St Austell to reward staff with pay bands after training drives record satisfaction
St Austell has developed in-house programme Brewing a Passion over the past year with the aim of giving staff improved skills and mapping out a clear career development pathway. The company has also launched a training ambassador programme to develop managers within the business.
St Austell said its new training schemes have led to benefits beyond improvements in staff engagement, retention and productivity.
Last year, complaints fell by 51%, while online surveys have revealed customer satisfaction levels are up to 78%.
Mystery visits are on the rise, with the score up by three percentage points to 75.6% from 2014-2015. And the company’s managed estate turnover has increased by £4m (17.5%)in the same period, while net profit increased by £660,000 (46.5%).
Pay banding
The hard work from employees that has driven these achievements hasn’t gone unrecognised. St Austell plans to introduce a new pay banding scheme this year. Pay grades will link development, based on staff training, and performance to lead to a measured increase in pay.
Learning and development manager Parkes explained the move: “We believe that structured development in this way leads to high-performing sites, and our staff should receive the pay that reflects the skills and value they bring to our businesses.”
Modules of St Austell’s Brewing a Passion programme include steps of service, merchandising, beer and wine knowledge, and barista skills.
The training uses real-life customer feedback, which encourages trainees to develop creative ideas.
Parkes continued: “This enables staff to take ownership and inspire them to apply their learning within the workplace. Customers’ expectations are constantly changing so we need to adapt through our training, giving our teams the skills required to deliver.”
Training passport
The pubco’s recently relaunched Academy 1851 scheme also allows em-ployees to gain industry-recognised qualifications. “This will support their development and career progression within hospitality,” Parkes said.
The training at the academy is monitored by managers through a new ‘training passport’.
“A series of fun-based activities allows staff to demonstrate their newly acquired skills and they
can log them on the passport as they develop,” Parkes explained.
Any member of staff can view the training allocated to them through either their passport or through a new online learning portal.
On the same portal, candidates can view other job vacancies so they can identify possible next steps in their career.
Training managers
Parkes continued: “To ensure the successful application of the workshops and that staff are actively being developed, the support of our sites’ managers is essential.”
St Austell’s training ambassador programme is designed to develop managers. The in-house course provides key skills in the delivery of training to pass on the knowledge to bar and kitchen staff.
The pubco and brewer also recently recruited a people-development trainer to mentor trainers in the business.
Leadership studies
To further help identify what effective leadership should look like in hospitality, St Austell employed independent consultants. “And particularly what leadership is within the cultural dynamic of St Austell Brewery,” Parkes said.
“They talked with teams, managers and looked at our cultural past, highlighting key threads that stood out.
“We are a family business with family values and effective leadership for us has to support this.”
The new leadership framework hopes to guide future management, recruitment and development while raising productivity, engagement and staff retention.
To start this process, all managers went on a three-day intensive programme in January, allowing time to identify strengths and areas for development.
"Powerful"
Kellie McKeown, manager of St Austell site the Lifeboat Inn, St Ives, explained her experience of the training scheme: “The Brewing a Passion scheme refreshes ideas of customer service. Staff are trained really well to deal with customers. Nobody likes it when they’re told something’s wrong, and our staff know how to handle any situation and make the correct decisions.
"We’re trained on beer, wine, food matching and barista training. It’s had a massive positive impact, and been really powerful.
“The feedback we get from customers here now is phenomenal. Since we started the training, we’ve gone up to 20th on TripAdvisor, and have 850 reviews when we had 200 three years ago. Our customer service is number one.
"We get thanked so much for going the extra mile. Team members are confident enough to make decisions themselves, and the communication between departments is great.”
Understand other businesses
To support the new training schemes, St Austell has also worked with Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall, Watergate Bay; Cornwall College; and Visit Cornwall; on a one-year project funded by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES).
St Austell said the partnerships have helped the pubco understand practices of varying businesses, and transfer those lessons to its Brewing a Passion programme.
Brewing a Passion won Training Programme of the Year at the Cornwall College Excellence in Business Awards 2016, while St Austell’s site Samuel Jones in Exeter won Best New Site at this year’s Publican Awards.
