Measuring Employee Engagement for a Growth-Oriented Deli Concept

Turning Employee Feedback Into Actionable Employee Engagement Strategies

As hospitality organizations grow, understanding and improving employee engagement becomes increasingly important. Strong employee engagement can support retention, morale, leadership effectiveness, and a more consistent employee experience across locations.

For one growth-oriented deli concept with more than 200 employees across eight locations and multiple states, Empowered Hospitality provided employee engagement consulting to better understand employee sentiment, identify the factors contributing to turnover and low morale, and develop actionable strategies to address those challenges.

EH designed a tailored employee engagement survey and supporting communication tools in both English and Spanish, helping employees across the organization participate and provide meaningful feedback.

The survey achieved 56% employee participation across departments, giving leadership valuable insight into the employee experience.

EH then analyzed the feedback to identify seven primary pain points and recommended six key initiatives designed to address the challenges employees were experiencing, including advance scheduling, leadership training, and career development.

The result was a clearer understanding of employee needs and a practical framework for strengthening engagement, retention, and the overall employee experience.

The Challenge: Improving Employee Engagement and Retention

For a growing hospitality organization, employee engagement can have a significant impact on retention, morale, and the overall employee experience.

With more than 200 employees across eight locations, leadership needed a clearer understanding of what employees were experiencing across different departments and locations.

Rather than relying on assumptions about employee satisfaction, the organization wanted to gather direct feedback from its workforce and identify the issues having the greatest impact on employee engagement.

The organization needed to understand:

• What was contributing to turnover and low morale
• Where employees were experiencing challenges in their day-to-day work
• Whether employee experiences differed across departments
• Which issues were most important to address
• What employee engagement strategies could have the greatest impact
• How leadership could continue supporting improvements over time

The organization needed more than an employee survey. It needed a process for turning employee feedback into practical strategies and ongoing action.

Our Approach: Using Employee Engagement Surveys to Drive Action

Empowered Hospitality developed a tailored employee engagement survey designed around the organization’s workforce and specific areas of concern.

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, EH developed both the survey and supporting communication tools in English and Spanish to help ensure employees across the organization had an accessible way to participate.

Building a Survey Around the Employee Experience

EH worked with the organization to create an engagement survey that would provide leadership with actionable insight into the employee experience.

The survey was distributed across departments and achieved 56% participation, providing the organization with meaningful feedback from its workforce.

The results gave leadership a clearer picture of the challenges employees were experiencing and helped identify where improvements could have the greatest impact on engagement and retention.

Turning Employee Feedback Into Action

The employee engagement survey identified seven primary pain points contributing to turnover and low morale.

EH then translated those findings into six key initiatives designed to address the underlying challenges.

Recommendations included:

• Advance scheduling
• Leadership training
• Career development
• Additional initiatives focused on improving the employee experience

By connecting survey findings to specific recommendations, EH helped the organization move from simply measuring employee engagement to actively addressing the issues affecting it.

Supporting Long-Term Employee Engagement

Because Empowered Hospitality continued to serve as the organization’s ongoing HR partner, the work did not end when the employee engagement survey was completed.

EH continued to monitor and support the recommended initiatives, helping the organization use employee feedback as an ongoing tool for improving engagement, retention, and the employee experience.

This ongoing partnership gave leadership continued support as it worked to implement and evaluate the initiatives identified through the engagement process.

The Result: A Clearer Path to Improving Employee Engagement

Empowered Hospitality helped the organization turn employee feedback into actionable strategies focused on engagement, retention, morale, and workforce development.

56% Employee Participation: Achieved meaningful participation across departments through a tailored employee engagement survey and bilingual communications.

7 Primary Pain Points Identified: Provided leadership with greater visibility into the issues contributing to turnover and low morale.

6 Key Initiatives Recommended: Developed actionable recommendations to address employee concerns, including advance scheduling, leadership training, and career development.

Bilingual Employee Communications: Created survey and communication tools in both English and Spanish to support participation across the workforce.

Actionable Employee Engagement Strategy: Translated employee feedback into practical initiatives focused on improving the employee experience and addressing key workforce challenges.

Ongoing HR Partnership: Continued to monitor and support the recommended initiatives as the organization worked to improve employee engagement and retention.

The Value of Measuring Employee Engagement

Employee engagement surveys are most valuable when they lead to action.

For this organization, the survey provided more than a snapshot of employee sentiment. It gave leadership a clearer understanding of the workforce’s most pressing challenges and created a framework for addressing them.

By identifying seven primary pain points and translating those findings into six targeted initiatives, Empowered Hospitality helped the organization move from measuring employee engagement to actively improving it.

The engagement process also created an opportunity to connect employee feedback with broader HR priorities, including retention, leadership development, scheduling, and career growth.

As an ongoing HR partner, EH was able to continue supporting the organization beyond the initial survey—helping leadership monitor progress and maintain momentum around the initiatives designed to strengthen the employee experience.

At Empowered Hospitality, our employee engagement team helps hospitality organizations understand what their employees need and turn that insight into practical strategies for improving engagement, retention, leadership, and workplace culture. From employee engagement surveys and workforce assessments to leadership development and ongoing HR support, EH helps hospitality businesses build stronger teams and better employee experiences.