Cheltenham hotel wins national award for scientific approach to keeping staff happy

The Greenway Hotel & Spa in Shurdington near Cheltenham has scooped a national award for taking an innovative approach to the wellbeing of its staff.

Hotel group The Eden Collection, which runs The Greenway, collected the award for Excellence in Reward & Recognition in a glittering ceremony at the Annual Awards for Excellence in HR, this October 2024.

The award praised the hotel for its introduction of the 'Happy Hub', which is a unique wellbeing programme focusing on activities that help to generate four key hormones that aid positive mental health — dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins.

To help produce these 'happy hormones', The Greenway, together with all five of the Eden Collection's hotels, has introduced a number of rewards and recognitions for staff.

It gives out e-cards to employees, recognising milestones and achievements to promote oxytocin, the ‘hug hormone’, which is proven to help develop team bonding and collaborative working.

It has also introduced a digital 'social recognition' wall, for colleagues to share successes and achievements with the whole company. 

For serotonin and endorphins, which help to maintain mood balance and regulate emotional responses, the hotel gives out monetary rewards for customer service and for being with the company for at least five years.

And to celebrate individual employees and help drive job satisfaction and personal motivation, an employee of the month scheme rewards winners with Sunday lunch, afternoon tea, a day off or a 55-minute spa treatment at one of Eden’s hotels.

Since the launch of the scheme earlier this year, 65 per cent of the hotel’s team has received a form of recognition.

Luke Millikin, general manager at The Greenway Hotel, said: 'Working at our hotel is like being part of a big family as we’ve created a culture where people support one another, regardless of the task – and it’s great to see this being recognised on a national scale.'

Lisa Redding, group people director at the Eden Hotel Collection, added: 'The best hotels are built on happy, engaged and motivated workforces that deliver memorable customer service, and the Happy Hub is an innovative example of how we are looking after our people effectively so that they can look after our guests.

'The Happy Hub was inspired by feedback from our hotel teams, and the figures show that the programme is having a positive impact already, both in terms of the engagement and our retainment levels, and underlines our People Team’s dedication to creating a warm and welcoming place to forge a career.'