How many BrewDog-style employers are out there?
How many BrewDog-style employers are out there?
An open letter on Twitter from former employees at BrewDog has put the company’s culture into the spotlight – raising questions about the sincerity of HR and business leaders’ commitment to ethical practices and employee wellbeing.
It’s a serious challenge to the reputation of an employer which has been feted in HR press as a model of wellbeing practices. BrewDog’s vision is to be “the best company to work for…ever”. ‘Our Charter’ talks in terms of everything it does being “about our people”. Recent publicity has focused on the offer of ‘pawternity leave’, giving time off to employees to settle in new pets.
Underneath the shine
The main complaint from former staff – signed by a number of named people and 45 others who “did not feel safe to include their name or initials” – is that BrewDog’s senior team of “inflated egos” created a cult of personality, making for a toxic culture.
More specific claims included: growth being more important than safety standards and health and wellbeing; staff pressured to work beyond their capacity; junior staff belittled; and an HR team not interested in people. Much-publicised offers like pawternity leave were said to be very hard to access in practice.
“Put bluntly, the single biggest shared experience of former staff is a residual feeling of fear,” said the letter. “Fear to speak out about the atmosphere we were immersed in, and fear of repercussions even after we left.”
Impact first
“When an employer is genuinely committed to employee health and wellbeing, when there’s a real balance between bottom-line outcomes and the workplace experience then it’s quite right that organisations take credit for what they’ve achieved,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell [https://www.eapa.org.uk/]. “Employees will want to talk about the great support they receive and why they’re proud to be associated with that brand. HR want to see new ideas, what’s working and what they need to benchmark themselves against.
“Wellbeing initiatives, and employer branding in general, have to be rooted in actual employee experience. Publicity needs to happen second, when there’s been positive impact, when leadership know there’s truth to the claims being made. Otherwise how can any new recruit or employee ever trust any brand?”
How many BrewDog-style employers are out there?