Justine Murphy: ‘Looking after your people isn’t separate from excellence - it’s part of it’

After almost 30 years in hospitality, Justine Murphy has launched VERiFAIR, an independent standard designed to recognise responsible hospitality employers and create a visible benchmark for workplace accountability.

Traditionally, hospitality has had standards for what happens on the plate. Restaurants have been recognised for food, service, design, wine, sustainability and guest experience.

But according to Justine, founder of VERiFAIR (a play on words of verified and fairness), the sector has lacked one major measure of excellence - what happens behind the scenes.

Businesses are awarded the VERiFAIR Standard after completing a verification process covering workplace policies, implementation, maintenance and ongoing accountability.

Justine said: “For decades, we’ve had lots of standards recognising food and service and restaurants, but we’ve never actually had an independent standard recognising the workplace behind the scenes.

“That’s where VERiFAIR fills that gap. It’s about making workplace accountability visible and giving businesses an independent standard that they can actually be proud to achieve.

“It’s one that is recognised by job seekers, employees, customers, the trade, the media, everyone. When they see that logo for VERiFAIR, they instantly recognise it.”

Why VERiFAIR was created

Justine said hospitality had historically focused on the guest experience, but argued that great hospitality started with the way staff were treated.

She said: “VERiFAIR recognises that exceptional hospitality starts with exceptional workplaces.

“Responsible employment deserves the same recognition as great food and great service, because great teams build great hospitality businesses.”

For Justine, the idea was rooted in experience.

She first entered hospitality aged 14, working in a bar in Newquay, before going on to work in restaurant management in London and internationally as a private chef.

She later settled in Mallorca, where she ran a catering company, deli and cookery school, before returning to the UK after the pandemic.

Justine went on to build mymuybueno, a private chef agency specialising in permanent placements in private residences and on superyachts, as well as an online academy bringing together leading Michelin-starred chefs.

She has since launched Justine Murphy Talent Management, representing Michelin-starred and emerging culinary talent across the UK.

“For me, this is the culmination of almost 30 years in the industry,” Justine said.

“That breadth of experience has given me a really unique perspective behind the scenes.

“We’ve celebrated great chefs and restaurants for so many years, but we’ve just never had an independent standard recognising responsible employment.”

The moment that pushed her to act came after she spoke on a CODE Hospitality panel about equality, after being invited by Adam Hyman.

Justine said: “Someone said to me, ‘that was great, but I’ve been to so many of these panels and nothing ever changes’.

“That really sat with me. It got under my skin and I went home and I just couldn’t sleep that night. It was really bothering me because I knew it was true.

“We all go to these things, we all talk about them, but no action is ever taken.

“Then I realised I was in a position to create something practical. That’s when I started building VERiFAIR.”

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How the VERiFAIR Standard works

The VERiFAIR process was built around evidence, policies and ongoing accountability.

Businesses sign up through annual membership, based on four tiers: micro, medium, large and enterprise, with fees ranging from £195 to £3,000 per year. Micro businesses are those with 20 staff or fewer.

For smaller businesses, VERiFAIR provides a toolkit of the workplace policies it expects responsible hospitality employers to have in place. Larger businesses with existing HR structures can provide their staff handbook, with VERiFAIR checking whether the required policies are present and up to date.

Justine said: “We recognise that a lot of small businesses can’t afford HR and they don’t have anything in place whatsoever.

“By registering with us and going through the process, we give them the time to implement those procedures and policies and integrate them.”

Businesses must also explain how their policies are implemented in the workplace and how they are maintained.

“That is really important,” Justine said.

“It is not a tick-box exercise. It is not just saying, ‘here you go’.”

Employers also sign the VERiFAIR Pledge, committing to ongoing accountability and to ensuring those policies are lived within the business.

Once verified, businesses receive a certificate, digital assets and a staff implementation pack, including a poster with a QR code so employees can understand what it means for their workplace to hold the VERiFAIR Standard.

Verified businesses are also added to VERiFAIR’s public directory, while Justine said static stickers were being developed for businesses to display alongside their food hygiene rating.

