Caravan’s Rising Star takes culture ‘from good to great’

Caravan Restaurants CEO Laura Harper-Hinton says people culture has always been a priority for her business, ever since she helped found it in 2010. However, she’s also the first to admit that her people & culture director, Fernanda Antonio, helped take it “from good to great.”

Antonio came on board nearly two years ago, at a time when the brand was just coming out of the pandemic. Previously, she helped drive culture and talent development for Megan’s, Wahaca, and Wagamama, with over 15 years of experience in the people function and nearly 20 in the hospitality industry.

In her current role at Caravan, she looks after both the restaurant and coffee teams and has been instrumental in implementing the business’s “all welcome” vision, promoting an inclusive culture, and recruiting and developing top quality, diverse talent.

“We decided, as a business, to take the opportunity to make improvements,” Harper-Hinton tells MCA. “One of the things that needed improvement was to drive more consistency into our people function.

“We already had a great culture, but Fernanda has reached well beyond in driving an even more positive culture. It’s easy to talk about flying people to Ibiza, but one of the most effective things you can do is work on the basics.”

As Harper-Hinton emphasises, Antonio’s achievements lie in going above and beyond to cement the foundations of being a Caravan employee.

“Now we have a super clear, easy baseline structure,” Harper-Hinton continues. “Everybody has a development plan in place, clear KPIs, clear job descriptions, and clear goals for each department and function.

“Two years ago, it was much more loose.”

This comes down to the granular detail, more than a “ray of sunshine perspective,” although this was important to Caravan.

“You can be a functional HR lead…but we wanted someone positive, a genuine open-door person.

“She’s also very professional. We can be confident things will be handled with consistency.”

As part of the board, Antonio also crosses functions and gets involved in decision-making across areas of the business. She’s measured and informed in her opinions, while being practical about problem-solving.

“She’s a valued senior player at Caravan,” Harper-Hinton says. “I’m the type that likes to make quick decisions, but I can only do that if I’ve got the right information in front of me. She’s very intuitive with that, so we’ve got a better decision-making structure with her.”

One of Antonio’s achievements was implementing Workspace as a collaboration tool three months after she started at Caravan – something the business had been wanting to do for a long time.

“How did we approach the challenge that is people in hospitality at the moment?”

This, according to Harper-Hinton, was the key question when Antonio joined the team in 2022.

“It was a practical but creative solution, and she was methodical in how she approached it. It’s not just about throwing money at everyone and trying to rob people’s staff – we had to be the best in class.”

During a time of acute staffing shortages, Caravan managed to bring back former employees who may have gone elsewhere, she adds.

“People who might have gone to work for £1.50 more elsewhere came back to Caravan, because we have a better culture.”

The consensus on Antonio is positive across the board – her communication is clear, but also “incredibly positive” – and the engagement on the Workspace announcement of her promotion is “just amazing,” according to Harper-Hinton.

“I can’t speak highly enough of her. Fernanda has been absolutely instrumental in taking us from good to great in all people areas of our business.”