Why Firmdale Hotels?
Firmdale Hotels’ commitment to its people is to deliver a great place to work, where excellent perks and benefits are offered, success is recognised and rewarded, long service is celebrated and everyone is involved in weekly, monthly and quarterly staff events. This includes Afternoon Tea’s, Staff Appreciation Weeks and Firmdale Awards.
Firmdale Hotels, which won the Caterer’s Best Employer Award at the 2020 and 2017 Cateys, has won several awards in recognition of its investment in people, including Best Candidate Experience and Excellence in Employee Engagement, as well as the Chef Development Strategy Award at the Springboard Awards for Excellence 2017.
Firmdale Hotels embraces the unique qualities of each team member and encourages individuality - it starts with the person, not their CV. The company offers a warm environment, treating both employees and guests with respect and inclusivity.
Firmdale Hotels inspires its teams to love what they do and live its values: attention to detail, resilience, passion, enthusiasm and the importance of relationships with one another and with our guests.
Firmdale Hotels believes that all its people have the opportunity to grow and progress, whatever their role. Management development and mentor programmes, apprenticeships and an inspiring learning directory actively increase their knowledge and skills.
Firmdale Hotels relishes originality. Innovative, proactive thinking is at the heart of how it operates. The company believes that every team member’s opinion matters and it encourages employees to share their suggestions in order to improve the guest experience.
Our Current Vacancies
Click on the departments below to see our latest vacancies.
Our Vacancies
Click on the departments below to see our latest vacancies.
Since 2015 we have welcomed highly motivated and enthusiastic individuals on to our apprenticeship programmes and now we are supporting more people through their journey of learning whilst working than ever before.
Firmdale Hotels has designed a selection of apprenticeship programmes that specifically aim to provide a clear pathway of ongoing development across a number of departments and job roles. Each of our apprenticeships are fully compliant with the apprenticeship standards set by the UK Government and some also offer additional qualifications to enhance your development.
With 8 unique and beautifully designed London hotels, 7 Restaurants, private event spaces and a host of pop up events throughout the year, Firmdale Hotels provide you with the opportunity to experience an apprenticeship in a variety of ways.
Chef Apprentice Programme
The Firmdale Chef Apprentice programme provides our chefs of the future with the opportunity to learn about cookery, products, methods and techniques. We also encourage learning away from the kitchen with a selection of masterclasses that expose you to some our key suppliers who are all experts within their fields.
Kitchen Apprenticeships
Chefs at Firmdale can undertake the Commis Chef or Chef de Partie apprentice standards whilst in full time employment. This is an excellent opportunity to develop skills and knowledge, benefit from a wealth of learning and development and work alongside a team within an exciting kitchen environment.
Hospitality Team Member
The true foundation for those that wish to make a career in hospitality. Covering a wide selection of the different departments that make up our operation, including housekeeping, front office and food and beverage; this apprenticeship programme will provide you with the support and guidance to really make an impact on our guests and your career.
Hospitality Team Supervisor
Our apprenticeship programmes are there to support you through every step of your career at Firmdale Hotels. With a focus on people, process, performance and perfection our team supervisor apprenticeship encourages you to continue to learn and provides you with methods and practices that you can use every day as a team leader or supervisor. We also include Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Award Level 3 in Leadership & Management as part of this programme.
Hospitality Team Manager
Managers like to learn too, at least that is what we believe and that is why we encourage our managers to join our apprenticeship programmes. Designed to support our managers with the key skills and knowledge to enhance their development within a senior position. We also include Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Award Level 4 in Leadership & Management as part of this programme.
Higher Apprenticeships
Our aim is to provide apprenticeship programmes for all employees regardless of their current position. Our higher apprenticeships are to support our senior teams and to encourage the desire to continue learning throughout your career.
Our apprenticeship programmes are supported by some of the most trusted names in their field and help us provide learning and development that is current, relevant and will have the greatest impact on you and your career. We are extremely proud of the opportunities our apprenticeships provide and we actively encourage our current employees to further their career prospects through the apprentice programmes that we provide.
We also offer a warm welcome to those looking for a career in hospitality through the different programmes that we offer. So if you have the spark to delight people with your enthusiasm, every day and have a driven determination to succeed then we would like to hear from you.
To apply for an apprenticeship, please refer to our CURRENT POSITIONS page.
At Firmdale, we believe that our teams are an integral part of our success and to be successful you must invest in them. We have a dedicated training team comprising of a Learning & Development Manager, Group Operations Trainers and departmental trainers in each of our departments in every hotel. These energetic people live and breathe learning and development so as to bring you the most up to date and relevant learning experiences in our industry.
