Staff retention the Interpub way

Interpub isn't too worried when its staff go travelling - as they often come back.

It sounds like a tired philosophical conundrum. Do your staff continue to exist when they're not working behind your bar? Maybe you don't care as long as they turn up in time for their shift. But perhaps you should. The skills crisis that the industry has been labouring under has led to greater efforts by pub operators to recruit and hold on to good people, and that has meant to some extent fitting the business around their lives, rather than the other way around.

One of the most forthright companies in doing this is Interpub. With a mere 13 pubs, 10 of them with hostels attached, and a hotel in Brighton, the Interpub organisation is known the whole world over - at least by the curious tribe known as backpackers.

Interpub not only finds a lot of its custom among these young international travellers; it's where it gets most of its 220 staff from too.

Many licensees find reliable short-term employees among the transient ranks of Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans, but few have appealed to that workforce as systematically, or as successfully, as Interpub.

Its ethos is summed up in the slogan to the group's St Christopher's Inns - "Live Your Life".

That applies to the staff as much as the customers. After all, they are, more or less, the same people. So Interpub not only accommodates the fact that most of its employees will get itchy feet after a few months, it positively encourages them to do what they want to do - travel.

An impressive menu of benefits and perks available to staff includes paid sabbaticals after five and 10 years' service and a four-day break for the Employee of the Month.

Even after they have left the job they can claim discounts on accommodation while travelling and take advantage of travel offers.

It's almost as if Interpub wants to get rid of them. But it all helps to build a special relationship with the workforce.

They may not stay at the pub long but they are likely to come back. It gives Interpub a pool of skilled labour to draw on, scattered around the world. Past employees effectively market the company to fresh prospects, even getting together to organise a backpackers show in Melbourne - with another one planned for Venezuela.

"We don't have to recruit in the standard way," explains Keith Knowles, current managing director of a family business that is now in its 40th year. "Some 95 per cent of staff come through our website. We get an average of three applications a day and there is always a database of people we can call on in a crisis."

There are about 1,000 staff members of Interpub's Bed & Bars Club, keeping in touch over the web, and the company can throw its net out to more than 9,000 registered backpackers in total.

"A lot of our house managers started as travellers," says retail director Eddy Passey. "We have a high staff turnover - but they come back. I know someone who has been back on six different occasions. It means they can hit the ground running.

"Some of the people we employ only want to travel. Others want to make it a career. We don't give them responsibilities they don't want. One has only realised they want a career after working for us on and off for eight years."

It wouldn't be possible without the internet, of course. But there is more to it than keeping in touch.

For those who do want a career - and to tempt those who think they don't - the heart of Interpub is the Logbook.

Introduced three years ago, the Logbook sets out in some detail the 20 "footsteps" along the company's career path, from basic induction to relief management in preparation for taking on your own pub.

Keith Knowles believes "there should be a logbook for the whole industry". Curiously, he based Interpub's Logbook on the training required by seafarers to enable them to get a pilot's licence - he's a sailing man himself, you see.

"People who come to work for us have to have a hunger for knowledge, but then we have to give them a skills base to match the needs of the business," says Keith. "For us, that means giving a fantastic experience to our customers and making sure the atmosphere never gets stale."

That can, or should, apply to every pub operator. But at Interpub the skills base can be much broader than in the typical pubco.

House managers, for instance, are also responsible for the 820 hostel beds across the estate, which involves not only booking people in but ensuring their security - a vital selling point among backpackers who often feel vulnerable on the road. While the Interpub dorms are fairly basic, the security systems are very high-tech.

Staff, however, are not locked in when they pursue a career.

"We move people around within the business and we encourage them to travel," says Keith. "We aren't frightened of them going away to learn. They travel and they talk about us and promote us. It's our best marketing tool."

Paradoxically, Interpub also likes its people to sink roots in the local community around the pub. Everyone is entitled to an extra week's paid leave to work in the community, taking old folk on trips or painting a house, for instance, or working for a charity.

In the most recent scheme, run through the Prince's Trust, staff have been helping to train other young people.

In its way, Interpub is acting out the political slogan of the modern world - to think globally and act locally.

"It's all about focusing on our people," says Keith.

Staff benefits​

• 50 per cent discount on Interpub hostel accommodation, including family members
• 50 per cent discount with a Europe-wide hotels group
• Free hostel accommodation for live-in staff (equivalent to earning £6,127-a-year)
• 50 per cent off food at Interpub pubs/bars
• 10 per cent off drinks
• 50 per cent off merchandise
• Last minute travel offers
• One month paid sabbatical after five years service
• Two months paid sabbatical after 10 years service
• Subsidised uniform
• One week a year paid leave to work in the community
• Four-day European break for Employees of the Month
• Non-contributory pension scheme.

20 steps to pub management​

Interpub's Footsteps scheme

1:​ basic induction2:​ main induction (within six weeks of start)3:​ cellar management and stock control4:​ kitchen skills and food hygiene5:​ bar skills6:​ hostel standards and housekeeping7:​ health & safety8:​ accommodation booking9:​ customer service10:​ accommodation processes11:​ profit & loss management, accounting12:​ staff appraisal and training13:​ business planning14:​ recruitment skills and advanced customer care15:​ National Certificate for Licensees16:​ leadership and time management17:​ budget planning18:​ marketing19:​ training skills20:​ relief management.