Greene King: ‘We’re trying to build a long-term, sustainable business’

In 2023, Greene King has announced a series of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives across its business. These include a target for a 50% female senior management team by 2030, a menopause and menstruation support policy, a gender identity and transition support policy, and an inclusion and diversity podcast. Chief people officer Andrew Bush tells MCA there are two key reasons why the business has undertaken a transformation process over the past few years.

“The leadership team here wants to build a business with social purpose,” he says. “We’re trying to build a long-term, sustainable business where everybody feels welcome, based on our core values.

“There’s a commercial perspective as well. If we don’t adapt and evolve according to the consumption trends of young people, large swathes of the UK population will stop regarding pubs as places they want to be in.”

The EDI initiatives are not without their challenges. Bush concedes that across Greene King’s vast estate, it’s difficult to implement a one-size-fits-all approach.

“We’ve got just about everything in our portfolio. Our research shows that many people can find some pubs to be uncomfortable places, especially on more drink-led and sports occasions, but we are up for the challenge of tackling that.”

The EDI initiatives began “in earnest” a few years ago. In 2020, research from University College London revealed the pubco’s founder, Benjamin Greene, profited from the translatlantic slave trade.

“That was a catalyst, but in context of broader cultural change within the organisation,” Bush adds.

In addition to new policies, this led to the introduction of employee-led inclusion groups, new training, and a reverse mentoring programme, with the latter being one of the projects Bush is most proud of.

“The programme opened our eyes. [The exec team] don’t come from privileged backgrounds, but we are quite privileged by virtue of being who we are. It helped us shift our perspective as individuals.”

The employee-led inclusion groups are assigned budgets, can apply for additional funds, and aim to have chairs from different tiers of the business, including junior roles. It also helps Greene King understand what employees are looking for.

“When I joined in 2017, employee turnover was at 108%,” Bush adds. “It’s now 65%. We’ve seen a steady fall since Covid and I think it’s because of changes in our culture.”

He’s also proud of a more family-friendly culture, particularly an industry-leading maternity leave policies and menopause support.

“The level of women over 50 leaving the workforce is significant. We’re trying to level the playing field and target under-representation of women in the organisation.

“We do have a good paternity leave policy, but it’s not market-leading because we don’t have a representation issue with men.”

Bush admits there is always more to be done, but the people culture has tied in with Greene King’s increasingly digitally-led approach, which allows it to identify gaps and track progress on representation.

The organisation has a newly standardised recruitment process in place, with the Smart Recruiters platform providing demographic data to compare to local demographics. Rural pubs may be different to those in London, Bush says, but the apprenticeship programme and collaboration with the Black Young Professionals network has helped create a more inclusive hiring process.

“We have a clear target to have a 50% female senior leadership team by 2030, but we are stuck at 35%. So we need to strengthen the internal route of progression.

“We are ahead on our LGBTQ+ representation targets and about on target on disability. Some are easier to get to than others, but we have the right ingredients in place.”