Sona and Pineapple present: Hospitality People Insights Report H1/2026
Hospitality's turnover crisis is easing, but one leadership number still decides who wins
New industry-wide analysis from Pineapple, in partnership with Sona, shows the sector pulling out of crisis mode: 12-month rolling turnover, eNPS and management vacancies have all moved in the right direction year on year. But dig into the data, and one factor still separates the brands pulling ahead from the ones standing still: how long you keep your General Manager and Head Chef in place.
The 2026 H1 Insight Report tracks Q1 and Q2 2026 performance against the same period last year, and isolates what Pineapple calls the "anchor effect": the compounding impact stable leadership has on team turnover, internal promotion and even customer satisfaction.
Discover:
- Why sustaining GM turnover below 50% cuts overall team turnover to 52.4%, compared to 81.5% at chronically churning brands, and why hiring a replacement doesn't undo the damage overnight
- How paying GMs into the top pay quartile (£65k+) brings annual GM turnover down to 18.2%, versus 34.7% for brands paying under £48k, plus the ROI math that makes the case to finance
- Why survey participation rate, not the eNPS score itself, is the stronger early warning sign for turnover, and the 75% completion threshold worth watching
- The first look at how team stability affects customer ratings: kitchen retention, not front of house, is what separates a good Google score from an exceptional one
Plus the headline year-on-year shift: rolling turnover down 3.39 percentage points to 63.34%, eNPS up 13.75 points to +63.83, and management vacancies down to 10.55%.
📊 Download the free report today and get the data every People and Operations leader needs to protect their leadership pipeline, prove the ROI of retention, and build stronger teams for H2.