At Revolution Bars Group, our attitudes and activities prioritise our near-3,000 strong workforce under our “People First” pledge; we challenge ourselves daily to “revolution”-ise the way members of the hospitality sector train, work, and progress, both professionally and personally. Our early adoption of a “sustainability lens” with reference to our people has empowered us to see beyond the antiquated talent life cycle and firm up our employer proposition holistically across Attraction & Retention, Pay & Reward, and Learning & Development. We believe that, by growing and developing the very best people, we can truly bring to life our vision of being “the place where everyone wants to be”.

“Rev U”, our internal brand for all of our learning and development programmes, covers induction through to Executive development and everything in-between, including career pathways for our talented kitchen, sales, and management teams. We focus on innovative, high-impact programmes to facilitate the upskilling and reskilling of our people, which has seen us maintain high levels of internal succession into management roles across all parts of the business. We are proud of our reputation for training and development and all the more that many of our “Rev U” alumni members have advanced to hold key roles not only within our business, but also the wider sector.

Our newly developed programme for new openings and refurbishments has played a pivotal role in supporting the successful launch of our first new bars in four years and trained over 90 of our new recruits. This is all delivered by our Guest Experience Trainers, whose primary role is to deliver best in class training to our people to ensure we are able to deliver fun and memorable experiences with our teams and guests.

As a Group, we challenge ourselves to progress our inclusive culture daily and this starts with educating ourselves. We continue to engage external partnerships and organisations like Women in Hospitality, Travel & Leisure, and as well as a recent collaboration with “Be Inclusive”, we are also proud to be one of the founding partners of “Plan B”, the mentoring platform designed to accelerate women’s representation on boards. We remain committed to closing our gender pay gap, beginning with representation, and within this Financial Year the Executive team moved to a female majority for the first time ever. Of our workforce, 48% is female and 52% is male, and as we continue on our “Inclusion Revolution” journey we anticipate evolution in all forms of diversity and parity through the insight and counsel of our Inclusion Board, made up of team members from different roles across the Group.

Colleague wellbeing continues to live at the heart of our people strategy, and we are confident that our clear leadership and actions have us on the journey toward long-term, sustainable improvements in the health and wellbeing of our people. Our investment in the internal accreditation of the Mental Health First Aid course has seen over 70 managers graduate this crucial education programme so far. Further, our corporate charity partner appointed in year (Campaign Against Living Miserably (“CALM”)) was voted for by 75% of our colleagues, and we are collectively delighted to support CALM in their journey.

This year, we have evolved our reward structures and priorities in line with the Group’s values of fun, ambition, integrity, and recognition. October 2021 saw enhancement to our pay matrixes and eradicated National Minimum Wage rates from our pay structures entirely, which built on efforts beginning pre-pandemic to ensure we retain our place as an industry-leading employer. Further, the Group introduced a suite of “lifetime benefits”, including enhanced pensions, life assurance, a holiday purchase scheme, electric vehicle options and significant enhancements to parental leave pay. These sit alongside our already established EAP, BHSF free counselling services, 24/7 GP access, pay on demand and lifestyle savings platform.

Recruitment has been a challenging obstacle to overcome since our return to trade with both the pandemic and Brexit having a huge impact on our employee turnover and ability to attract candidates, though it has been reassuring to see some stabilisation in this space towards the end of this financial year with colleague turnover dropping by 4% in the final quarter, and General Manager stability improving across the last three quarters.

Listening to our amazing teams is pivotal to understanding the quality of their experience with us. A key employee voice channel is the Group’s performance measurement issued twice yearly through an independently administered “Quality of Life” survey. We are delighted that April 2022 saw the highest ever participation rate (87%), engagement (65%) and ENPS (41.5 pts) scores recorded since inception with significant gains wave-on-wave across every question.

The Group supports practices which promote responsible drinking and has established its own “Responsible Alcohol Retailing Policy”, supported by staff training and monitoring. The Group’s pricing models are set so as to avoid deeply discounting products. Events are promoted responsibly and are accompanied by individual risk assessments. A number of bars enter local “Best Bar None” schemes (run by local authorities and the police to encourage good behaviour in town centres), promoting a safe and secure environment. Test purchasing exercises are organised through Serve Legal to ensure that staff are exercising their judgement in the way that they are trained to do with regard to age verification.

The Group continuously aims to improve the quality of its food offering and provide guests with the required information about its products to allow them to make informed decisions about their food consumption. This includes providing allergen and calorie information for all dishes via our website. Products not containing gluten or meat are highlighted on the printed menu. Full training is provided to bar teams to enable them to deal with guest queries and prevent cross-contamination. The Group sets out strict specifications for all products so that high standards of quality are met.

The Group continues to place greater emphasis on offering increased menu choices for vegetarians, vegans and those with food intolerances, given that this is important to an increasing proportion of our guest base.

As part of its social responsibility agenda, the Group partnered with a new corporate charity partner in August 2021. Following an internal vote, over 75% of those that voted chose the Campaign Against Living Miserably (“CALM”). After a challenging year in FY21, where at times up to 98.5% of our workforce were on furlough, the Group has an increased focus on employee wellbeing and ensuring a safe and supportive environment at work. Our people told us that suicide support was an incredibly serious concern given the challenging year many had faced, and the Group is proud to support CALM in their journey. The Group will be donating 50p from every sharing platter sold, and additional fundraising activity will be planned.

As at year-end, the Group has raised a total of £54.6K for CALM through the sale of products and local fundraising initiatives, and as at the date of report a further £12.3K has been raised on top of this.

The Group also has a programme designed to promote other charitable activity within its workforce. The scheme, called “You raise it, we match it”, rewards funds raised by staff for other charities and matches what they have raised.

The Group has in place an anti-bribery and corruption policy that is communicated through all heads of department to their teams, and included in the colleague handbook. The policy requires transparency and the maintenance of an entertainment register that is regularly reviewed by the Board. Key suppliers have also been made aware of the policy.

The Group has in place a Modern Slavery policy that has been approved by the Board. Suppliers are required to acknowledge the Group’s policy and their obligation to adhere to it as part of any contractual arrangements.

The Group does not have a formal human rights policy, but it is committed to conducting business with integrity and fairness.

The Group has chosen to early adopt a Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) Report. This report includes the requirements of the SECR disclosure, including relevant disclosures on emission type and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensity Ratio, scope and methodology, and sustainability plans, and therefore has not been duplicated here. Please see pages 34-40 for further information.