‘It is not one and done’

Justine said one of the key parts of VERiFAIR was its confidential reporting system for employees working within businesses that hold the standard.

She said: “We are not looking for one-off reports. We are looking at pattern-based reporting.

“If we start to see a pattern with a business, we will collect that and take it back to the employer to give them the opportunity to correct it, fix it and explain how they have resolved it.

“That way, we can ensure there is always ongoing accountability and that we are helping to improve and make hospitality a more positive place to be.

“It’s built around evidence and ongoing accountability. Businesses also have to renew it every year as well, so it is not ‘one and done’.”

Chefs backing VERiFAIR

Restaurants already VERiFAIR-verified include Dorian, Humble Chicken, Lyla and Ynyshir.

Justine said early support from chefs including Sally Abé, Jeremy Chan and Rafael Cagali had helped validate the standard.

She said: “These are significant chefs of good standing. The fact they believe in this so much to come on board at this stage is really validating, because these are employers who are already doing it themselves.

“They want to help set the bar and help with the benchmark we are creating, so other people can then come and join. Then we can start to create a benchmark in our industry that just hasn’t ever existed before.”

Sally, who sits on VERiFAIR’s Advisory Panel, previously said: “For too long, hospitality has celebrated excellence on the plate without asking enough questions about what happens behind the scenes.

“As our industry evolves, the way we look after people has to evolve too.”

Hospitality Workplace Survey

Alongside the standard, VERiFAIR has launched its first annual anonymous Hospitality Workplace Survey.

The survey was designed to gather insight into the experiences of people working across hospitality in the UK and Ireland, with findings due to be published publicly in August.

It will then be repeated annually, allowing VERiFAIR to measure change over time.

When The Staff Canteen spoke to Justine, the survey had already received more than 2,000 responses, with three weeks still to run.

Justine said: “I was told by someone in the beginning ‘you’ll be lucky if you get 500’.

“I thought, no, we need to beat the drum and get as many people involved as possible.”

As part of that push, VERiFAIR distributed 10,000 survey cards directly into hospitality businesses in London, while Justine committed to posting one reel a day for all 56 days of the eight-week survey.

She said: “To get that sort of data, such significant data, has never been captured before in our industry to really give a visual of what it is like to work in hospitality today.

“The reason I did the survey is because we can’t work on assumptions. I need evidence. That is the point.”

Transparency and kitchen culture

VERiFAIR has launched at a time when workplace culture in hospitality remains under scrutiny.

Recent allegations around Noma and René Redzepi reignited debate about kitchen culture, leadership, pressure and accountability in high-performance restaurants.

Justine said: “Stories like Noma remind us why transparency and accountability matter.

“VERiFAIR is not a response to one business or one headline. It is a positive, independent standard. It recognises responsible hospitality employers and supports continuous improvement.”

She said the standard could also help challenge negative perceptions of hospitality among people considering entering the industry.

Justine said: “If there are any negative connotations with hospitality that have put people off in the past, this suddenly gives them some assurance.

“It is that stamp of saying ‘this place is a good place to work’.”

What excellence really means

For Justine, the central point is that restaurants cannot separate guest experience from workplace experience.

She said: “Excellence is not just what is on the plate. It is not just in the service.

“It has to be how you look after your people, because it is the people behind the scenes making all of that possible.”

That thinking underpins her wider ambition for VERiFAIR, which she hopes will eventually become a recognised benchmark across hospitality, from restaurants to contract catering and wider food-led businesses.

Justine said: “My vision is that every hospitality business in the United Kingdom and Ireland, of all shapes and sizes, holds the VERiFAIR Standard.

“We are not just talking about restaurants. We are talking about contract catering and everything else. Wherever there is food and people, it needs to hold the VERiFAIR Standard.

“This is creating a benchmark across the industry.

“My plan is that once we get to a certain number, I want to take it to government because I really want this to be rolled out as mandatory.

“From there, there is Europe and the rest of the world. But let’s start with the UK and Ireland first.”