Hyatt Hotels aims to offer top-notch services to guests at its Central Florida locations and to make sure its more than 1,400 employees feel cared for, too.

The effort to keep employees happy and thriving in their workplace earned Hyatt Hotels the distinction of being the Orlando Sentinel’s 2024 Top Workplaces in Central Florida in the large business category for the second year in a row.

“Hyatt’s purpose is to care for people so that they can be their best,” said Lauren Vogel, an assistant director of human resources. “Our purpose is always going to be at the forefront of our mind, with every conversation we have. Whether it’s with a colleague or a guest, any decision that we make and any time we encounter a colleague, we want to make sure that we have that purpose in our minds.”

To keep employees happy and engaged, Vogel said Hyatt provides numerous opportunities for colleagues to connect, such as bringing in food trucks on Fridays.

There are also several opportunities for employees to be recognized by the company, with each area Hyatt holding its own annual awards banquet.

At the Hyatt Grand Cypress, a star-of-the-month program allows department heads to regularly give special recognition to employees.

“It’s really cool because you get to go and celebrate them when they get an extra $100 on their paycheck,” she said. “They get to be invited to a reception that we hold once a quarter where we get to celebrate them more, they get to bring a guest, and their manager gets up and recognizes them with really nice words.”

Hyatt Hotels also give back to the Central Florida community through a volunteer program called World of Care.

Hyatt employees, for example, volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank, do community cleanup around International Drive, participate in school supply drives and donate blood.

With a focus on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, Hyatt Hotels also holds Diversity Business Resource Groups, or DBRGs, for employees of various social and cultural groups to connect with one another.

“They can be formal or informal meetings for colleagues who share a common cultural heritage based on their race, their gender, their age or their interests,” Vogel said. “Employees benefit from these DBRGs by doing business networking, they can mentor one another, they can mentor others within the community and then have an opportunity to develop themselves professionally.”

Hundreds of Hyatt employees in Central Florida have been with the company two decades or longer, she added, a sign that it is a desirable work place.

“I know just about every person in the hotel by their name and everybody’s always asking about how your family is, with colleagues always stopping by to talk to me,” she said. “Hyatt is not just a job. It’s my journey, it’s my career. And it’s because of who the people are that work here that make it such a great company to work for.”