Management's discomfort with friendships in the workplace have hit the cutting room floor at Hoyts, where a sense of belonging is being nurtured to boost performance
Old attitudes of discouraging friendships at work have taken a backseat at Australian cinema chain Hoyts, where the company is prioritising its employees’ longing to “belong”.
Staff are increasingly motivated by feelings of belonging and camaraderie, with employee perks playing a less central role, chief people officer at Hoyts Jodi Paton told HRD.
“We moved away from thinking about the tangible things, although that is obviously still part of it, but we really thought about how we want our employees to feel,” she said.
Earlier in her career, Paton said friendships at work were often discouraged and viewed as something that could be difficult to manage.
“(Previously) we almost resisted people having friends at work, and particularly at a cinema,” Paton said.
However, following the pandemic, attitudes have shifted and staff belonging has become increasingly valued.
“If a teenager recommends all their friends to come to work, it's like, no, we actually love that,” Paton said. “We want them to want their friends to work with them and enjoy what they're doing.
“It's a cinema, we want them to have fun. Of course, we want them to do their job, but we also really want them to have that sense of ‘I belong here’,” Paton said.
“We really flipped that on its head in terms of making sure that we're now incentivising people to recommend their friends to work with us.”
Developing an employee value proposition
Paton, who was awarded the People and Culture Award at B&T’s 2025 Women in Media Awards, began at Hoyts 13 years ago, when there was very little framework around the company’s human resources operations.
“We had somebody who did more of the ‘complaints’ side of things, but in terms of culture and leadership, there really was very little structure in place around that,” Paton said.
Working with Hoyts CEO Damian Keogh, Paton said the pair set about developing a “high performance culture and really embedding our values that were a true reflection of the culture that we wanted to cultivate internally”.
“Our values are what we expect of our employees in terms of their everyday behavior and how to show up at work,” Paton said.
“But the EVP is what they can expect from us, from an employer perspective, and that kind of promise to deliver for them.
“We've really stayed with that very same kind of foundation in terms of how we built the culture from the outset, but have evolved it over time in the way that that's being brought to life.”
Surveys reveal staff attachment to values
Hoyts EVP is focused on five key terms - Belonging, Blue Sky, Well-being, Growth and High Fives - and the company has continued to test its connection to staff in recent years through focus groups and surveys.
“We thought our values were getting a bit tired and could do with a bit of a revamp,” Paton said. “But through those focus groups, we actually found they had become so entrenched in our business that changing the words of our values was not supported at all. It would have been a negative impact.”
Instead, Hoyts examined behavioural statements underpinning its EVP, and went about modernising the language to better reflect the current environment.
Additional behavioural expectations have also been added for leaders, which Paton says better articulate the company culture than the previous system, which simply required specific competencies for leaders.
Leadership programs to mentor new talent
Hoyts has also developed a bespoke employee mentoring program, the Emerging Leaders Program, which had attracted two-thirds female participants, and seen staff climb the company ladder.
“Out of that program we saw 11 internal promotions over a six-month period,” Paton said. “That was really positive to be able to see that, and quite rewarding in terms of developing talent that go on to lead.”
New mothers are also being supported to return to work through a partnership with 34Sevn, which provides coaching ahead of return to work, and throughout their first months back in their roles.
“That really helps in terms of confidence and resetting their new routine, and figuring out that identity between becoming a new mum and professional life,” Paton said.
“My kids are older teenagers now. It was definitely a different time when I was returning from parental leave, when there was very little support in place for women.
“It was almost that you didn't talk about your kids when you first came back to work, because you didn't want that to be seen as a limitation.
“Now we really embrace that. We really want to be supportive.”
