People: Hire purpose

Springboard is about to launch a recruitment campaign just for the pub industry. Phil Mellows asks Anne Pierce about the plans.

In a wider sector that includes hotels, restaurants and the tourism, travel and leisure industries, pubs and bars can sometimes feel a little forgotten. Certainly the pub industry has seldom figured prominently in the activities of Springboard, the sector's official careers promotion body. But that could be about to change.

Springboard is about to launch for the first time an industry-specific campaign aimed at attracting people towards working in pubs and bars.

Working closely with the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), which dismantled its own recruitment-focused arm a couple of years ago, Springboard has conducted six months of research into the specific needs of the pub industry, the people it needs, the jobs that need filling and the kind of messages that should be put out.

"We have tended to take a blanket approach in the past," says Springboard managing director Anne Pierce (pictured)​. "But now we see that's not enough. There is a need to promote specific areas, we have to raise our game promoting pubs and bars as a career.

"Binge-drinking issues can affect how people see the industry, so we have to get the right messages across to young people. There needs to be an educational element to the campaign to dispel some of the myths."

Special educational materials will be produced and linked into existing courses at schools, colleges and universities. They will cover the structure of the pub industry, social responsibility, job opportunities and the growth of food, using case studies to give a flavour of what it's like to work in the industry.

"We have got to get across the diversity of the industry, the idea that there are different kinds of environments to suit different kinds of recruits," says Anne.

As well as the BII, pubcos such as Mitchells & Butlers, Greene King and Hampshire brewer Gales are part of the steering group shaping the campaign, but Anne wants more pub operators to get involved.

"We have a good relationship with some companies but there are others which you feel don't really know what we do," she says. "They should take an interest because we shall be producing publications aimed at their potential recruits."

Pubcos, Anne argues, tend to launch recruitment campaigns only when they need staff, when they are opening new pubs for instance, but the Springboard campaign will promote the industry continuously.

"We can also go to places they can't, the schools and colleges, and we can coordinate student placements," she explains. "There is a lack of up-to-date relevant materials for courses to use and we can develop them and make them available on our website.

"We are also looking at planting industry-related projects in GCSE courses, for instance you could get students to look at the arguments around the smoking debate.

"We can run teacher training days in pubs, give them a chance to go behind the scenes and try different jobs."

Anne is planning to officially launch the pubs and bars campaign at Springboard's annual careers festival, which takes place from March 7 to 11 next year. For more information go to www.springboarduk.org.uk.

King crowned top for careers​

The pub industry had something to cheer about at Springboard's 2004 Awards for Excellence as Greene King Pub Company picked up the prize for the Best Career Progression in the sector.

Greene King's Get Ahead programme, developed over the past three years, beat Whitbread, Hilton Hotels, Four Seasons, Accor Hotels and the Compass Group to the award with judges praising the brewer for its "determined approach to the career progression of its people".

It was particularly commended for the way it sets and regularly evaluates targets at all stages of an employee's development.

Get Ahead has helped reduce staff turnover at the company by 10 per cent and cut customer complaints by 15 per cent.

"This award is a real tribute to the focus everyone puts into people development and the efforts of our trainer managers," commented Greene King human resources director Julian Bradwell.

Pictured: Lesley Bedford, Liz Sinclair, Beth Povey and Simon Burton of Greene King's training team celebrate with the award.​