Our guests frequently comment : “ You have a fantastic team”.  We’re proud of this.  Whether it be the cuisine, the restaurant and bar service, the rooms or maintenance we are able to offer a quality of service in the middle of the bush worthy of a true Lodge.  What’s the recipe?

Nothing revolutionary, only a lot of common sense and respect.
First of all, during a first meeting, we explained that the guests were ‘toubabs’ (whites) and that ‘toubab’ service was necessary, but that they’re African and must stay African in their relationships and style.  Professional but open and available for discussion.

All the personnel come from surrounding villages and most worked on the building of the Lodge.  We chose them for their personality, their level of education was at best a secondary school certificate and we trained them on the job with the exception of two experienced professionals, Niokhor and Edouard, waiter and joiner respectively.  Each according to their personality participates in the Lodge’s character: the success of the Lodge is their success.  Currently, twenty people work at Niassam.

We also manage the recurring cash flow difficulties of our employees for festivities and family events and we lend for home building interest-free. Salary advances are dealt with regularly, often refused and sometimes accepted.  Interest-free loans are agreed for their projects or important family support.

The Lodge’s pharmacy enables the treatment of many small health problems and we pay medical expenses for their visits to the dispensary.

Sylvie, the owner, respects equality between men and women for salaries and responsibilities. The ex-manager’s house has been made available to the personnel for their children and their childminders.  In this way those who have small children can breastfeed them and look after them at break-time.

This is clearly paternalistic but here the extended family is a fundamental part of African life.  The Niassam team is a family in which we are the patriarchs, or rather the matriarchs.  In today’s terms, we could say that we are naturally a socially responsible business applying a sort of ecological management.