JD Wetherspoon's diploma makes sound economic sense

Some 40 of the group's managers and area managers are in their second year of the course and the first are due to complete it in March 2007, when they will be at the equivalent stage of a student midway through the final year of a degree.

But there is more to this programme than merely academic qualifications. Managers have taken what have learned back into their pubs and made an impressive impact on the business.

In a survey by Nottingham Trent University, which is teaching the diploma, 82 per cent of managers reported increased sales since the beginning of the programme, about equally across wet and food sales, and a similar number said they had reduced costs.

Nearly every delegate said they had taken some positive action at their pubs as a direct result of the training. For example:

• 94 per cent increased "add-ons" through upselling and suggesting additions to an order
• 94 per cent increased and focused their advertising
• 88 per cent increased product testing
• 76 per cent improved service guarantees to customers
• 65 per cent made use of extra space at the pub.

New sales initiatives and better relationships with staff mean that the increases are coming chiefly from upselling wine and food and raising the performance of individual staff members.

Pub managers on the diploma are also outperforming the rest of the company. Total sales across the sample have risen by 4.2 per cent compared to Wetherspoon's average 2.4 per cent.

Significant improvements in customer service were also reported with customer satisfaction scores increasing for more than three-quarters of the course delegates.

Most have also seen increases in repeat visits, new customers and average spend per customer as well as a reduction in customer complaints.

Alongside that, nearly the entire survey reported improvements in staff satisfaction, morale and performance. Most have also seen improved staff retention and there was less absenteeism.

"The programme does seem to have had a positive impact on the pressionalism with which pub managers manage their pub," the report's authors, Professor Conrad Lashley and Dr Bill Rowson, conclude. "In many cases managers suggested that it had encouraged them to think more about the business.

"In some cases improvements have been truly dramatic. Even though a minority reported lower performance across sales and profits in the year, interviews suggested that competitor activity or other external factors adversely affected performance. Several interviewees made the point that the programme had enabled them to respond to the worsening environment more positively.

"In other words, things might have been a lot worse if the manager had not developed a new range of skills on the programme."