Meet the finalists: Best Pub Employer sponsored by CPL Learning

Metropolitan Pub Company

This is a company that puts culture above strategy and has an excellent people-first policy with an effective daily approach to ensuring that staff feel like they matter to the business.

Part of the larger Greene King empire, Metropolitan stands slightly apart from the rest of the business, aiming to offer an independent feel to each of its sixty plus pubs and this is a business that is rapidly growing, both through internal repositioning of sites within the Greene King estate, and through acquisition of new businesses.

It has an impressive engagement score among its staff, well above industry standard and it’s worked hard to achieve that over the last three years and develop the sense of unity and culture within the team.

This is a business that actually wants to see its teams dancing with happiness and that’s something that’s starting to pay off.

Stonegate Pub Company

One of the largest employers in the sector, with over 16,000 people to look after Stonegate did an amazing job during the lockdown, not only ensuring that teams were insulated and supported during the crisis, but also remained connected with excellent communication from the top down.

Crisis funds helped to support in extreme cases and team members that weren’t eligible for furlough were well supported.

Outside of the crisis, this is a business that puts a huge amount of emphasis on people development, training and skills. It’s wide range of development programmes have rightly been lauded and applauded over the years and the business continues to push the boundaries on what is available to its teams.

Despite the recent difficulties, the company used the lockdowns as an opportunity to continue to train and develop and as a result, was able to hit the ground running when the restrictions lifted.

Barons Pub Company

This southern Home Counties based operation sets real standards when it comes to team engagement, training and development, punching well above its weight.

The pandemic focused attention even more so on the need to look after it’s people and it is a company that continues to focus on ensuring an excellent work/life balance across it’s 11 operations.

The lockdown saw them formalise some of their processes and create their own training academy which is, crucially, open to anyone in the business, from the pot-washer in the kitchen through to people on the head office team.

The education on offer to team members has also been geared to be more generic rather than business-specific, which means team members are being given skills that are genuinely transferable, not just within the hospitality sector, but outside of that. That focus has been rewarded with a strong take-up and excellent loyalty throughout the teams.

Chestnut Group

This fast growing East Anglian-based business is certainly creating waves having rapidly grown throughout the region to more than 15 sites, with strong ambitions to grow even further.

To aid those ambitions and growth, it has firmly put people at the centre of its operations. The pandemic forced the company to take a shift in perspective and move away from measuring success as simply chasing revenue. As a result its new people first approach is already having an impact and has been well received throughout the business.

Retention is exceptionally strong, and internal development is excellent - this is a business looking to grow its teams internally to help support and drive those growth plans forward.

Simple decisions, such as shutting the business down over the Christmas period, to give staff Christmas and Boxing Day off has been a huge hit, giving some staff the opportunity to spend Christmas with their families for the first time.

There’s a great culture in this business which the pandemic lockdown’s helped foster and the business is keen to hold and develop that as it moves forward.