Cinnamon Grand rewards associates at Avurudu themed quarterly meeting

Cinnamon Grand held its Associates Meeting for the fourth quarter of the year 2017/18 on 5 April at the Oak Room. Over 500 associates and heads of departments from the different sectors of the hotel came together to witness a flashback of their achievements in the past year, and to celebrate their colleagues under a special Avurudu (Sinhala and Tamil New Year) theme. The event is held each quarter to recognise and reward associates for their dedicated service, dynamism and loyalty.

Sector Head, City Sector and General Manager Rohan Karr, welcomed the associates, who walked into a room with an Avurudu atmosphere, including the sound of the ‘koha’ bird and raban drumming and wishes. In addition, all heads of department were clad in traditional outfits to add to the excitement. Associates were acknowledged as Grand Stars and Grand Super Stars of the Quarter, and were rewarded with cash prizes, special dining vouchers, bottles of wine and a letter of appreciation from the General Manager.

The event also recapped the achievements of the past year, including the cricket team becoming champions at the CCPL tournament, the Jaffna Food Festival, and number one ratings by TripAdvisor for TAO being the number one Chinese restaurant in Colombo, and Cinnamon Grand being named the number one five-star hotel in Colombo. 

Grand Super Stars of the Year

The recipients of the overall Grand Super Stars of the Year awards were H.M.M.N. Munasinghe from the Kitchen Department, recognised for his extra efforts in coordinating and creating over 600 kilos of cakes for company orders, as well as Christmas season orders; and A.G.C. Wickramasena from the Food and Beverage Department for his commitment and leadership in ensuring that the staff cafeteria, which serves over 6,000 daily meals for Associates is properly run, and for training and grooming 18 casual members who went on to higher career positions due to this.

Grand Super Stars 

of the Quarter

S.J. Fernando and A.G.C. Wickramasena, both from the Food & Beverage Department were awarded Grand Super Stars of the Quarter. S.J. Fernando was recognised for her dedication and for taking on additional responsibilities and delivering to the hotel standards.

Grand Stars of the Quarter

T.I. Cassim from the Front Office Department, recognised for taking initiative and developing a departmental manual which standardised procedures; M.R.T. Dharmadasa from the Engineering Department, recognised for assisting the department in repairing equipment that led to a significant cost saving; M.A.D.G. Anuruddika from the Kitchen Department, recognised for her consistent dedication towards creating a variety of dishes and showing exemplary leadership qualities; R.M.M. J. Jayarathne from the Housekeeping Department, recognised for finding a cost-effective floor design that brought about maximum output for the hotel; S.J. Fernando from the F&B Department, and A.G.C. Wickramasena from the F&B Department, were declared Grand Stars of the Quarter. 

Special Recognition Award and General Manager’s Special Award

T.I. Cassim also received the Special Recognition Award at the event.

The General Manager’s Special Award was shared by M.K.S. Perera from the F&B Department, and A.A.S.L. Kumara and K.B. Weragampitiya, both from the Security Department, for their compassionate and humanitarian efforts in assisting a guest in the time of crisis.

To celebrate Avurudu, this special quarterly meeting also included traditional games such as a customised group version of the lime and spoon race, bun eating (won by Ruwan from the Laundry Department), coconut scraping (won by Tari from TAO), pinning the eye of the elephant (won by Nethpriya and Dhanushka), keeping the ‘pottu’ (won by Wasantha and Rathnamalee), selecting the AvuruduKumari (Yahani) and Kumaraya (Asanka), and tug-o-war competition. 

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