Staff development scheme saves Greene King £2m

A staff development scheme at Greene King has saved the brewer more than £2m over two years.

Greene King, which runs 800 pubs across the UK, focused on promoting more people from within and providing extensive training for staff. This helped boost the company's sales by 4% to £516m last year.

The company's "Get Ahead" training programme offers all staff: flexible learning through computer-based training annual, online “360-degree feedback” industry qualifications and a tailored leadership programme. 

ast year, 53% of all new management appointments were filled from within the organisation, with staff turnover falling by 7% to 26%.

Simon Burton, recruitment and training controller at Greene King, said the programme marked a change in the company's commitment to managing staff. 

"It gives employees a greater understanding of the highly competitive environment in which we operate, as well as providing them with the skills they need to do their jobs well," he told Caterer sister title Personnel Today.

The HR department measured the savings through key indicators, including a £1.5m cut in the use of agency pub managers, a £268,000 drop in recruit­­ment costs and £336,000 fall in cash discrepancies. 

Burton added that the managers the company had promoted from within had made an £83,000 increase in like-for-like sales on the previous year.

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By Daniel Thomas

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