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Calling time on racism

At Greene King, we’re guided by our purpose – to pour happiness into lives – and a clear set of values. Core to our values is creating an inclusive environment for all our team members, providing everyone with the opportunity to have a fair and equal chance to fulfil their potential and creating a welcoming environment for all our customers.

A proud employer of 40,000 people from all backgrounds across England, Scotland and Wales, our pubs, restaurants and hotels serve many different communities. Pubs play a unique role in bringing people together which gives us the opportunity to drive positive change across the country. We started this journey towards Everyday Inclusion in 2020, with Greene King’s Inclusion and Diversity strategy, and we are committed to continue to promote inclusion and diversity and eliminate racism in our company, the pub and brewing industry and society more broadly.

There is always more to do and learn, and we hold annual listening sessions with our colleagues, customers and wider stakeholders to hear their views. This helps us to recognise that different groups face difficult and nuanced challenges. While we have much to be proud of, especially through our work on social mobility, helping people from disadvantaged backgrounds to build a career in hospitality, and have been making progress to support our Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues, we know there is still more to do, as well as creating welcoming environments for all parts of society.

Our ambition is to embrace and value our Black, Asian and minority ethnic colleagues and the wider community and increase their representation within the hospitality sector as a leading and truly antiracist organisation.

We commit to creating a caring, sustainable internal culture at Greene King in which all people who experience racism in society feel included, supported and enabled to thrive, regardless of their race, ethnicity and background. And we additionally work with all our stakeholders, collectively leading the charge against racism to build a future that is both inclusive and equitable – so that we all win, learn, and celebrate together, with the communities in which we operate.

In 2020 we launched our Calling Time on Racism manifesto, which set out four long term commitments to drive cultural change in the way we recruit and develop our people, ensures that our pubs, restaurants and hotels are welcoming to everyone and that we deliver on our ambition to become an anti-racist organisation. And we want to work with the wider sector to play a lead role in championing change across hospitality.

Actions speak louder than words. We have nominated a board sponsor for race, as well as the support and engagement of our employee-led group Unity who provide valuable input. We are developing new partnerships with external organisations and are signatories to Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter and the ‘If Not Now When?’ campaign.

 

Our commitments:

  • Our senior leadership team will fully embrace antiracism in philosophy and practice, leading the journey of racial inclusion and representation across the organisation
  • Establish and embed a sustainable culture of inclusion, celebration of difference and courage across the business.
  • Enhance the customer experience and leverage the Greene King brand and assets to promote racial inclusion and drive entrepreneurial opportunities for those who experience racism
  • Ensure that our community activity reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, being a driver for change on race diversity locall 

 

Since the launch of the manifesto in 2020 we have: 
  • Welcomed more diverse talent into the business and into leadership positions, with a particular focus on the Black community through a full inclusion working group review of recruiting practices committed to the active sourcing of underrepresented candidates. 
  • Leadership team and senior manager shortlists include at least one person from the Black, Asian or minority ethnic background community, with a comply or explain clause in search briefs.
  • Embedded Everyday Inclusion in our culture, irrespective of geography or role level through a calendar of activity that supports education and learning, external partnerships and the promotion and growth of all four of our Employee Led Inclusion Groups.
  • Worked alongside our partners at the International Slavery Museum and Slave Free Alliance to deliver webinars on transatlantic slavery and continue to implement training on recognising the signs of modern slavery to Greene King team members.
  • Worked alongside our charity partner, Macmillan Cancer Support, to support projects directly linked to cancer care for people from ethnically diverse communities. 
  • Continued to transform Greene King into an antiracist organisation by committing to activity including reverse mentoring, springboard programmes and foundational / leadership inclusion training.  
  • Developed awareness and deepened our understanding so that leadership teams are informed and accountable for creating an inclusive culture across the business through a continuous inclusion narrative at all levels.
  • Partnered with Slave Free Alliance to fully analyse the risks in our business and our wider supply chain around modern slavery and are in the process of implementing a strategic plan to support this.
  • Renamed eight of our pubs with names which have racist connotations or an association with Transatlantic Slavery to ensure our venues are warm and welcoming to all. We continue to review pub names on an ongoing basis.
  • Established an annual Insight report/review on Greene King and the broader pub market, to fully understand our customers from all minority groups and are tracking our progress in building pubs and experiences which welcome all.
  • Published our Customer Promise - a commitment in all our managed premises explaining our anti-racist ambition and our zero-tolerance approach to all forms of racism and discrimination, which has been supported with a training programme for team members.
  • Followed a data led approach to understand the identities and career journeys of all employees across the business and embedded a culture of storytelling that highlights success and establishes role models. 
  • Created a diversity data dashboard that drives true insight that also measures and rewards for delivery of these priorities.
  • Strengthened accountability, resources and policies through continuous review cycles supported by an inclusion impact assessment process.
  • A clear understanding and tracking of Greene King, and the wider pub industry’s progress in creating welcoming environments for all.

In addition, we are actively working on the following ongoing commitments:

• To maintain and develop our existing partnerships across the business that address barriers to progress and legacy issues faced by people from the Black, Asian and minority ethnic community, providing employment opportunities in line with our overall aspiration of 10% Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation by 2030.

• Build on Greene King’s tenanted and leased model, by developing and activating an entrepreneurship programme for Black, Asian and minority ethnic people.

• Have regular input from a diverse range of voices across our brand development, helping us evolve existing brands and offers to become the most welcoming pubs in the UK.

• Double Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation in the business to 10%

• Create and evolve into a senior management team that closely reflects the diverse communities in which Greene King operates, by educating our teams on inclusive hiring practices that increases representation, supported by clear and achievable career pathways to develop our diverse talent. 

• Increase Black, Asian and minority ethnic leaders from 6% to 12%, senior managers from 3% to 10% and managers from 4% to 10%

• We originally made a commitment to provide more opportunities for young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.  Unfortunately, the original plan to reach this has not been achievable. Therefore, we have pivoted our approach and are working with other partners, such as MOBO’s recruitment platform, Mobolise, to advertise roles to under-represented communities.  These partnerships will help us to reach our overall aspiration of 10% Black, Asian and minority ethnic representation by 2030.

• Leverage Greene King’s assets and influence to advocate for positive change locally and nationally by leading the development of a sector wide strategy on race diversity and inclusion

 

 

Our company’s heritage, with our founder’s links to Transatlantic Slavery in the 1800s, means we are uniquely placed to drive change and make a significant difference across the hospitality sector. While we can’t change our past, we can determine the present and the future; that racism and discrimination have no place within our company or broader society