What makes Hilton the best workplace in hospitality?

Great Place To Work and Fortune named Hilton the #1 hospitality employer in the World’s Best Workplace rankings for 2024. It is the eighth consecutive year the hospitality company earns this top spot globally. On the Dutch list of best employers, Hilton ranks #1 in the ‘large business’ category. So, what’s the secret behind this continued success? Food Inspiration asked Erwin Verhoog, Vice President of Operations, and Fausto Ciarcia, Director of Human Resources.  

A clear global vision

“We are a global company with a very well-known vision, mission, and focus for our teams,” explains Verhoog. “Our CEO, Christopher Nassetta, has made it clear that we are here to continue the journey that Conrad Hilton started over 100 years ago. He was passionate about hospitality as a force for good and believed in the importance of a common vision. That’s why he made it our company’s purpose to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality. And we continue to live by this vision around the world.”

Cascading a global strategy to the local level

So how does Hilton ensure this culture is felt across countries and cultural contexts? “It is important to understand how we structure our teams. That explains how we successfully roll out our HR strategies across different regions and activate programs that resonate locally,” Verhoog explains.

Hilton operates in three geographical areas: the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. These are further divided into subregions. In EMEA, for instance, there’s the UK & Ireland, Continental Europe, and the Middle East & Africa. Continental Europe is split, generally speaking, into the Mediterranean, West, and East. Verhoog: “In each subregion we operate through Area General Managers. This allows us to cascade global HR policies and branding messages down to the teams in the various countries and hotels.”

"We assign promising team members to lead projects that help bring our strategic focus to life, locally.”

More importantly, it’s a two-way street. “Earlier this year, Fausto and I attended the kickoff meeting for the Netherlands and Belgium. We gathered with around 60 Head of Departments to align on our strategic focus, which we translate into three key promises: the team member promise, the customer promise, and the community promise. We discussed how to operationalize our global values locally and explored what is needed to strengthen them specifically in the Benelux.”

Weekly calls with Area General Managers and their General Managers keep the focus sharp: What did we do this week? What’s next? How are we progressing on our promises? That keeps the agenda alive.

"Our culture of feedback sets us apart from our competition"

Empowering through responsibility

A unique part of Hilton’s culture is the use of ‘champions,’ team members who are assigned to lead specific projects. “We might give a promising Head of Department a project, along with time and a budget to work on it. It gives them a chance to shine, grow, and build a strong network. These champions make sure that initiatives are locally relevant, since they determine what steps make sense in their area. This shared responsibility drives real progress.”

Some recent examples: 

• Amsterdam (The Netherlands): The HR Manager at DoubleTree Centraal Station was asked to partner up with local Dutch organizations to create employment opportunities for people who are distanced from the labor market.

• Soestduinen (The Netherlands): A Front Office Manager spearheaded a project to improve the use of and engagement with Kipsu, a guest messaging tool, collecting best practices in various hotels to roll out across other regions.

A strategy of growth, inclusion, and well-being

As HR Director for Continental Europe, Ciarcia supports the local implementation of Hilton’s global strategy. “My career started with an internship at Hilton 25 years ago. Now, I’m shaping the HR strategy for an entire region. That’s what growth looks like at Hilton.”

“At Hilton, our people are the heart of everything we do. Our culture is our single most important asset. In order to build a strong and consistent brand, it’s important to have a common HR strategy that we put in place consistently all around the world. Hilton’s HR strategy focuses on three main pillars: growth, inclusion, and well-being - to ensure every team member thrives professionally and personally.” 

Pillar 1: Growth

“We offer leadership programs, mentorship, cross-functional learning, and an online Hilton University,” says Ciarcia. One standout initiative is the Team Member Exchange Program, launched post-COVID in 2023. Through experience-based learning, over 600 team members have already participated, with another 600 expected to join in 2025. For two weeks, participants work at another Hilton hotel in the EMEA region, learning and growing outside their comfort zones. That’s one of the perks of working for an international company like Hilton. We are a global market leader present in 140 countries. That opens countless opportunities for our team.”

