Stonegate launches online community to support furloughed staff

Found via the pub giant’s internal platform, Academy Online, on both mobile and desktop, the new community pages provide staff with articles on health and wellbeing, independent advice on budgeting and finance, personal development materials and regular updates from company CEO Simon Longbottom during the ongoing pandemic. 

Following its acquisition of Ei Group on 3 March for £1.27bn, Stonegate employs approximately 17,000 people across 1,270 managed sites and 3,457 leased and tenanted businesses – all of whom will have access to new platform.

Stonegate’s learning and development team has revealed that more interactive content will be made available in the coming weeks, with users given the opportunity to like, comment, ask questions and feedback suggestions on subject matter. 

Thriving on personal contact

“It was incredibly important to us to keep the Stonegate community spirit alive during this difficult time, and with all of our employees already having access to Academy Online, it was the logical step to launch our new initiative on the platform,” Stonegate’s head of learning and organisation development Lee Woolley said.

“We managed to develop the platform in just a week, collating as much information as we could to support and uplift our teams across the country. It now includes everything from activities to help keep kids entertained, to weekly podcasts from our own ‘Success Coach’ Jon Perkins, to resources to help combat stress and increase resilience – and we are adding more content daily.

“It is the nature of the industry that all of our people are hyper-social, thriving on contact with others, as a company our philosophy is deeply ingrained in their wellbeing, so maintaining a sense of collaboration and community with each and every one one of them is integral. 

“We know we’re going to come back stronger after this crisis is over, and it will be our people that make that revival not only possible but positive.”

As reported by The Morning Advertiser​, one furloughed Stonegate general manager has already put his pouring skills to good use by using a 3D printer​ to help the NHS tackle a shortfall of 80,000 plastic visor clips.