There's a magical thing that unites the best people into hospitality: they truly love looking after people. That instinct is at the heart of our industry and, when the going is smooth, it creates workplaces with a genuine warmth that few other sectors can match. The commercial case backs this up, too. Gallup (the global analytics firm whose annual State of the Global Workplace report is widely regarded as the benchmark for employee engagement data) has found that companies with highly engaged teams are 23 per cent more profitable than those without.[1] In hospitality, where margins are notoriously thin, that’s not a nice-to-have, that's a got-to-have. Right now.
But our industry is in a rocky place, and staffing is a big part of that. The last 5 years make it increasingly challenging to find staff, and according to the CIPD’s analysis of ONS data, more than half of hospitality workers leave their jobs each year — a turnover rate of around 52 per cent, the highest of any sector in the UK and well above the national average of 34 per cent.[2] Only around 29 per cent of hospitality workers say they feel engaged at work, one of the lowest, and well below the average, across all industries.[3] Hospitality’s greatest asset is its people, an yet this is also what makes culture so tricky to get right.
Walk into any busy kitchen or hotel lobby and you’ll find people from wildly different backgrounds, age groups and life stages working side by side. A 19-year-old on their first job, a career changer in their forties, people who fell into it to make ends meet and tread water, lifers whose souls depend on the joy of the job, That mix is what makes the industry so incredibly engaging and full of opportunity. It can also be the source of real friction — and when someone in the team starts pulling against the culture, the effects can spread fast.
This is the situation a hospitality manager recently described in a problem page published by Countertalk: “I’ve got a couple of people in the team who really aren’t on board with our culture, and it affects everyone else — particularly new hires. How can I try to get more buy-in from them?” It’s a question that will sound familiar to anyone who’s managed a team. The responses came from Merly Kammerling and Michelle Moreno of Well & Being, and their advice — drawn from years of working with businesses like Soho House, Leon and Accor Group — forms the basis of what follows.
The snowball effect
It’s easy to underestimate the damage one person can do. A chef who rolls their eyes every time a new initiative is mentioned. A server who tells new starters “that’s not how things actually work here.” These might seem like small things, but they add up.
Merly Kammerling, co-founder of Well & Being and an ex-chef who has offered psychological support and training to hospitality businesses since 2018, doesn’t mince words: “Negative attitudes and behaviours towards the business, culture and other employees is common among disengaged employees. It can have a problematic snowball effect on the team, morale and atmosphere.” The good news, she says, is that catching it early makes all the difference: “It is much easier to find solutions when it’s a couple of disengaged individuals rather than a whole team.”
The legendary Danny Meyer knows thins situation well. He has talked about it in terms of gardening: you have to feed the soil with the right nutrients, he says, and you have to pull out anything toxic.[4] Meyer’s whole philosophy — what he calls “enlightened hospitality” — puts employees first, before guests, suppliers, even investors.[5] The logic is that one bad influence starts a vicious cycle, but one good one starts a virtuous one.
Have the conversation first
When someone on the team seems to have mentally checked out, there’s a temptation to go one of two ways: straight to a disciplinary process, or just hope the problem sorts itself out. Neither works particularly well. Michelle Moreno, Well & Being’s leadership specialist, who has more than 25 years’ experience in hospitality operations, suggests something more straightforward: actually talking to people.
“Start by having an open conversation with your team regarding what your culture means to you,” she says. “Share three to five examples of positive behaviours that reflect your culture, and also three to five examples of what doesn’t align with your culture.” It sounds obvious, but how often does it really happen? People can’t meet expectations nobody has spelled out for them.
Moreno also makes the point that you need to listen, not just talk: “They might not fully understand your expectations, or there could be mixed messages within the team. Clarify any inconsistencies and listen to their perspective — where do they feel the culture is or is not being met?” This matters because disengagement doesn’t come from nowhere. Sometimes the person who looks like the problem is actually responding to one — unclear standards, inconsistent management, feeling invisible.
She recommends a follow-up meeting around ten days later: “Use this time to discuss any improvements and adjustments.” Close enough to keep things moving, but enough breathing room for something to actually change.
Not everyone is in the same place
One of the most practical things Moreno offers is an Employee Engagement Model that sorts team members into five groups. It’s useful because it stops you treating everyone the same way, which is a trap managers fall into more often than they’d probably admit.
The “Engaged — With You All the Way” people are your strongest players. They’re motivated, they lift the team around them, and they’re easily taken for granted. Moreno’s advice: “Keep paying attention to them, listening, encouraging and recognising their influence, and supporting their development. Don’t forget about them or take them for granted.” It’s a fair warning. Plenty of managers pour their energy into the difficult employees and forget to look after the people who are actually keeping the place running.
The “Almost Engaged” want to be involved but might need to be brought closer in. The “Honeymooners and Steadies” include both new starters who need looking after and long-serving staff who aren’t chasing promotion but still deserve recognition.