Pillar 2: Inclusion 

Hilton is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. “We aim to create a workplace where everyone feels needed, valued, and supported,” Ciarcia says. Flexibility is key – offering varying working styles, hours, and shifts to match both hotel operations and personal needs.

Pillar 3: Well-being

“Hospitality is a 24/7 business, so supporting work-life balance for our team members is essential,” says Ciarcia. This is especially important for younger generations, who prioritize well-being in job selection. Hilton supports this through: 

• The Hilton Care for All app  – launched in 2021, this app provides resources that guide and support team members and their loved ones, through all the stages of their life. With resources for childcare, eldercare, mental health, and more.

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) – a free, confidential support service that team members can consult for help with personal or work related issues that might impact their job performance, their physical or mental health, or emotional well-being.

A culture of feedback

Verhoog: “I've worked for different companies over the 40 years of my career, and I think this culture of feedback is something that sets us apart from our competition. Every year, we conduct an internal survey – but we don’t stop there. We discuss the results with the teams and then act on them through our ‘You said, We did’ campaign.” 

“Each quarter, we organize an open online Team Member Forum, where we inform how our employee feedback is shaping our decisions. This culture of continuous feedback means listening to our team members, showing them that we value their opinion and involving them in solutions.”

Recognition as a motivator

“Recognition has incredible motivational power,” says Ciarcia. “A simple note or compliment can be incredibly powerful. Recognition is super important in the engagement of our team members.”

Hilton supports this with: 

• Annual Hospitality Heroes awards – These awards are given to team members who embody Hilton’s vision of spreading the light and warmth of hospitality. The winners are recognized for their contributions to improving the experiences of guests, colleagues and communities.

• Thrive Sabbatical award – With this award Hilton provides an opportunity for team members to fulfil a dream of taking care of others. They only have to fill out a form and share their dream. For those elected, they receive one month of paid time off and an amount of money to realize their dream.

Growing from within

The competition for talent in hospitality is fierce, according to Verhoog. “What sets us apart is our internal talent pool and our approach to talent development. Hilton offers numerous development programs, such as Elevator, which places young talent on a fast-track program with two nine-month placements across continents. Other programs support finance, commercial roles, or underrepresented groups like women re-entering the workforce.”

“We have an active approach to succession planning within our hotels. We don't just identify the talents who wish to grow within the hotel or within the organization, we share that information at the hotel, regional and international level, so that those high potentials are known within the company.”

"Experience is welcome, but curiosity and a growth mindset are key"

Even alumni stay part of Hilton’s ecosystem. “Everyone that has once worked in Hilton can be part of our alumni network. Very often we prove to be the growing pond for team members to go explore their talents somewhere else for a while. But the great thing is that very often they come back, because they know the culture, feel valued, and see chances for growth.”

Hiring for potential

Hilton seeks to attract a variety of people from the labor market. Ciarcia: “We hire many different profiles, from seasoned professionals to newcomers in hospitality. Accordingly, our strategies to attract new team members are very diverse. Fundamental to our recruitment strategy is that we prioritize hiring for potential and attitude. We seek out empathy, emotional intelligence, flexibility, resilience and a guest-centric mindset. Experience is welcome, but curiosity and a growth mindset are key.

Gen Z loves Travel with purpose 

“In order to stay attractive to the younger generation of workers, Hilton has to develop innovative strategies to attract and retain talent. Our strategy is to grow our business, so to secure our relevance for our future workforce we have to be aligned with the new needs from Generation Z.”

An important theme in this regard is sustainability. Hilton’s ESG strategy, Travel with Purpose, resonates strongly with Gen Z. It focuses on creating environmental and social impact - from waste reduction to community management. Team members, particularly Gen Z, love this. “They continue to enrich the ESG agenda with new ideas and meaningful activities.”