Treat Staff Fairly: Heartwood Collection

Treating staff fairly at Heartwood Collection 

So, what does this mean in practical terms? First up is career progression and development, a focus area that’s given real care and consideration. “We believe Heartwood Collection is a business that can offer its employees meaningful careers in which they can develop and thrive,” says Emma. “We have an industry-leading career pathway that clearly outlines your path to progression, should you want that. For those who do not want to progress, we offer a comprehensive training programme that builds skills to allow you to thrive in your role.” 

Promoting from within has a real impact on how employees view their own future within a company, and management at Heartwood Collection is aware of this. “We aim to promote 75% of our management teams from within to ensure we are rewarding those who are working hard to build a career with us.” Having recently hit this target in their kitchens, they’re now edging closer to it with their front-of-house management teams. “This is great to see, as it allows us to keep the culture alive and focus external recruitment on absolute superstars.” 

Heartwood Collection further incentivises staff loyalty by offering all employees a comprehensive rewards package and long service awards, as well as making a wellbeing suite available to all employees. This offers support in fitness, healthy eating and financial and mental wellbeing and sits alongside an Employee Assistance Programme run through Hospitality Action. Their online people platform, Our Place, sees over 1,000 individual logins per month – an incredible volume of traffic for 1,300 employees. “We built this platform to be a real ‘people hub’,” says Emma, “and to give our teams a reason to log in without it being a requirement. In the last month alone, we’ve seen 9,331 total logins.” 

Recognising the importance of feedback, management also makes a point of listening to the team. “We run regular engagement surveys in which our teams can anonymously give their feedback on what they love about their jobs and where they feel we should focus our attention next. This is invaluable for us, as we can ensure our time and effort is being placed in the most impactful areas for our teams.” 

Celebrating success 

“Retention is the ultimate metric for how your teams feel,” says Emma – and they have the figures to prove their approach is working. “We are really proud to see that the work we have been doing over the past few years has seen our turnover drop from 112% to below 60%. This is a phenomenal result and reassures us that our efforts are focused in the right direction.” 

Another proud moment was winning The Sunday Times ‘Best Places to Work’ award this year. “This is won or lost based on the scores of your team,” says Emma, “so we were thrilled – not only that this was the highest engagement we had seen from an employee survey, but also that our score of 81% won us the award!” 

Emma is keen to emphasise that the benefits of prioritising staff wellbeing are real, for any business. “This isn’t just relevant for restaurants – any employer will see benefits in this space if their teams are treated well. Our ethos is to treat people how we would wish to be treated, and our core values really lend themselves to this way of thinking. We hope that our teams feel this is the case; when you’re excited to go to work and proud of what you are achieving, then the potential is limitless.” 

Why the FMG Standard matters at Heartwood Collection 

Heartwood Collection have been working with The Sustainable Restaurant Association for over 15 years and took their first Food Made Good Standard in 2012, working their way from two stars to three by 2023. “We felt that the Food Made Good Standard was the benchmark by which we wanted to be measured. We believe Heartwood Collection and The SRA are culturally aligned in our outlook and that the diversity and scope of the Standard are important for understanding how sustainable we really are.” 

The Standard is just one way in which the Heartwood Collection team communicates its sustainability work. “Through our guest database, our website and on social media, we highlight the relationships that we have with our suppliers, our sourcing of seasonal ingredients and sustainable practices,” says Emma. “One of our brand characters is Belinda Bee; this celebrates our culture of sustainability and reflects our values of leading by example, showing genuine care and seeking excellence.” 

What’s next for sustainability at Heartwood Collection? 

With the goal of ensuring they are still offering their teams the most impactful benefits and rewards, Heartwood Collection’s new ‘round table’ committee initiative is designed to guide and inform their next steps. As Emma explains, “This will allow our teams to feed into initiatives and have face time with our directors to ensure that we are aligned on the right priorities at all levels.” 

They’re also launching a new digital training module within their employee engagement platform, specifically designed to cover what it means to hold a three-star Food Made Good Standard certification. “We’re in the early stages of a significant period of growth as a business,” says Emma, “and we want to ensure that everyone who joins us in future – as well as those already part of the Heartwood Family – know how important sustainability is to us as a business and an employer. Sustainability is in our DNA, here at Heartwood.” 

Learn more about Heartwood Collection on their website. You can read more about the Food Made Good Standard here, or head to our News & Insights page for more articles about why treating staff well is a key part of sustainability and insights on how best to take good care of your team.