it comes to my staff, I treat them exactly like a football team. I put them all in positions where they can play their strengths, I never play them to their weaknesses. It makes me so happy when they get the reward for their hard work, like winning the Best Gaming Venue at the State Awards for Excellence in 2022. It’s such an incredible night, you’re in Crown Palladium with some twelve hundred people there, it is so exciting. I also take some of the newer staff so they can see what the final journey looks like for them. It gives them that recognition as well as instills the passion in them to want to do better.”
Patricia Ficcara, another employee that has been with the business for 21 years had some advice for the younger generation that is stepping into the hospitality industry. “I’d say just do it. You do not even know how great it is until you get into it. Some of the friends that you make here are lifelong. All you need is a good work ethic. If you want it to become a career, there are great opportunities out there for you, and there isn’t been a better time to dive into it.”
The Welcome Stranger is a great example of how recognising the importance of long-serving staff and investing in their growth and development can help retain valuable employees for years to come. They bring experience, stability, consistency, loyalty, and dedication to the workplace, which is reflected in their work, and they consistently go above and beyond to ensure that the company is thriving. We can guarantee if you step foot into the Welcome Stranger on a casual day in the city, you will be greeted with the same warmth and compassion that is felt by many of their regular customers that now call it a home away from home.