The group operates 15 restaurants across UK city centre and suburban locations, employing around 650 people across front and back of house, plus a layer of GMs and area managers.
A small central People team – a Head of People and two HR advisors – supports the estate, but there is no dedicated wellbeing role. The culture is operations led and hands on: tight margins, demanding targets and a steady drumbeat of new openings and refurbishments.
As the estate grew, pressure on people intensified. Sickness and stress related absence rose, particularly among managers and supervisors expected to “hold it all together” on lean rotas.
GMs had become the emotional “sponge” for their teams, picking up conversations about money worries, mental health and relationship breakdowns in office corners and after hours, with no formal training or clear boundaries.
HR were caught in constant fire fighting – grievances, performance issues, employee relations (ER) cases and long term or unexpected absence – leaving little capacity for prevention or proactive wellbeing work. Recruitment and retention were getting tougher and more expensive, and gaps in key roles took longer to fill, adding to the strain on those who stayed.
At board level, questions sharpened: how well were burnout, absence and turnover really being addressed and managed?
Within a short period, two highly regarded GMs resigned, both citing stress and workload as major reasons for leaving. At the same time, one site faced a complex case involving mental health and alcohol use that left the local team and central HR unsure how to safely support the individual.
In follow up discussions, managers were candid: they felt out of their depth in “counsellor type” conversations and were increasingly worried about saying the wrong thing. They wanted to be there for their teams, but needed expert backup and clearer limits.
For the Head of People, it confirmed that the group needed specialist support that could scale across all 15 sites without adding more headcount. On the recommendation of an industry contact, they approached Hospitality Action to explore our hospitality specific EAP – built by the industry’s benevolent charity and designed around the realities of hospitality work.
Hospitality Action’s EAP appealed for three main reasons:
This meant the group could provide its people with confidential, professional support 24/7 – from mental and physical health to money and family life – while also contributing to the resilience of the wider industry.
The launch was a joint effort between the group’s People team, COO and Hospitality Action’s engagement team. Instead of a one off email, they used a managers’ forum to introduce the EAP in a practical, reassuring way, positioning it as “extra support for you and your teams” – not a performance tool.
Managers heard directly from Hospitality Action about what the EAP includes: in the moment emotional support and counselling, short term-therapy, a Virtual GP service, legal and debt advice, welfare benefits guidance, access to hardship grants where eligible, and a dedicated management support line for tricky people issues.
GMs received HA branded toolkits – posters, handouts, intranet copy and suggested wording for 1:1s – so they could talk about the service confidently. Managers were encouraged to keep it straightforward in tougher conversations:
“Thanks for opening up to me. You don’t have to tell me everything – Hospitality Action runs a confidential helpline where you can talk to a professional who really understands this.”
Over the following months, colleagues used the EAP for counselling, short-term therapy, Virtual GP support and practical advice around money and benefits, with some signposted into HA’s wider charity services for grants and extra help. Managers used the support line to sense check their approach, and EAP details were built into onboarding, return to work meetings and wellbeing check ins, so “You can always call Hospitality Action” became a normal part of how the business looks after its people.
Within a few months, managers reported a clear reduction in emotional load. They were still having important conversations, but no longer felt they had to be counsellor, financial adviser and problem‑solver all in one, because Hospitality Action was there in the background to provide expert support and clearer boundaries.
For HR and ER, fewer issues arrived only once they had fully escalated. Some potential grievances and exits were eased earlier because people had a confidential, independent route to get help and work things through.
Turnover in key management and frontline roles began to stabilise, with anecdotal feedback that access to Hospitality Action’s support was one reason some colleagues stayed with the group rather than leaving the sector. Across all 15 sites, the wellbeing message became more consistent: whatever the local management style, everyone could access the same 24/7, hospitality‑specific support and the same simple language around it.
At senior level, anonymised insight from Hospitality Action gave the board a clearer view of the challenges colleagues were facing and helped shape training, communication and people strategy, while providing something concrete to point to when discussing people risk and duty of care.
For this multi site growth operator, partnering with Hospitality Action’s EAP meant they could:
Take action today to safeguard your team’s wellbeing and protect your bottom line.
If you’d like to explore how Hospitality Action’s EAP could support your people, get in touch with our EAP team for a friendly, no‑obligation chat.