Background 

Restaurant group Dishoom faced significant challenges as the hospitality sector struggled to recover from the pandemic. With recruitment times exceeding two weeks and nearly 20% of front-of-house roles left vacant in London, employee turnover soared. Before the pandemic one in three new starters left within three months; by mid-2021 this had worsened to one in two within just two months. The need for a solution was urgent as the company scaled from 800 to 1,900 employees to meet soaring demand. Dishoom sought to overhaul its onboarding process to reduce early attrition and ensure that new starters stayed for the right reasons.

Approach 

The response was the Welcome-Walla programme, an innovative onboarding initiative introduced in May 2021 to boost retention by transforming the new-starter experience. The programme embodies the spirit of Seva – Dishoom’s belief that we thrive when sharing wholeheartedly and striving for excellence – by rethinking onboarding with a beginner’s mind and collaborating with 423 team members to create a training process fostering generosity, quality and personal growth.

Piloted at Kings Cross and later expanded across London, each location appointed a dedicated ‘Welcome-Walla’ to mentor new hires, ensuring they had consistent support from day one. The programme offered a blend of digital learning (11%), classroom sessions (22%) and practical on-the-job training (67%), pairing new employees with experienced café experts. This hands-on approach helped starters quickly acclimate to Dishoom’s fast-paced environment.

“The Welcome-Walla programme transformed Dishoom’s onboarding process, drastically reducing turnover and enhancing employee satisfaction”

To personalise the experience new starters received welcome letters from Dishoom’s founder, weekly GM/new-starter breakfasts were introduced and artwork and history tours of the café delivered. Workbooks were created with QR codes linking to compliance and microlearning content. The process even incorporated mindfulness exercises to support mental wellbeing.

Outcomes

The Welcome-Walla programme significantly reduced turnover, slashing new-starter exits from 11% in May 2021 to just 2% by September. Overall employee turnover dropped by 20%, marking Dishoom’s lowest turnover rate in its history. The programme has onboarded 1,475 employees, contributed to 211 internal promotions and led to an 8% boost in feedback scores. In addition, induction times were reduced by 1.5 days on average, resulting in significant savings. Today the Welcome-Walla programme is integral to Dishoom’s operations, ensuring every new team member receives a generous and seamless welcome.