Hickory’s Has Been Named Best Employer
Thank you to our team
We are thrilled to have been crowned the ‘Best Pub Employer’ for 2025 at The Publican Awards! 
“We are so proud to have been named Best Employer at The Publican Awards. This award isn’t down to one team or department but to each and every team member who make Hickory’s what it is.” John Welsh, our Hickory's Managing Director.
It was a tough & robust judging process, so that the fact that Hickory's has been named Best Employer is a real honour. The award was based on providing an excellent working environment with comprehensive training & development, strong team motivation & benefits. Along with meaningful career paths & development opportunities for team means so much. 
It's down to all our team...
We have always looked for real people with real personality, not because of fancy CV’s or impressive qualifications. That will never change. Our team is incredible and we are incredibly proud of our Hickory’s family, but equally we want to educate & support our teams and improve our Diversity & Inclusion. It's important to recognise that all our team members are unique, have different needs and have had different experiences. All our management teams are trained on discrimination & all team complete an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training module. There are 55 Certified Wellbeing Champions who drive ‘Authentically You’ (our approach to Diversity & Inclusion) within the restaurants, supported by the People team. Each month our Wellbeing Champions run engagement initiatives aligned to a topic. Such as raising awareness for neurodiversity and celebrating Neurodiversity week.
The Hickory's family...
Everything we do at Hickory's is fuelled by a desire to deliver an exceptional guest experience. It's our team who do this & we are immensely proud of every team member. It's thanks to them that Hickory's has been name Best Employer. They have been hand-picked for their passion & personality, and we love supporting our teams to grow & progress within Hickory's. We like to do things differently and our team development is no exception. Our team have access to all the official accreditations they need to undertake their roles.
It’s our commitment to training & development and our focus on immersing team in the taste, smells and sounds of the Southern States that really set them apart. Looking after our team is every bit as important as looking after our guests too. We have a long list of thank yous including a packed calendar of trips (150+ enjoyed a trip in 2024), both locally & internationally from the Southern States to Southern France, enrichment trips & road trips. Check out our latest road trip here..
Our incredible team...
“We don’t always get it right and we’ll never stop listening, each morning we wake up and try to make it better than the day before, to make Hickory’s a great place to work & a great place to be. It’s an exciting year ahead for us, with new restaurants opening bringing lots of opportunities for progression for team & to welcome new team.” John Welsh
It doesn’t stop here though we will continually strive to be even better as we love our team and love what we do. It's an exciting time to be part of Hickory's. We've got plans to open more smokehouses, new smokin' BBQ & cocktails on our menu, road trips in the calendar and lots of opportunities for team to develop & grow in their roles. If you'd like to be part of Hickory's family check out our current opportunities. We're always looking for incredible people to join the team.
