The Challenge: Keeping Great People in a Tough Market
F1 Arcade is one of the UK’s most exciting competitive socialising venues, combining world-class Formula One simulators with expertly crafted food and cocktails. With two UK sites in London and Birmingham — and a rapidly growing US presence — F1 Arcade employs over 160 team members across its UK venues alone. Delivering an exceptional guest experience is at the heart of everything they do, which makes ensuring their teams are rewarded fairly, transparently and consistently an absolute priority.
The Challenge: A Clunky Process with No Clear View
Before partnering with Grateful, F1 Arcade’s tronc process was time-consuming, opaque and a persistent source of frustration — for payroll, for managers and for venue teams on the ground.
Annie, UK Payroll & Global People Co‑Ordinator at F1 Arcade, describes the situation candidly:
“There was nothing streamlined about it. It took up a considerable amount of time during my payroll process. The team didn’t understand it, they didn’t understand why they got paid a certain amount of tips and their colleague got a different amount. There was a lot of confusion, a lot of admin, a lot of paperwork.”
Beyond the operational burden, the process created a deeper problem: a lack of trust. Team members couldn’t clearly see where their tips were going, how allocations were calculated, or who was responsible for those decisions. For a hospitality business where frontline teams are — in Annie’s own words — “the heart of the business,” that lack of transparency was unacceptable.
Managers were equally affected. Instead of being present on the floor supporting their teams, they were tied to spreadsheets trying to make sense of a system nobody fully understood.
“I was pulled away from being a point of support for them. I wasn’t able to answer questions as quickly because I was doing such a long admin process — and the managers didn’t understand it either.”
F1 Arcade also had clear values around fairness they wanted their tronc setup to reflect — including ensuring their teams received tronc during holiday, maternity and paternity leave.
Why Grateful: A Different Kind of Conversation
When evaluating alternatives, F1 Arcade spoke to several tronc providers. What set Grateful apart wasn’t just the product — it was the approach.
Even before F1 Arcade had committed to anything, Grateful’s team was already providing substantive, practical advice on tronc rules and structure. There were no hard closes, no evasive answers, and no condescension when Annie raised complex or sensitive questions.
“We still received incredible advice regarding the tronc rules and we were still getting supported even though we hadn’t said we were coming with Grateful. It was an open conversation — we could ask as many questions and not be found annoying.”
By contrast, some other providers had pushed back on the fairness-driven tronc rules F1 Arcade wanted to implement, and failed to give complete answers to legitimate questions. The difference with Grateful was immediate and clear: collaborative rather than prescriptive, expert but never dismissive.
Onboarding: Turning a Crisis Into Confidence
The transition to Grateful didn’t begin without a bump — but how that bump was handled says everything about the partnership.
Annie inadvertently gave notice to F1 Arcade’s previous provider two months too early, leaving the business without a tronc provider just weeks out. It could have been a disaster.
“I was having a full-blown meltdown. Katie and the team were so comforting —We had some unforeseen complications in the onboarding and they managed to turn it around in the shortest time. They handled it with such grace”
Once the onboarding was complete, Annie kept waiting for the process to feel complicated. It didn’t.
“I kept feeling like I had forgotten something because it was so easy. I’d usually have 15 emails back and forth — constant checking, chasing, pushing deadlines. With Grateful, I sent a quick email, got a reply quickly, and it was done. For the first time during payroll, I was able to get other elements of my role done on the same day.”
The Transformation: Transparency, Trust and Time Back
Transformation
The impact on Annie’s working life has been significant. Payroll, once a multi-day source of dread that required an out-of-office and the suspension of all other work, is now a process she handles with confidence.
“I don’t dread it anymore. It takes me less than 30 mins to deal with the tronc part of payroll, then I don’t look back. I’m very confident in the team that things are getting picked up and actioned correctly. It has truly changed my payroll process.”
For Venue Teams
F1 Arcade’s teams now have genuine visibility into their tips — how they’re calculated, what they can expect, and who to go to with questions. Grateful went further than just providing a platform: their team came into F1 Arcade’s venues in person, spending whole afternoons with venue staff, answering questions openly and directly.
“A lot of people felt really comfortable just asking, being quite brutally honest — things they may not necessarily ask someone internally. They could sit with the Grateful team, go through as much as they needed and really get the answers they were looking for.”
The result has been a meaningful reduction in queries reaching payroll and management, and a genuine shift in how tips and tronc are perceived across the business.
“The idea of tips and tronc is a lot less scary now. It can be openly talked about because it’s not a difficult thing to understand. It’s not as complicated to explain.”
For Retention and Motivation
Transparency has also had a tangible impact on team engagement. With a clear, visible point-based allocation system, team members now understand how their seniority and role progression directly affects their earnings. That connection between performance, tenure and reward has become a live motivator — with team members proactively tracking their progression and factoring it into their career decisions.
“They’ll be talking about their upcoming milestones and what that means for their tips. I do think that helps with motivation and retention — it’s visible, it makes sense, it’s black and white.”
The Result: A Partnership Built on Trust
For Annie and F1 Arcade, the value of Grateful comes down to something simple but rare in payroll: complete trust.
The platform delivers clarity. The team delivers support. And together, they’ve freed up the time, energy and confidence for F1 Arcade’s people team to focus on what really matters — their venue teams.
Annie has already recommended Grateful to other hospitality operators who have reached out to her directly. It’s the kind of advocacy that can’t be manufactured.
“It’s very difficult to find a team that you really trust in payroll. I would always recommend Grateful — and have done.”
