BrewDog to reveal culture review findings by end of 2021
Last month it announced plans to enlist the services of a third party to carry out an independent review of its culture and HR practices following accusations by former employees that the brewer and pub operator fostered a toxic working environment.
It has hired consultancy Wiser, which has worked with the likes of Nike, Pret and the BBC, to conduct a full independent review of the company’s culture, which will include speaking to former employees as well as its current team.
In an update on LinkedIn, CEO and co-founder James Watt said the Scottish brewer and bar operator had also sent an anonymous staff survey to its teams at the end of June, with the findings to be fed into the independent review process.
Watt said it had already completed a structural review which had shown it was 'immediately apparent' the business was under-resourced in certain areas, with sales volumes having grown and the impact of the pandemic meaning that it had 'not been able' to add internal resources in-line with that volume growth.
“We recognise the need to change this, and so we are currently working to add approximately 100 new people across the business to make sure we are fully resourced in all areas,” he said.
BrewDog is also planning create an employee representation group in order to give staff a voice in the business, and said it had revised its career and developing training strategy and is in the process of appointing for several new roles to deliver this, including a training manager for retail and a group learning and development manager.
Team members that joined the business before 1 January 2021 have also been awarded a 3% salary increase.
“We want to be an employer for which our amazing team are truly proud to work, and we believe the actions we have taken - as well as those we are still working on - will help us meet that objective. Our priorities now are to listen, to learn, and to take the actions required to address the issues that have been raised,” said Watt.