Together they have put together a vast portfolio of internal and external training courses and initiatives available to all our employees, targeting practical skills, knowledge and behaviours so as to help you excel at what you do. People development at Firmdale is not about sitting in a classroom, it is an active and organic process that requires drive, determination and the ability to reflect on your daily performance so you can create an even better version of yourself. You will be encouraged to think, grow, evolve and explore to realise your real potential and we will help you every step of the way.
We are experts at identifying the potential in all our employees and will always look for opportunities to develop our future leadership teams. Aspiring managers can develop their skills through enrolling on higher apprenticeships programmes. This investment is a commitment by us to develop your professional career, partly so we have highly talented, top performing people, but also so you can be better at what you do, inspire and lead others.
Successful participants will find their careers rewarded, as we prefer to promote from within, by recognising our home grown talent.
We are doing everything we can to ensure our valued team members are taking every precaution and working in a safe working environment. They are required to take increased, frequent breaks to wash and sanitise their hands and are provided with Personal Protection Equipment, including fabric and disposable masks, which are changed every 4 hours.
There is detailed hotel training in place and regular communication that is updated at every step. Firmdale Hotels are also supporting their team members by offering regular lateral flow testing and time off to receive their COVID-19 Vaccine.
Detailed cleaning standards of practice and checklists in all areas are followed and closely monitored. There is a strictly timed procedure for deliveries and our team members are protected with the correct Personal Protection Equipment. All deliveries are decanted and sterilised prior to use and all suppliers are continuously vetted to ensure operating procedures and standards are in accordance with our own.
We understand that not all of our employees are able to work full time hours. Firmdale Hotels will always consider requests made for flexible working. These are easier to accommodate in some departments than others such as housekeeping and F&B. We also offer different types of contract, such as working casual or part time hours and for fixed term periods on request depending on individual circumstances.
This is our annual gender pay gap report for the snapshot date of 5 April 2021.
Hourly Rate
Women Hourly Rate
Mean (£27.07)
Male Hourly Rate
Mean (£33.62)
Women Hourly Rate 19% Lower
Pay Quartiles
This table shows our workforce divided into four equal-sized groups based on hourly pay rate. Q4 includes the highest-paid 25% (the top quartile) and Q1 includes the lowest-paid 25% of employees (the lower quartile).
Top quartile (Q4)
Males 38%
Females 62%
What’s included in this band?
All employees whose standard hourly rate is within the upper quartile.
Upper middle quartile (Q3)
Males 57%
Females 43%
What’s included in this band?
All employees whose standard hourly rate is more than the median but the same or less than the upper quartile.
Lower middle quartile (Q2)
Males 52%
Females 48%
What’s included in this band?
All employees whose standard hourly rate is more than the lower quartile but the same or less than the median.
Lower quartile (Q1)
Males 52%
Females 48%
What’s included in this band?
All employees whose standard hourly rate is within the lower quartile.
Bonus Pay
Our mean gender bonus gap is 18.10% (in favour of women).
Our median gender bonus gap is 16.46% (in favour of women).
The proportion of male employees receiving a bonus is 5% and the proportion of female employees receiving a bonus is 2%.
Closing Statement
To comply with the gender pay gap reporting legislation, our narrative supports the gender pay gap reporting requirements for Firmdale Hotels plc. as of the 5th April 2021.
Firmdale operates 10 boutique hotels and 8 bars and restaurants across London and New York. We are an equal opportunities employer ensuring that equal pay structures exist and there is no discrimination of gender across the business.
We believe that our gender pay gap figures demonstrate this and our commitment to being a fair and responsible employer who is dedicated to providing our people with a great place to work. We have a clear policy of paying employees equally for the same or equivalent work, regardless of their gender. We carry out regular pay and benefits audits and evaluate job roles and pay grades to ensure fairness.
We are confident that our gender pay gap is not because we pay men and women differently for the same or equivalent work. Instead, our gender pay gap is because men and women work in different roles and those roles have different salaries. It should be noted that this snapshot was taken during the period of business closure due to the Coronavirus pandemic when the majority of employees were on furlough.
Our median gender pay gap of 9% favours women.
Our gender distribution by quartiles demonstrates the closing of the gender gap for the lower quartile and lower middle quartile for male and female employees. Female employees are underrepresented in the upper middle quartile; however, they are represented significantly more in the top quartile.
Our mean bonus pay figures demonstrate an 18.10% gap favouring women and a 16.46% gap for the median figure also favouring women. These have been calculated excluding service charge as this is collected directly from patrons of Firmdale and not all departments or employees receive tronc.
Firmdale will continue to promote equal opportunities for both female and male employees and ensure that all stages of our employee journey, from attraction to onboarding, to development and promotion opportunities support our commitment to equality.
This narrative has been approved by Malcolm Soden, Finance Director, Firmdale Hotels plc.