Located in Palm Beach, Florida, The Breakers is a historic, family-owned luxury resort that was founded in 1896, making it one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in the state.
With more than 2,400 team members in an industry known for high turnover and low employee engagement, The Breakers has managed to create a culture of care and well-being, with 93% of employees saying it’s a great place to work.
The company has been named one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® three years in a row, as well as a Fortune Best Workplaces for Parents™ and Fortune Best Workplaces for Millennials™ in 2023.
Key Outcomes
Why The Breakers partnered with Great Place To Work
As part of its mission to foster a culture of care and well-being, The Breakers recognized that truly understanding its team begins with listening. After several years of conducting surveys through another provider, leadership saw the opportunity to elevate their approach by adopting deeper analytic and benchmarking tools.
Challenge
Sustaining a strong employee experience in a dynamic industry
In an industry known for low engagement and high turnover, The Breakers has consistently defied the odds by cultivating a strong people-first culture. A key part of that success is leadership’s commitment to listening — especially through ongoing employee feedback provided via the Trust Index Survey.
While The Breakers has excelled in most areas within the Trust Index Survey, comments revealed early on that there were compensation inconsistencies related to pay structure, specifically paid time off. Over time, the policies had fallen behind for a small segment of the employee population in terms of vacation time and time spent on community service.
The results prompted leadership to take immediate action and address this challenge, knowing a substantial financial investment would be required — something many organizations might hesitate to approve, especially when overall employee sentiment remains high.
Solution
Data, insights and action
At The Breakers, employee surveys aren’t a one-time initiative — they’re part of an ongoing cycle of listening, learning, and executing. The Trust Index Survey provides clear, actionable data for leadership, while also serving as a communication bridge between the C-suite and the team.
Executives have leveraged open-ended survey comments to uncover opportunities, while customizable statements allow The Breakers to assess broader dimensions of employee well-being through tailored questions.
After each survey, the employee opinion survey (EOS) insights analytics team — comprising business analysts, the CHRO, and the CFO — conducts a deep dive into the data to identify progress and pinpoint opportunities. Managers then get access to review their team’s results and develop plans using a stop-start-continue method. These strategies are submitted for review to ensure holistic alignment.
To further emphasize and reinforce that employee voices drive change, The Breakers uses an “EOS stamp” on any initiative born from team feedback — clearly signaling to staff that their input matters.
The impact of these changes is evaluated through subsequent surveys, creating a continuous loop of feedback and improvement.
Outcome
C-suite buy-in for employee experience
Securing executive support and financial investment for employee experience initiatives is often one of HR’s biggest challenges.
In contrast, The Breakers benefits from strong alignment — fueled by clear insights from the Trust Index Survey and a close, ongoing partnership between HR and finance.
Through the continuous feedback loop, the CFO and CHRO regularly review employee comments — whether they highlight a missing benefit or raise concerns about compensation — and jointly prioritize actions based on both impact and cost.
This collaborative, data-driven approach has led to meaningful, organization-wide improvements that reflect what matters most to the team.
A decade of progress: Elevating pay through employee feedback
One of the most transformative outcomes of The Breakers’ long-term commitment to employee experience has been compensation.
Following their 2013 Trust Index Survey results, which revealed inconsistencies related to pay structure, specifically paid time off, the company launched a living wage program. Ten years later, in 2023, that commitment paid off — literally — with the average hourly wage rising to nearly triple the federal minimum and 67% above Florida’s state rate.
For teams aiming to secure C-suite support, the key is to start with the outcome and work backward. When you frame your case in terms that executives better understand — data, benchmarks, and business impact — you speak their language. This approach not only builds credibility, but it also strengthens the case for meaningful investment in employee experience.
Make well-being part of your culture
At The Breakers, employee wellness isn’t treated as a standalone program — it's woven into the fabric of the company culture. This holistic approach goes beyond physical health to include mental, spiritual, and financial well-being.
This mindset has helped prioritize pay equity and introduce benefits such as retirement planning, financial counseling, student loan assistance and legal guidance.
The power of perseverance
When juggling a full to-do list, making the case for C-suite support can feel overwhelming. But The Breakers proves that persistence pays off — especially in a competitive industry like hospitality, where standing out as an employer of choice is essential.
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