Ahead of International Women’s Day 2023, the UK’s leading pub company and brewer Greene King has set out its goal for a more even gender split within its senior management teams, along with its plans to work towards achieving them.
The business is working towards having women make up 50% of its senior management roles by 2030 – an ambition set by Greene King’s executive board - which forms part of its wider Diversity and Inclusion strategy and is supported by Greene Sky, its women’s focused employee-led inclusion group.
Greene Sky’s ambition is to help more women shape the future of the business and is composed of women and allies across all levels of the company. As well as advising on current issues faced by team members, its role is to encourage female empowerment and inclusion across all of Greene King.
On the back of initiatives already in place, including Reverse Mentoring, Female Mentoring and Inclusive Leadership training, and the introduction of a new maternity policy last year, Greene King is now committing to further action.
More programmes are underway which will focus on developing and nurturing existing talent to aid better succession planning, as well as introducing inclusive hiring training aimed at driving more women into its recruitment pipeline.
Clair Preston-Beer, managing director for Greene King pubs and Greene Sky’s executive board sponsor, said, We recognise that we’re on a journey to everyday inclusion, where all our people are embraced and valued for who they are so that they can reach their full potential and thrive.
'This pledge is the first step in the right direction to working towards delivering greater gender parity and our ambition to have 50% of senior management roles filled by women by 2030.
'With our ongoing inclusion activity, developing existing and attracting new talent, along with further policy improvements, I believe we have solid plans in place to make change become a reality.
“Although International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to highlight the fantastic female success stories within Greene King, supporting and developing women is a constant, ongoing focus for us.
'Through Greene Sky’s four-part focus: celebrating women, promoting careers, making a stand on sexism and educating on menopause, we’re ensuring Greene King continues to be inclusive and ultimately successful through 2023 and beyond,” closed Clair.
To date, Greene Sky has been instrumental in updating Greene King’s maternity policy, which now offers a competitive maternity pay package as well as offering a suite of wrap around support for women throughout their pregnancy and on their return to work.
As well as internal policy changes, Greene Sky also supports initiatives outside of the business, such as ‘Reach Next Generation’, a series of summits held by Reach – an organisation committed to helping women achieve their ambitions. Several senior team members, including Clair Preston-Beer have spoken at Reach events in the past, with the aim of inspiring the next generation of women.
As part of the IWD celebrations, Greene Sky is celebrating several success stories from its team members across the business:
Brand director Nuala Gallagher, who has been with Greene King over five years, has been recognised within the ‘Women to Watch in Hospitality’ 2022 shortlist. Speaking about Greene Sky, Nuala said, “The simple existence and platform Greene Sky has within the business demonstrates our commitment to supporting and empowering women.
“Being able to showcase our commitment allows me to attract, and more importantly retain talent within my team. As a mum of two young children, I need to know I can work in an environment where I can be my best and find balance, which Greene Sky helps to facilitate for myself and women throughout the business.”
Vee Muli, a general manager working at Cedars Lodge Inn in Barnstaple has been with Greene King for over eight years. Joining as a front of house team member in 2015, Vee has worked her way up through the business – promoted to assistant manager within six months, then general manager in 2017.
She was also part of Greene King’s first reverse mentoring programme, where she mentored CEO, Nick Mackenzie, about her experiences and challenges. Vee said: “Greene Sky has shown me that there are fantastic opportunities for women to succeed, and its empowered me to develop my skills and achieve several promotions in recent years.”
Operations manager Joanne Hind has been with Greene King for nearly 13 years and has recently been promoted to operations manager for the southwest in the Greene King pubs division. She was also recognised within the ‘Women to Watch in Hospitality’ 2022 shortlist at the end of last year.
On her vision for 2023, Joanne shared, “This year I want to focus on recruitment and development – ensuring more women want to stay and develop their careers within the business.
“I’ve been working with Greene Sky since it was created, and it’s fantastic to see the group’s influence grow year on year within the business. In recent years, the group has helped me to gain a better understanding of the wide range of issues faced by women that I may not have personally experienced – which in turn has helped me to become a better leader.”