Making the grade

Following extensive research, many of the leading players in the pub trade are putting their employees through training programmes

Long gone are the days when a licensee took his place proudly at the helm of his new pub, with his only industry knowledge being what he'd learned from the other side of the bar at his former local.

It is accepted these days that training is vital for new licensees and in these tough times, with increased competition from other pubs as well as coffee bars, cafés and restaurants, it is ever more important for experienced publicans and their staff.

New licensees are usually required to hold the British Institute of Innkeeping's (BII) National Licensee's Certificate (NLC) before magistrates will grant a licence and many pubcos make their own additional training provision.

Individuals and trade associations as well as pub companies have all recognised the importance of training and have started to implement organised schemes in their estates, largely because of recruitment problems suffered in the past.

Recruitment has been a problem for the trade for some time but the difficulties were highlighted in research last year by Leeds Metropolitan University professor Conrad Lashley on behalf of the BII.

Professor Lashley and his team discovered that recruiting tenants and lessees costs the industry £50m a year. He estimated that tenant turnover was about 30 per cent, which means pubcos have to find about 5,000 licensees in a 12-month period.

He said the report, titled Is there breath on the mirror?, gave the impression that pub companies thought of three things when recruiting a tenant - has the potential tenant got the money? Can they get a licence? And is there breath on the mirror?

One of the conclusions was the benefit of carefully aligning licensees with pubs rather than taking a lucky dip approach, and then providing those licensees with suitable training.

Since then the BII has expanded its programme of Advanced Qualifications (AQ) and now offers nine different courses as well as the new AQ diploma. More pubcos are establishing training courses and the Publican's Market Report 2001, a survey of over 1,000 licensees, shows figures show that 83 per cent of licensees who offer training consider it important enough to be prepared to fund it themselves (see below).

But just when it seemed all the industry players had agreed that training was an important part of running a pub, a spanner was thrown into the works by the Punch Pub Company.

Punch, which has 4,200 tenanted and leased outlets, decided there was little point in offering training to its lessees and tenants as well as spending millions of pounds on acquisitions and refurbishments, if it had no idea what effect that training was having.

Stephen Gould, director of training and recruitment at Punch, explained: "We have an ambitious training programme at Punch because after the Is there breath on the mirror? report we realised there were too many people coming into the business without being properly trained."

But with a continuous expansion and refurbishment programme Punch realised it needed to know exactly what its licensees were learning on its training courses and so it called on Conrad Lashley to use his industry expertise once again.

"We thought if we were to assess our training programme it would be better to do so independently," Stephen said. "As Conrad Lashley's team had already produced research, we decided to ask them to do it." (see below).

All new Punch lessees, whether they are first-time licensees or have years of experience, have to take the company's modern licensed retailer course. This 10-day course includes the BII's NLC as well as the Basic Food Hygiene Certificate and training in other aspects of running a pub.

Lessees whose pub is refurbished by Punch take a Customer Focus Course which teaches advanced skills such as marketing and includes the BII's Business Development AQ.

Professor Lashley assessed the effects of these courses by comparing six licensees who had taken each course with six from comparable pubs who had not been trained.

"We wanted to see the financial side of it, of course, but that wasn't all we were looking at," said Stephen.

"Professor Lashley looked at motivation, how the licensees felt before and after training, and even what little things they do now that they wouldn't have done before."

The results were grouped according to actual financial change after training, as well as differences in the attitudes of licensees and staff. The findings were quite striking.

The most impressive improvement licensees noticed after completing their training was in actual business performance. Sixty per cent of those asked identified an increase in turnover after training, while 40 per cent noticed an increase in gross profit on food and drink.

Customer satisfaction and importantly, customers' average spends also increased after licensees were trained.

According to the research, training also improved licensees' attitudes to change. Those without training seemed to be reluctant to make changes in their business. One licensee said: "My thinking is if it's successful and it's working, why bother to change?"

They also tended to see change as major upheaval rather than considering small improvements that could be made.

Professor Lashley discovered that the licensees who had received the training, however, were enthusiastic about change and saw it as an on-going process.

"Always be aware of change in society and try to adapt your business to that change," one licensee said.

Training licensees also appeared to improve staff attitudes to change - with barstaff becoming more enthusiastic.

Punch is pleased with the results of the research which although encouraging, also identified improvements that could be made, particularly in offering licensees on-going training.

Stephen said: "Whatever the results had been it was going to be a win-win situation for us because we can now assess our training and recruitment. It's a waste of time putting £50m into investment and acquisitions and not doing the same for training."

This research by Professor Lashley has also been welcomed by the BII, which is keen to promote training to licensees.

Spokeswoman Georgina Wald said: "BII qualifications are designed to ensure that the benefit of training can be measured in financial terms. This report backs that up 100 per cent."

Licensees are often struggling to get by in difficult working conditions and many are under pressure financially. When times are hard it is often the training of publicans and their staff that is the first thing to be neglected.

But Professor Lashley's report gives weight to the argument that training is one of the most important aspects of running a pub successfully.

"This report backs up what we already knew," Georgina said. "It shows training should be a priority."

Punch research​

Financial improvements after training:​

• 60 per cent identified an increase in turnover after training
• 40 per cent saw an increase in gross profit on food and drink
• 50 per cent saw an increase in the average spend on food, and 20 per cent saw an increase in average spend on drink
• 40 per cent improved productivity.

Changes in attitudes:​

• More than 70 per cent of licensees would be more likely to make changes as a result of their training
• Trained licensees are more likely to consider customer satisfaction as a measure of business performance
• Trained licensees saw the community or local nature of their pub as a positive aspect. Those without training saw it as a drawback to development
• All the trained licensees said customers and staff had noticed improvements in quality of products, services and environment as a result of training.