Then there are the “Crash and Burners” — and Moreno is honest that the business may be part of the reason they’re struggling: “These might include high expectations, lack of training and feedback, or various personal issues or responsibilities. Have a conversation to understand their needs and create an action plan to support them. They are looking for help and will try to buy in if seen.”
And finally, there are those who have fully disengaged. Moreno doesn’t shy away from what that means: “If someone is completely disengaged, and again this might have been attributed by the company, it might be best for them to move on. Have an honest, calm conversation to help them see that leaving might be the best option for everyone. It’s challenging to re-engage and get buy-in from someone who has fully checked out and this can have a huge negative impact on others trying to buy in.”
Meyer has made a similar observation about his own restaurants. People leave their manager more often than they leave their job, he’s said — and that puts the onus squarely on leaders to show up every day with the aim of helping their team succeed. He calls it servant leadership, and it’s a good description.[6]
Getting to the root of it
Kammerling approaches the diagnostic side of things with a detailed checklist of the most common reasons people disengage. She’s clear that it’s not meant to overwhelm: “The aim of this list is not to overwhelm yourself by thinking you need to resolve everything on this list all at once, but rather serve as a starting point towards performing a process of elimination regarding what the primary root of the cause may be and what realistic and actionable steps need to be taken now.”
Her list covers a lot of ground. Structural issues like inadequate pay, poor training, unrealistic workloads and inflexible rotas sit alongside interpersonal ones: a lack of recognition, weak management, or employees feeling they have no voice in how things are run. One that stands out is “a business’s failure to follow through on stated company values.” Anyone who has worked in a venue with a glossy mission statement on the wall and a completely different reality on a Friday night will know exactly what she means.
She also flags what’s sometimes called “quietly quitting” — when someone has mentally moved on but is still physically turning up. “Sometimes the issue can’t be resolved despite your best efforts,” she says. “But regardless, this is a great opportunity to learn and move forward as a business and a culture. Issues such as this are rarely one-sided and if overlooked may very well rear its head again or just get worse.” That's challenging, of course. But treating disengagement as something that’s only the employee’s fault is a missed opportunity to look at what the business might be getting wrong.
The new starter problem
The original question specifically mentioned the impact on new hires, and it’s a real concern. In hospitality, onboarding often happens on the job — a couple of shadow shifts, a quick tour, then you’re on. New starters pick up their cues from the people around them, and if those people happen to be the disengaged ones, the culture gets defined by its weakest link.
Moreno describes new hires as “Honeymooners” who “need regular check-ins and support” and are “an opportunity to set an example of culture.” In practical terms, that means thinking carefully about who you pair new people with and what version of the business they see in their first few weeks.
Some bigger operators have made this a strategic priority. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, which has featured on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies To Work For” list,[7] built its whole approach around empowerment. Their focus is to give staff genuine ownership of the guest experience. That kind of culture doesn’t happen by accident. It has to be taught, reinforced, and actively protected, especially when new people are finding their feet.
Follow through, or don’t bother
If there’s a single thread running through both Kammerling’s and Moreno’s advice, it’s this: say what you’re going to do, and then do it.
Moreno puts it directly: “Using the employee engagement checklist and creating your own Employee Engagement Model of where your team sits today could be instrumental in understanding how to gain buy-in from team members. This targeted approach allows for tailored interventions, reinforces positive behaviours, and proactively manages not-on-board team members.” And her parting line lands with real weight: “Remember, communication and delivering on your proposed actions are key.”
That second part — delivering — is where a lot of businesses fall down. It’s not hard to have a good conversation. It’s much harder to follow it up a week later, and the week after that, when the restaurant is slammed and there are a hundred other things demanding your attention. But the places that build genuinely strong cultures are the ones that find a way.
Hospitality will never be a frictionless industry. There are too many different people, under too much pressure, working too closely together for that. But friction isn’t the same as dysfunction, and the odd bad apple doesn’t have to ruin the whole barrel. What Kammerling and Moreno both show is that most of the time, the tools you need are pretty simple: listen, be honest, follow up, and be willing to look at your own part in the problem. The hard bit, as ever, is actually doing it.
[1]Gallup, State of the Global Workplace: 2024 Report. Gallup’s meta-analysis of over 183,000 business units across 53 industries found that top-quartile engagement teams achieve 23% higher profitability.
[2]CIPD analysis of ONS Annual Population Survey (January 2022–December 2023). Around 52% of hospitality workers (accommodation and food services) left their jobs within a year, compared with a UK average of 34%. Of those who left, 40% moved to another employer within the same sector.
[3]Speakap, “Employee Engagement In The Hospitality Industry Is Broken,” November 2025, citing Gallup data showing 29% engagement among hospitality workers versus 34% across all industries.
[4]Danny Meyer, in conversation with 7shifts CEO Jordan Boesch, hosted by Food News Media.
[5]Danny Meyer, Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business (HarperCollins, 2006).
[6]Danny Meyer, interview on Re:Thinking with Adam Grant podcast (TED/Wharton People Analytics Conference), 2024.
[7]Great Place To Work / Fortune, “100 Best Companies To Work For” list. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants featured for six consecutive years.
