Is wellbeing in hospitality genuinely improving, or are too many people still reaching crisis point because the pressures of the job remain too high?

Timothy R Andrews is joined by Mark Lewis, Chief Executive of Hospitality Action, to look at what the rising demand for the charity’s support tells us about working in hospitality today.

They discuss financial hardship, mental health, staffing pressures, managers becoming “accidental counsellors”, Employee Assistance Programmes and why looking after people is both a duty of care and a retention issue. Mark also explains what happens when someone contacts Hospitality Action, from emergency grants and housing support to benefits advice, counselling and practical help at some of the most difficult moments of their lives.

The conversation asks a difficult question: hospitality talks much more openly about wellbeing than it once did, but have working practices changed enough to match the conversation?

• Why more hospitality people are asking Hospitality Action for help
• Whether rising demand reflects worsening conditions, greater awareness or both
• What Hospitality Action means by being hospitality’s “safety net”
• Why managers can become accidental counsellors without the training to deal with complex situations
• How understaffing and increased workloads can affect employee wellbeing
• What an Employee Assistance Programme can provide
• Emergency grants, housing support, bereavement assistance and welfare benefits advice
• Why looking after people matters for retention as well as wellbeing
• Whether hospitality has genuinely improved its working culture

This episode is sponsored by Tork , a leading global professional hygiene brand. Tork helps hospitality businesses create easy-to-maintain, comfortable washrooms that work better for businesses and guests. When guests have a positive washroom experience they're more likely to stay longer, spend more and leave with a better impression of your venue.

• Hospitality Action
• Hospitality Action – Get Help
• Hospitality Action Employee Assistance Programme
• Hospitality Action – 2025 Impact
• Episode 7: From Crisis to Care – How Hospitality Action Helped During COVID-19

If you work in hospitality and need support, Hospitality Action’s 24/7 helpline is 0808 802 0282.

Discover more conversations, practical ideas and industry perspectives from Talking Hospitality.

How transparent should hospitality leaders really be with their teams?

It is easy to say that businesses should communicate openly. It is rather harder when the decision involves pay, difficult trading conditions, organisational change or something people simply do not want to hear.

In this episode, Timothy R Andrews is joined by Adena Cahill, Molly Davis, Joe McDonnell and Dan Hawkie to explore what transparency actually looks like in a hospitality business, and why simply sending an email, posting a policy or putting something on the staff app does not necessarily mean you have communicated it.

The conversation looks at the relationship between trust, communication and leadership, why people increasingly want to understand the reasoning behind decisions, and how leaders can involve their teams without pretending that every decision can be made by committee. As the panel discusses, people may not always agree with the outcome, but understanding how and why a decision was made can make a considerable difference.

Money inevitably enters the conversation too. Tips and tronc provide a particularly clear example of why transparency matters, especially when decisions directly affect what people take home. The panel discusses tipping policies, the importance of explaining how decisions are reached and why being open about a policy does not automatically make the policy itself fair.

There are practical lessons throughout, from adapting communication for different people and languages to making better use of briefings, checking whether information has actually been understood and knowing when a digital message still needs a human conversation.

Ultimately, transparency is not about telling everybody everything. It is about explaining what matters, being clear about the decisions you make and creating enough trust for people to ask questions when they do not understand.

This episode is produced in partnership with TiPJAR, whose work around pay, tips and tronc makes transparency particularly relevant to the conversation.

Featuring: Adena Cahill, Molly Davis from the British Institute of Innkeeping, Joe McDonnell and Dan Hawkie, Chief Commercial Officer at TiPJAR.

Talking Hospitality: Moving The Hospitality Conversation Forward.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• TiPJAR
• Searchlight Ventures
• British Institute of Innkeeping (BII)
• Avon Valley Country Park
• Domino's
• Deliveroo
• Uber
• Venmo

Can hospitality embrace AI, automation and new technology without losing the human connection at the heart of the industry?

Timothy R Andrews, Tracey Rashid and Joe McDonnell explore workplace culture, hospitality leadership, technology adoption, employee experience and what the future could look like for hospitality businesses and their people.

In a slightly different Talking Hospitality episode, producer Paul Cook turns the questions on the hosts.

They discuss what makes a strong hospitality culture, how good leaders deal with friction between departments, why communication matters, and why people respond so differently to technological change.

The conversation then turns to AI and automation. As technology removes human interaction from more areas of everyday life, could hospitality become even more valuable precisely because it provides experiences built around people?

They also challenge the traditional idea that the customer must always come first. If you create the right environment for your team, does a better guest experience naturally follow?

Topics discussed include:

• Hospitality workplace culture

• Leadership and communication

• Interdepartmental friction

• AI in hospitality

• Hospitality technology

• Employee retention and experience

• Guest experience

• Automation and human service

• The future of hospitality

Talking Hospitality is an independent UK hospitality podcast focused on practical conversations, industry learning and solutions that help move hospitality forward.

Hosted by Timothy R Andrews with Tracey Rashid and Joe McDonnell.

Visit talkinghospitality.com for more episodes, articles and industry conversations.

Moving The Hospitality Conversation Forward.