Lime FMS manages operations across 50 sites in the UK, where 96.5% of its workforce consists of women aged 17 to 67. The company’s strategy for supporting employees revolves around a newly constructed welfare hub, tailored to address the specific challenges faced by staff—many of whom work 12- to 30-hour shifts in hotel facilities management roles.

Stephen Seymour, now the company’s Director of People, began his career in the 1990s in Ireland, where he worked for a semi-government agency overseeing winter schools focused on hospitality training. These programs converted a shuttered hotel into a residential training center, where participants learned skills in cooking, housekeeping, and bartending. The cooks would cook for each other, and we skilled up the others in housekeeping, bartending and restaurant work. He adds, “That job gave me the bug for learning and development.”

His career then took him to the UK, where he worked in hospitality training before joining the Scottish Vocational Education Council to develop vocational qualifications. Seymour later transitioned into HR while helping the Jurys Hotel Group expand by establishing its HR systems. His background in hospitality remained central, shaping his later approach at Lime FMS.

In 2014, Seymour founded his own HR consultancy, Marmalade HR, after facing difficulty securing roles outside hospitality. The name was chosen purely for availability. Four years later, he became Chief HR Officer at Hotelcare before joining Lime FMS in 2019, just as the pandemic began.

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The COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted the hospitality sector, but Lime FMS managed to endure by designating many employees as key workers and utilizing government furlough schemes. However, the timing was unfavorable, as the company had begun expanding when demand plummeted. The company had just started to get some momentum on the business and then everything stopped.

The company now employs approximately 200 full-time staff, supplemented by part-time workers to cover shifts. Lime FMS provides outsourced accommodation services, including housekeeping, linen handling, and public area cleaning—tasks hotels typically handle in-house. Post-pandemic recovery has led to new initiatives, such as an upcoming employee app and adjustments to align with the Employment Rights Act.

The welfare hub directly addresses practical concerns, including childcare assistance, mental health resources, and flexible scheduling for a workforce that includes numerous single parents and younger employees. Unlike conventional HR approaches, this method rejects a one-size-fits-all model. The company has ambitious plans and is developing technology alongside them. From an HR perspective, the company is dealing with the Employment Rights Act and how that is going to impact it.

Workers in Lime FMS’s industry often encounter instability, with fluctuating shifts, variable pay tied to demand, and limited benefits. The welfare hub fills these gaps, offering services like financial guidance and emergency loans. The company is not operating as a charity.