An info pack for new starters - 4 pillars

What we expect from you – The 4 pillars

Reliability: Once you accept a job offer you will live up to your commitment. Cancellations at short notice will result on no more work being offered to you. If you do not show up for your shift, we may retain part of your salary to compensate our clients and to make up for any loss of revenue and costs we may incur.

From our side, once you are booked for an event we promise you will get paid for at least for hours in the event the event is cancelled at short notice

Punctuality: As a london waiting staff agency  (or casuals) we can’t afford to arrive late for an assignment. We all know that transport in London is sometimes unpredictable – in particular buses - but you have to take this into account. You are expected to arrive at the venue 15 minutes before your shift starts. If your starting time is 4pm and you are arrive at 4.05pm, you are not 5 minutes late, you are 20 minutes late!!

You have to be ready for work by your starting time. That means you have to be changed into your uniform and ready to go by your agreed starting time.

Make sure you plan your route in advance and use reliable means of transport. If you use buses you will need to allow for extra time. Google maps, A to Z, journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk and nationalrail.co.uk will be your best friends. Having your work items in one place – shirts, trousers, shoes helps. Do not only rely on your smart phone App.

Presentation – “I dress to Impress”: when you go to an assignment, even if you need to get changed into your work gear, you need to make sure you are already presentable. By definition you only have once chance to make a first impression and studies demonstrate that for every negative signal you give when meeting someone for the first time, you then need to give 7 positive signals to change this someone’s mind.

See the uniform annex for examples of what is acceptable and what is not. You must feel good about what you are wearing.

Your shirt and trousers must be pristine and well ironed, your shoes polished and your hair tied at the back or styled. If you are a man you must shave either in the morning or before the assignment, shaving the night before is not acceptable.

The standard uniform is: long sleeved plain black shirt, ballerina/low heel shoes (for ladies) with no frocks and smart trousers (no jeans, hot pants or slacks). Please keep jewellery to a minimum.

Attitude – “smile, you are on stage”: If you have been selected is because you have a positive, can-do attitude and you like smiling. You must take pride in what you do. The reason why people throw parties is to have a good time and they do not like having sad-faced waiting staff around. Great staff make parties great!

Once you arrive at work your first thought should be “how can I impress this client?” So you introduce yourself and then ask “what can I do?” You do it and then ask again “what next?”. This will surely show the client that you mean business and hopefully impress them. You must be proactive, as opposed to waiting to be asked to complete tasks.

We communicate mainly through our body language and there are little signals that sometimes we give away without realising it: crossing our arms, leaning on a table or counter, slouching, looking around, looking at our watches and the ultimate one: sitting down!


Before leaving you should ask the host/ess if there is anything else you can do before leaving, and hand over anything that may be helpful (like “we left some more clean glasses on the table and a few more beers in the chiller”). The venue must be left clean and tidy. Last impressions are as important as first impression.