Contents
Why Engagement Hits Different in Leisure & Hospitality
Engagement, Wellbeing and Performance Are Now Inseparable
What High-Engagement Hospitality Organisations Do Differently
AI Is an Opportunity Hospitality Can’t Ignore
Quick Wins to Strengthen Engagement in Hospitality
The Takeaway: Engagement Is the Experience
The leisure and hospitality industry has always been powered by people. From frontline teams delivering guest experiences to managers juggling rota gaps, wellbeing, and performance, service quality lives or dies with employee engagement.
Yet in 2026, hospitality organisations are facing a perfect storm: rising customer expectations, ongoing labour shortages, constant operational change, and increasingly stretched people teams. The result? Engagement and wellbeing are stagnating at the very moment they matter most.
New insights from WorkBuzz’s People Priorities: Future of Work 2026 report show that organisations prioritising employee wellbeing and engagement are far more likely to sustain performance — while those that don’t risk burnout, churn, and inconsistent service delivery.
For leisure and hospitality leaders, the message is clear: employee engagement isn’t a “nice to have”. It’s a commercial differentiator.
Why Engagement Hits Different in Leisure & Hospitality
Hospitality work is uniquely demanding. Frontline teams deal with unsociable hours, high emotional labour, seasonal pressures, and constant customer interaction — often with little margin for error.
Audience persona research shows that HR and People leaders in this sector are under pressure to:
- Improve retention in hard-to-hire roles
- Support manager capability across dispersed sites
- Protect wellbeing without sacrificing performance
- Prove the ROI of engagement initiatives
At the same time, email and LinkedIn engagement data reveals that Leisure & Hospitality audiences are among the most responsive when content speaks directly to experience, wellbeing, and practical action — not abstract theory.
In other words, this sector doesn’t need more buzzwords. It needs clear signals, fast feedback, and visible follow-through.
Engagement, Wellbeing and Performance Are Now Inseparable
According to the Future of Work 2026 research, employee wellbeing remains HR’s number one priority (44%), closely followed by engagement (35%). But despite these priorities, only 33% of organisations report that engagement has improved, down sharply from the previous year.
For hospitality, where pressure points are felt first and hardest, the risks are amplified:
- Unsustainable workloads are the biggest barrier to wellbeing
- Constant operational change undermines confidence and clarity
- Poor communication erodes trust at pace
Crucially, the data shows that 92% of employees who feel wellbeing has improved say engagement has stayed the same or improved too. This reinforces a simple truth: you can’t drive great guest experiences with burned-out teams.
What High-Engagement Hospitality Organisations Do Differently
So what separates hospitality organisations that are thriving from those that are struggling?
1. They align HR and senior leadership
Where HR and executive teams are aligned, engagement is nearly four times more likely to improve. Where they’re misaligned, almost half of organisations report declining engagement.
For hospitality leaders, alignment means:
- Shared ownership of engagement and culture
- Clear, consistent communication across sites
- Treating employee experience as a strategic priority, not an HR initiative
2. They listen — and act visibly
Employee listening only works when teams believe change will follow. Yet just 21% of organisations now listen to employees quarterly or more, often due to shrinking HR capacity.
High-performing hospitality organisations:
- Run regular, lightweight listening cycles
- Empower managers with team-level insights
- Show staff exactly what’s changing as a result of feedback
This visible action builds trust — and trust drives participation.
3. They equip managers, not overload HR
Frontline managers are the linchpin of engagement in hospitality. But without the right tools, insight and support, they become bottlenecks rather than enablers.
Case studies like Butlin’s demonstrate how structured employee listening and manager ownership can turn feedback into real operational improvement — strengthening culture while easing pressure on central HR teams.
AI Is an Opportunity Hospitality Can’t Ignore
With four in ten HR teams shrinking and workloads rising, the Future of Work report highlights AI as a critical opportunity — not a threat.
While 69% of organisations are still experimenting with AI, those already using it for employee listening report:
- Faster insight from feedback
- Reduced manual analysis
- Greater manager ownership of action
For hospitality, where time and capacity are always tight, AI-powered employee listening helps HR teams focus on impact, not admin — while keeping the human connection firmly at the centre.
Quick Wins to Strengthen Engagement in Hospitality
For busy leisure and hospitality leaders, progress doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Start here:
- Listen little and often to stay ahead of issues before they escalate
- Close the feedback loop so employees see action, not just surveys
- Support managers with clarity, not dashboards
- Protect wellbeing as a performance enabler, not a trade-off
- Use technology to reduce HR strain, not add complexity
Engagement improves when people feel heard, supported, and connected to purpose — especially in customer-facing roles where energy and empathy matter most.
The Takeaway: Engagement Is the Experience
In leisure and hospitality, employee experience is the customer experience. Organisations that invest in engagement, wellbeing, and communication don’t just build happier teams — they deliver better service, stronger retention, and more resilient performance.
As the Future of Work research makes clear, the organisations bucking the engagement decline are those that listen, align, and act decisively. The opportunity is there. The differentiator is execution.
Ready to turn employee voice into action?
Book a demo to see how WorkBuzz helps leisure and hospitality teams build engagement that shows up where it matters most — on the frontline.