Devon hotel recognised for commitment to staff welfare
A boutique hotel in Devon has had double recognition for its commitment to colleague welfare at a major hospitality awards ceremony.
Bovey Castle is part of The Eden Hotel Collection, which has collected prizes for Employee Health and Wellbeing, along with Employee Engagement at the 2024 Springboard Awards For Excellence, which celebrates the UK and Ireland’s hospitality sector.
This year saw 50 hospitality businesses shortlisted following a record 200 entries.
Both award wins for The Eden Hotel Collection highlighted the organisation’s ‘Money, Mind, Body & Heart’ people strategy to enhance colleagues’ wellbeing, which has seen vacancy levels reduce by 62 per cent across the Group and the business’s 90-day retention rate improve to 96.4 per cent.
Forming a key part of Eden’s award entries was the introduction of a new reward and recognition programme for staff to celebrate each other – called The Happy Hub – which promotes feel-good hormones amongst teams; including a social recognition wall, instant rewards through gift vouchers and peer-to-peer e-cards.
Acting on survey feedback was also a core part of the winning entries – particularly around financial welfare – which has not only seen staff receive a number of significant pay increases in the last few years, but also the introduction of Wagestream – a digital tool that enables staff to access their earned wages prior to a routine monthly pay day.
Lisa Redding, group people director at Eden Hotel Collection, said: “Our people, like many others across the UK, have had to deal with a pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis in quick succession, and as a business our priority has been to provide meaningful support to our people based on their feedback.
“We want our teams to feel like they can be the best versions of themselves – both at work and at home – and not only have we introduced financial support, but emotional support too with the introduction of The Happy Hub, as well as a number of development pathways and a leadership programme for career development.
“The benefits we have introduced to our people are wide-ranging, reflecting our near 50-50 gender split and have undoubtedly helped us to attract and hold on to top talent.”
Dean Gunston, general manager at Bovey Castle, added: “It’s fantastic to see our hotel and the wider business recognised for making the organisation such a great place to work.
“Being able to recognise people in different ways for doing a good job has been really well received by the team at Bovey Castle, and has created a great environment where people feel motivated and driven to support each other and uphold the highest standards of service.”
