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‘Looking after your people is the ultimate USP’: the power of the Best Places to Work in Hospitality
Jo Harley, founder of Korero, which analyses employee sentiment to determine The Caterer’s Best Places to Work in Hospitality, knows what it takes to make employees happy
For more than a decade, The Caterer’s Best Places to Work in Hospitality has been the go-to survey for operators seeking genuine insight into employee engagement and workplace culture.
With up to 20,000 employees taking part every year, the results – identifying the top 30 companies across the industry – provide a unique lens on what makes hospitality a rewarding and supportive industry in which to build a career.
As co-founder of HR tech platform Korero, Jo Harley has been at the heart of the survey’s success. She spoke to The Caterer about its enduring appeal, what truly defines a great workplace and offers some advice for those considering entering the competition.
Enter The Caterer’s Best Places to Work in Hospitality
What makes a hospitality business a great place to work?
An organisation that listens to its people and understands what’s important to them. I can tell you what I think makes a great place to work, but that won’t be the same for somebody starting out in their career or for somebody at the end of their career.
That’s what makes the Best Places to Work in Hospitality survey stand out, because it asks people what’s important to them about coming to work. So many people, especially in hospitality, say they are people-centric and people-first, yet often we know much less about the people we work with than we do about our customers.
From a very top line perspective, Best Places to Work is all about businesses knowing exactly who they are, what their purpose is, what behaviours they expect from their people and articulating that. Often the reason why people think that somewhere isn’t a great place to work might just be that there’s a mismatch of values. So having clear purpose, values and behaviours that people know from day one is super-important.
What are the benefits of entering?
You will get a measure of what’s important to your employees and understand how they think, plus you get to benchmark that against others in the industry.
It increases advocacy; employees, stakeholders, suppliers and customers like to know that they are working with or buying from companies that look after their people – it’s a huge USP.
What would you say to multi-site operations who want to enter?
If you’re a large business, you only need 30% of employees to complete they survey, and that’s not a big ask for a company that wants to do the right things for its people. Or you could enter a region or a particular site. We’ve had a few service businesses in past years where they didn’t want to enter the whole business but rather some outstanding sites.
What are your three top tips to enter Best Place to Work?
Given that the entry process happens over the Christmas period, I would enter as soon as you possibly can. October is a really good time to do the survey.
Communicate clearly why you’re doing it. It’s not just about winning an award, it’s about understanding what’s important to your employees about coming to work. And if, as an organisation, you can understand what that is, you can ensure you’re providing that as well as you possibly can.
Lastly, get the senior team behind it. As they go round the business and see people, get them to ask what the most important thing is about coming to work and be interested in what people are doing.
How to enter the Best Places to Work in Hospitality competition
Once you have entered the competition, you will receive an email from Korero with a link to the survey to distribute to your employees. Once all the surveys have been completed and returned to Korero, a report will be compiled, with comparisons against peer averages and benchmarks against other companies that have entered the competition.
An overall score will be generated from your results, which will enable The Caterer and Korero to identify the top 30 Best Places to Work in Hospitality. Among these will be the top six best places, which will be eligible to enter the Best Employer Catey at the Cateys 2026.
The winning companies will be announced during an evening of networking, drinks, canapés and celebration in May to honour their achievements.
Click here to enter the competition or see a more detailed explanation of the process.
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