Our Social Promise - Our People's Stories

In 2014, Rosa Losa started as a Barista at Costa Coffee, with Compass Group’s Healthcare sector at The Royal Surrey County Hospital. She joined the team having studied something completely different in Italy – fashion design. Over the next 2 years, she quickly progressed through to Supervisor, and then Manager, Rosa took on each role with enthusiasm and dedication.

Her next step up to Catering FM Manager of the Royal Surrey’s Wellspring visitor and staff restaurant - was a big one, and she was doing it without any previous experience of managing this kind of operation. It was a huge challenge and opportunity leading the £500,000 redevelopment of the restaurant, and she found herself learning on the job, building new collaborative teams, and empowered to make big decisions. As a result of her success in this role, Rosa was promoted to Retail General Manager in 2022, overseeing all the retail units that includes: the Wellspring Restaurant and kitchen, Costa Coffee, M&S and two onsite cafes.

In this position, Rosa oversees a team of around 50 people. She is often recruiting into similar roles that allowed her to enter into the industry. Keen to pass on opportunity for those starting out, she recruits on the basis of someone’s attitude, rather than just their experience - inspired by the faith the business showed in her. Over the past few years, Rosa has selected highly engaged team members who see their work as more than just a job, training their skills and giving people a chance to progress and carve out their own opportunities.

Having worked so hard to learn English herself, Rosa gives team members for whom English is a second language one-to-one sessions teaching them phrases to use to put customers at ease and deliver the best customer service. She’s coached her teams patiently and with humour to reach her high standards, resulting in consistently impeccable levels of service.

Rosa’s work at the Royal Surrey Hospital has contributed to the site receiving NHS England Exemplar Site status for catering in 2022. In April 2023 she was also named Public Sector Catering’s Manager of the Year.

Rosa said: “I was lucky enough to have a Manager who always had an open door. This meant I have felt supported, no matter what role I undertook. That first role as a Barista, gave me a foot in the door and since then I have been enabled to train and learn new skills to progress my career. I am constantly looking to develop further and look forward to the next opportunity.”

Rosa has worked hard to achieve her ambitious goals and it’s clear that at Compass there are #nolimits to what you can achieve whatever your background and experience.

For more information on Our Social Promise visit: Our Social Promise | Compass Group UK&I (compass-group.co.uk)