Thoughts & Takeaways
Welcome to the Talking Hospitality blog: a place for practical insight and useful ideas for people working in and leading hospitality.
Some pieces are designed to make you think. Some are here to give you clear actions you can take back to your team. Most do a bit of both.
Some pieces are designed to make you think. Some are here to give you clear actions you can take back to your team. Most do a bit of both.
Oct. 19, 2026
A Worker Asks to See Their Tipping Records. What Happens Next?
A Worker Asks to See Their Tipping Records. What Happens Next? Part of Talking Hospitality’s transparency series, produced in partnership with TiPJAR. Legal position checked on 6 October 2026; England, Scotland and Wales. A team member emails as…
Oct. 12, 2026
Tips, Service Charges and Tronc: What Is the Difference?
Part of Talking Hospitality’s transparency series, produced in partnership with TiPJAR. A new colleague asks what “tronc” means on their pay information. Someone says it is their tips. Another says it is the service charge. A third tells them to a…
Oct. 5, 2026
Tipping Law in 2026: Is Your Hospitality Business Getting It Right?
You can put a tipping policy in the staff handbook, explain it at induction and ask everyone to sign it. There can still be a problem with what it says. That came up in our Talking Hospitality episode, What does “Transparency” mean in Hospitality?.…
Sept. 28, 2026
7 Mistakes You're Making with Hospitality Staff Retention (and How to Fix Them)
Holding on to good people has become one of the hardest parts of running hospitality businesses well. Recruitment takes management time and creates operational work when vacancies keep coming round. What tends to get less honest attention is what h…
Sept. 21, 2026
October Tipping Changes: Why Worker Involvement Matters
If your business has been working towards new tipping requirements in October, there is an important update. The planned changes are no longer tied to a completely certain 1 October 2026 start date. The Government has withdrawn the revised statutor…
Sept. 14, 2026
Student and Seasonal Worker Onboarding: Does Your Process Work?
September brings a familiar rush for hospitality businesses. New students arrive. Seasonal workers join the rota. Experienced team members move into new roles. Managers try to get everyone ready while dealing with busy services, changing availabilit…
Sept. 7, 2026
The Conversations Hospitality Needs Next
A new series of episodes from Talking Hospitality. Hospitality does not need more noise. There is already plenty of it. More opinions. More hot takes. More posts telling us what the industry must do next, usually in six steps, three hacks or one…
Aug. 31, 2026
Employment Rights Act 2025: A Hospitality Employer Checklist
This is the fifth and final article in our five-part series on the Employment Rights Act 2025. We’ve already looked at guaranteed hours and rotas, Statutory Sick Pay, probation and unfair dismissal, and the responsibilities employers have arou…
Aug. 24, 2026
Sexual Harassment and Whistleblowing in Hospitality: What Employers Need to Know
In a busy hospitality workplace, where does “banter” end and responsibility begin? And, more importantly, would your team know where to raise a concern safely? That question matters in a pub, restaurant, hotel, events venue or late-night bar becau…
Aug. 17, 2026
Probation and Unfair Dismissal in Hospitality: What Changes?
If probation is meant to be a period of support and assessment, what changes when ordinary unfair dismissal protection arrives much sooner? For hospitality employers across England, Scotland and Wales, the answer is not that every new starter bec…
Aug. 10, 2026
Statutory Sick Pay in Hospitality: What Employers Need to Know
Blog 2 of 5 in the Talking Hospitality series on the Employment Rights Act 2025. There is a particular kind of panic that hits when someone calls in sick 45 minutes before service. The rota suddenly has a hole in it. The kitchen is already st…
Aug. 3, 2026
Employment Reforms and Hospitality Rotas: Balancing Flexibility with Predictability
Employment Reforms and Hospitality Rotas: Balancing Flexibility with Predictability How do you balance flexibility for the business with more predictability for your people? That is the question hospitality leaders need to be asking now. Not wh…
July 27, 2026
A Fair Shot
Britain has been good to me. It gave me a fair shot, though not without its fine print. It gave me access, took me seriously and offered me a fair shot at moments that changed the course of my life. But it also came with fine print: glass ceiling…
July 20, 2026
Unity in Diversity: Stories about Sri Lankan food, heritage culture and hospitality
South Asian Heritage Month should create space for people to tell their own stories, in their own words. Ranji Thangiah, founder of Tooting Mama and host of Tea with Tooting Mama, uses food to explore Sri Lankan heritage, identity and belonging thro…
July 13, 2026
Everyone Has A Place
Every July, South Asian Heritage Month asks us to pause and celebrate the histories, cultures and communities connected to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This year's theme, "Unity in Diversity,"…
July 6, 2026
Brand is a feeling
Brand Isn’t the Logo. It’s the Reason People Come Back. South Asian Heritage Month Series Featuring Sachin Parmar and Sanj Naha, Graphic Kitchen South Asian Heritage Month is not an invitation for me to explain someone else’s lived experience. T…
July 1, 2026
People Who Build, Not Take.
There is a tired story that keeps being told in Britain. You know the one. People come here. They take jobs. They claim benefits. They change the country. They do not contribute. It is usually said with great certainty by people who have rarely h…
June 29, 2026
Pride Month Is a Check-In, Not a Campaign
Pride Month Is a Check-In, Not a Campaign Pride Month is here. Cue the flags, posts, panels, themed events, colourful graphics and at least one brand somewhere discovering, with great urgency, that it has always cared deeply about inclusion since …
June 22, 2026
Why You Should Be Supporting Local Drag
Support Local Drag Here's Why A companion piece to "What Can We Learn From Drag Queens?" Drag is often treated as the loud bit of the night. The funny bit. The eyelashes. The heels. The jokes. The song choice that starts as camp fun and somehow …
June 15, 2026
Trans Inclusion in Hospitality
Trans Inclusion in Hospitality Start with Curiosity, Not Assumptions (Companion to: Trans and gender episode with Che Young Gender. Trans. Pronouns. Identity. For some hospitality leaders, those words are familiar. For others, they can feel like…
June 8, 2026
Are Rainbow Flags Enough for LGBTQIA+ Inclusion?
Are Rainbow Flags Enough for LGBTQIA+ Inclusion? The business case for making Pride practical, not performative A rainbow flag in June can be a nice gesture. But it cannot be the whole strategy. For hospitality businesses, LGBTQIA+ inclusion need…
June 1, 2026
Does Pride Still Matter in Hospitality?
Does Pride Still Matter in Hospitality? Yes, but not as wallpaper Suggested category: EDI / Pride Month / Hospitality LeadershipCompanion to: PrideWide conversation with Tris Reid-SmithSEO keywords: Pride Month hospitality, LGBTQIA+ hospitality, P…
March 30, 2026
What Allyship Looks Like in Hospitality Leadership
International Women’s Day conversations often focus on women. That makes sense. But progress in hospitality leadership does not sit solely with women. It sits with those who already hold influence. In UK hospitality, women make up well over half …
March 23, 2026
Is Hospitality Compatible with Work-Life Balance for Women?
In recognition of International Women’s Day, we are continuing a series exploring the key issues women identify within hospitality. One theme appears consistently across research, exit interviews and leadership conversations: Work-life balance. H…