Back of House: People-First HR in High-Turnover Hospitality

In most industries, culture lives in your annual engagement survey. In hospitality, it walks out to the dining room every single night. It shows up in how your server handles a difficult table, in the energy at the host stand, and in whether your team feels taken care of or just managed.

Donna Giarratana, Director of Human Resources at Baldi Management Group and founder of MoxeeHR, LLC, has built people-first HR systems across some of the country's most demanding hospitality environments, including the three-Michelin-star Inn at Little Washington and the José Andrés Group.

In this episode, she shares what actually moves the needle:

• Why the parallel between how guests want to feel and how employees want to feel is a management strategy, not a metaphor
• How to build attendance policies that are fair, equitable, documentable, and still genuinely human
• What engagement actually looks like across very different worker populations, from career hospitality professionals to first-job team members

Timestamps

[00:01:03] Donna's origin story: from hostess to HR leader in hospitality

[00:01:24] Why culture shows up differently in hospitality than in knowledge work environments

[00:01:53] The parallel between what guests and employees both want: to feel seen, acknowledged, and cared for

[00:03:41] Debunking myths about leading restaurant teams across multiple generations

[00:06:05] What "pouring into your people" actually looks like in daily restaurant operations

[00:08:10] Building attendance policies that balance compliance requirements with human compassion

[00:12:41] How to develop managers on the spot when desk-based training isn't realistic

[00:15:57] Early burnout signals to watch before turnover becomes a problem, including the "clopen" pattern

[00:19:11] How engagement needs differ significantly between lifers and newer team members

[00:22:11] Donna's single takeaway for every hospitality leader today

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Keywords: hospitality HR, high-turnover workforce, people-first culture, restaurant management, attendance policy, progressive discipline, manager development, employee engagement, generational workforce, lifers, onboarding, retention, burnout prevention, clopens, EAP resources, compliance, workforce planning, cultural transformation