About the Organisation
Rosa’s Thai is one of the UK’s fastest-growing Thai restaurant groups, with 46 sites, 850 team members, and three more openings on the way for 2026. Many of its chefs are Thai nationals, bringing craft and culture to every kitchen. For People Director Gillian Lambden, giving that workforce genuine clarity on how tronc works was never an administrative nicety. It was a retention strategy.
From implementation of Grateful, coupled with the hard work from the management, and People Team across all areas of the business, Rosa’s has pulled 12-month rolling staff turnover down by 12 points, sitting well ahead of the most recent industry benchmark of around 70%.
The Challenge: Tronc Transparency Lost in Translation
When Gillian joined Rosa’s six and a half years ago, tronc had just been moved from an in-house process to an external troncmaster. The provider was professional, and they helped Rosa’s navigate the run-up to the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023. But one issue kept surfacing, year after year.
“One of the limitations of our previous provider was communication. It was over complicated and manual. When sending out letters to our teams, and when English is not your first language, that can be quite difficult to break down and decipher and understand how your tronc works.”
For a workforce with many native Thai speakers, monthly tronc letters were not cutting through. Team members knew what had landed in their pay packet only when the pay slip arrived. They did not understand how it had been calculated, how it had been shared, or what they could do to influence it. Rather than being a part of the tronc scheme, the tronc scheme was something that happened to them, and that needed to change.
“Tronc is an incredibly sensitive and important topic for all of our team members. They never really quite felt like they understood how it (tronc) worked, how it was divided. They only ever really knew when the pay slip came out how much they were getting. So there was really no transparency or engagement throughout the period until switching to Grateful.”
Rosa’s annual engagement survey confirmed what Gillian already suspected. Tronc clarity was one of the loudest themes in the feedback, sitting in the top three concerns raised by the business’s own people.
Why Rosa’s Thai Chose Grateful: A Real Partner.
Rosa’s is a values-led business, and the selection process reflected that. Gillian evaluated several providers before landing on Grateful.
“The people who worked for Grateful were a partner and very supportive. Not at all pushy. I did not want to be railroaded into a decision, and I did feel like that with certain other providers, which really put me off.”
Whilst one of the deciding factors was the feature lists, it was more about fit. Rosa’s wanted a tronc management partner that shared its values and would treat the rollout as a joint project rather than a sales win. A business that had market leading technology, underpinned by the right people behind the business to provide sound advice, and knew the legislation inside-out.
“It was partnership, and a willingness to work together. We’re a very values-driven business, and that’s how we like to work with others, people who are values-driven at the same time.”
Onboarding Rosa’s Thai: Weekly Check-ins and a Road Show
Gillian is candid about the onboarding timeline. It took longer than she would have liked, and most of the friction sat on the Rosa’s side, with legacy internal systems that needed manual attention at almost every step.
“We had weekly check-ins. Grateful were very supportive on taking us through that journey, and making sure we didn’t get frustrated by the delay. We understood at each step what was coming next.”
Before the platform went live, Gillian took the new tronc scheme on the road, meeting teams across the estate in person and walking them through what was coming. Grateful’s team worked behind the scenes throughout, shaping launch comms, keeping Rosa’s on the right side of its legal obligations, and making sure the app went live with the context team members needed.
“Behind the app, the Grateful team have been really, really helpful with helping to launch it in the right way, to communicate it, and also making sure that we are kept honest, guiding us with advice.”
The Results: Staff Retention That Outperforms the Industry
The shift Rosa’s set out to deliver has landed. Every team member can now open the Grateful app, see how the point system works, and watch their tronc pot build in real time. The monthly mystery has been replaced by clarity. Now the teams are actively engaging in the tronc scheme and understand how they can contribute to a higher tronc pot, and increase their own earnings.
The retention data tells the rest of the story.
~15 percentage points of improvement on the previous 12-month period, around 22 percentage points below the latest industry benchmark of ~70%.
Gillian is clear that tronc is one lever among several behind that improvement. Rosa’s has worked hard across the top themes surfaced by its engagement survey. But tronc was one of the loudest, and closing that gap has removed a long-standing source of frustration for a workforce the business depends on.
“We’re way ahead of industry standard on retention, and it continues to improve every month.”
There is a commercial upside Gillian did not expect.
“A positive side effect is that the new tronc partnership with Grateful helps drive sales as well, when people can see it live, they can see their earnings live.”
When team members can see the impact of a well-sold dessert or a thoughtful upsell on their own pot in real time, tronc stops being a back-office reveal and starts behaving like a live performance signal on the shift floor.
The Verdict
Asked if she would recommend Grateful to another hospitality operator, Gillian does not hesitate.
“Absolutely, yes. The advice that you give is second to none. The support behind the scenes has been excellent, and our teams have got what they’ve asked for, which is more transparency and more clarity on how tronc works.”
What This Means for Hospitality Operators: Tronc as a Retention Lever
Rosa’s Thai shows what is possible when tronc stops being treated as a monthly payroll task and starts being used as a tool for trust, clarity, and retention.
Transparency builds trust, especially across language barriers. A live, in-app view of how tronc is calculated reaches team members that traditional written communications miss.
Surveys are your early warning system. If tronc is in your top three concerns, the fix is operational as much as legal. The Tips Act is the floor, not the ceiling.
Fair reward drives performance on the shift floor. Live visibility of tronc turns service moments into a performance loop, not just a pay slip line.
Partnerships above all. The right tronc management partner shapes launch comms, coaches on legal compliance, and supports the operator through the change, not just the go-live.
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 made fair, transparent tipping a legal baseline. Rosa’s Thai used it as a starting line, and the retention numbers show what happens when operators go further.
