Jitka Fleglova from The Real Food Café shares insight into their mission to build a new sort of workplace.
Introduction
Tourism and hospitality businesses are built on people—their success depends on the quality, dedication, and well-being of their teams.
But how do you attract, recruit, and retain employees in a sector often defined by zero-hours contracts and a poor work-life balance?
At The Real Food Cafe, these are questions we’ve been tackling for nearly 20 years. And trust us when we say, recruiting for a rural business has never been more challenging.
Who are we
The Real Food Cafe is a roadside diner specialising in fish and chips, located in Tyndrum—a remote village in northwest Scotland with a population of just 150 where secondary school children travel 100 miles daily round trip to attend classes. Despite our rural setting, we operate seven days a week, all year round, closing only for Christmas and essential maintenance.
The café first opened its doors in 2005 when our founder and co-owner, Sarah Heward, and her late husband took a leap of faith, purchasing a derelict Little Chef on the A82—a key stop along the West Highland Way long distance walking route. What started as a bold (some might say slightly mad) idea has since flourished into a thriving multi-award-winning business, serving locals, tourists, and weary travellers alike year-round.
Today, we are a growing team of 28, providing accommodation for half of our employees and generating over £2.3 million in annual net turnover.
Why We Became a Living Wage Employer
Operating in a rural and remote part of Scotland presents unique recruitment challenges. Brexit, the outflow of hospitality workers post-Covid, and a lack of affordable local housing have aggravated these challenges even further.
We quickly realised that if we wanted to attract good people, we had to become a competitive employer—and paying the Real Living Wage was an obvious step. Investing in our people isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s a smart business strategy.
We have been an official living wage employer since 2018 and back then, we were one of the first Living Wage employers in Stirlingshire to become one. This is one of the many aspects of our business, we are very proud of not just attaining it, but of maintaining it – ensuring we can continue to afford fair wages for our team.
Paying fair wages is just one part of the true cost of employing people. Many costs are invisible to staff, but as a business, we must account for them. Employer National Insurance contributions, pension contributions, holiday pay, sick pay and training costs all add up.
Recently, the Q4 2024 Members Survey by UKHospitality and leading hospitality trade associations found that “new employment costs and the reduction in rates relief come April could force 70% of hospitality businesses to reduce employment, 29% will reduce trading hours, 15% believe they will have to close at least one site.”
This paints a bleak picture for our sector, and sadly, we’ve already seen local businesses make difficult choices in order to stay afloat.
Becoming the Best Employer
However, we don’t just want to be competitive—we’re on a mission to be the best employer we can be. That means looking beyond paying the Living Wage and creating an environment where people feel valued, supported, and motivated to grow.
Over the years, we’ve developed a set of core principles to guide us and practical tools to make this vision a reality. Our commitment to continuous improvement has been recognised, with The Real Food Café earning a spot on The Caterer’s 30 Best Places to Work in UK Hospitality in both 2023 and 2024. Now, we’re striving for an even higher ranking in 2025.
So, what do we do differently?
We believe that creating good jobs is a choice—employers must invest in them, and employees must see them as opportunities worth committing to. But as an employer, you have to bridge that gap by helping your team recognise the value in what they do.
There are no silver bullets to building a great workplace. It takes time, effort, and a willingness to adapt. The process can be frustrating at times, but persistence is key—don’t give up trying.
The core principles that guide us on our mission:
- Every employee earns at least the real Living Wage, with increased earnings as responsibilities grow. We pay generous performance bonuses. Last year, we shared £24,000 of our profits with the team.
- Lead by Example – We never ask our team to do anything we wouldn’t do ourselves, fostering a culture of respect and fairness.
- Our contracts are considerate and kind
- A well-fed team is a happy team. We provide free meals during shifts.
- We provide great working conditions and welfare facilities including smart and comfortable uniforms.
- Valuable Benefits – Employees receive staff discounts, access to wholesale grocery shopping, the Enjoy Benefits dashboard and an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
- Clear, consistent and open Communication.
- Training & Development – We provide continuous training and support our team in their career journey. We actively encourage our management team to apply for HIT Scotland scholarships and various courses to increase their skill set. We’ve also introduced individual coaching for our team.
BUT following all of the above core principles will all be for nothing IF your culture isn’t right
Every business defines its own culture, and at The Real Food Café, ours is built on Respect, Inclusivity, Authenticity, Trust, Listening, and Openness.
We foster a culture of joint responsibility, where every employee knows they have the opportunity to step up, take ownership, participate, and lead if they choose to. Our role as an employer is to provide those opportunities and support their growth.
But culture isn’t just about big ideas—it’s also in the small details. It’s in the language we use, the way we communicate, and the traditions we uphold, like baking a cake for every employee on their birthday.
How do you implement a great workplace culture?
Creating a strong workplace culture doesn’t happen by chance—it takes intentional effort and the right tools. Here are the six key steps we use to build a winning team:
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- Strong leadership
- Set common goals
- Create Rules of the Game
- Make an action plan
- Support risk taking
- 100% participation and inclusion
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By embedding these principles into our daily operations, we create a positive, engaging, and high-performing workplace—one where people feel valued and motivated to contribute.
Each year, we take part in The Caterer’s Best Places to Work in Hospitality survey—anonymously completed by our employees.
The first question asks participants:
“What makes a best place to work?”
For the past three years, our team’s top five answers have remained remarkably consistent:
- A positive and welcoming work environment
- Being paid accurately and on time
- Feeling valued as individuals
- Respect for work-life balance
- A company that genuinely cares about its people
According to our team, we excel in four out of these five key areas—proof that our approach is working.
But we know that company culture is fragile. It can shift quickly, which is why having dedicated custodians—leaders who actively protect and nurture our culture—is essential.
Conclusion
People are at the heart of tourism and hospitality, and this will remain true even with the rise of artificial intelligence.
To create a great place where people want to work, we need to make sure we pay fairly, create good working conditions, strong training and real opportunities. We need to create a culture where people feel nurtured, valued, respected, supported and encouraged to step up and take responsibility.