Gather & Gather UK is officially a Great Place to Work! The workplace caterer has been awarded Great Place to Work Certification, an accolade based entirely on feedback about the Gather & Gather workplace experience from the people who know it best – its employees.

The Great Place to Work Certification recognises employers dedicated to creating a consistent, outstanding employee experience. It signals that a business has created a company culture that its people love, and a work environment that fosters trust, fairness, respect and camaraderie.

Clare Bacchus, Managing Director for Gather & Gather, said: “We’re thrilled to have achieved the Great Place to Work Certification. It’s a fantastic endorsement of our culture and people initiatives – but most importantly it celebrates our brilliant people and tells us that Gather & Gather has created a culture that they love to be a part of.

“Engagement with our people has always been important to our business. We regularly ask them how they are feeling about a wide range of topics, from benefits and wellbeing to learning and development, and use their feedback to inspire positive action. It really is a two-way conversation, and every single team member has played a part in creating our Great Place to Work culture. A big thank you to everyone! I can’t wait to see the celebrations of our on-site and office teams as we share in our success together.

Dorya Djebbar, Head of People Operations for Gather & Gather, added: “This isn’t the end of our culture journey by any means. We value the feedback we get from our people, and we will continue to listen and understand what they are telling us, and proactively respond to ensure our culture evolves and continues to have a positive impact on everyone.”

Gather & Gather’s commitment to creating a great workplace culture reflects the value it places on its people, as well as its objective to attract and retain the best talent and positively promote hospitality careers. It understands the importance of supporting people at every stage of their employee journey and in achieving a good work/life balance. It does this, for example, through enhanced family friendly policies, wellbeing programmes, and boosted benefits, including additional paid holiday days for birthdays and long service and end-of-year gifts.

Training and learning and development opportunities are also pivotal to Gather & Gather’s culture. Its teams benefit from the Gather & Grow roadshow, launched as a direct result of feedback, that travels the UK to promote development opportunities from apprenticeships to learning programmes, and celebrates team successes in this area. Competitions such as Chef of the Year and Barista of the Year also encourage team members to build their skills and push the boundaries of their creativity and flair.

Teams across Gather & Gather UK will celebrate their Great Place to Work success with gifts and events throughout the coming weeks.

The Great Place to Work certification process includes a benchmark study in the form of an employee survey (the Trust Index), as well as a culture audit. This provides an in-depth analysis of the employee experience, with organisations with an overall Trust Index score of 65% or higher becoming Great Place to Work certified. Gather & Gather is proud to have achieved a score of 71%.

Importantly, the certification process provides valuable information about the current state of the workplace culture, enabling business leaders to understand the feedback from its people and positively develop the culture further.