Find a new leader within your ranks

Making existing sites as autonomous as possible is vital because, as businesses grow, operators have less time to answer panicked late-night phone calls or spend all their time rushing from site to site. It can be a difficult transition for staff at sites who are used to seeing operators regularly. In this month’s MA300 feature, operators share their tricks of the trade for building strong teams as companies take on new sites.

Hire from within​
Tempting though it can be to look for more experienced staff from other businesses, promoting and developing the staff you already have can stop some major headaches from occurring later down the line. It’s a lesson that Partnership Pubs director Susie Czopor, who runs Kentish Town’s the Grafton and the newly opened Gipsy Queen, had to learn the hard way.

“We’ve definitely learnt from previous experience. We hired a manager from outside the business because, when we were looking at second sites, we didn’t feel there was anyone already in the business who had the right level of experience. It was a disaster — they didn’t gel with the team, who resented an outsider coming into the business. We have a family vibe, so somebody new coming in was quite disruptive.
“Having learnt our lesson, we took a little bit longer developing someone we already had in the business to bring them up to the required level. We earmarked someone with potential and then led by example, working closely with them and taking them through the finer details of the day-to-day operations.”
It might take more time and resources to bring promising staff up to a level where they can really shine but, for Czopor, it has been more than worth it, and it’s
a strategy Partnership Pubs plans to stick with as it expands.
“If we’d known then what we know now, we would have taken the longer route and hired someone from within at the start. I would tell other operators to make the most of the talent you already have in your
business. You get so much more out of people if they feel they’re going somewhere and they have career options.”
Hiring from within ensures that sites are run by people who understand the company ethos, understand the business and, crucially, already have a relationship with fellow staff while operators have their hands full, getting new pubs off the ground.

It’s a view shared by Yummy Pub Company’s Anthony Pender, who says: “Having a bad manager is often worse than having no manager. On occasions where we’ve got rid of a bad manager, we’ve found that often junior managers start to step up and we can have them working in tandem with a less-experienced manger.”

Communication​
Pender also stresses the importance of communication between operators and established sites, particularly with staff who are used to seeing operators regularly.
“The difficult thing is getting people who were used to seeing me two or three times a week to realise that I’m not in a position to be able to that any more. My job now is more driving the business forward and meeting external people, as well as fighting battles with suppliers and the inevitable red tape. They’ve got to understand that they’ll be seeing our head of operations, who is the right person for the job.
“Our blog is a great way of communicating with people in the business who might only see me one day a week and don’t know what I’ve been doing for the other four. In some businesses, that’s where resentment can creep in. It’s good to show what the business as a whole is achieving.”

Technology​
Partnership Pubs’ Czopor has also made full use of technology to help manage the team at the Grafton while setting up the Gipsy Queen, which opened in June this year.
“Our cloud-based systems have been invaluable. We have a Dropbox system, to which all of our key people have their own log in and access.
“It’s a great control measure because, not only can everyone have access to all the information, I can see who has done what to each
file and whether it’s been moved or accidentally deleted.
“It’s like having eyes everywhere — I can access any key financial in-formation at any given moment and I know that everyone who needs to can get hold of it.”
She also points to how effective apps like iApollo, which allows
users to check their CCTV systems from their smartphones, can be
for operators.

“It’s great for us and provides peace of mind because we can see how a site is going even when we can’t be there. It’s really useful for managers too.
“Our managers live on-site, so
it’s very useful for them too, because they can check in now and again without having to disturb the rest of the team.