ANALYSING THE CHALLENGES FACED IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION DUE TO COVID 19 PANDEMIC IN UK: A CASE STUDY OF GREENE KING

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Research aim

1.2 Research objective

1.3 Research Background

1.4 Research Rationale

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Greene King response- Covid 19 pandemic

2.2 Green king financial impact during Covid 19

2.3 Greene king business model

2.4 Risk factors of Greene King

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Research philosophy

3.2 Research approaches

3.3 Research strategies & design

3.4 Data collection method

3.5 Sampling

3.3 Primary data-collection instrument

3.4 Data collection

3.5 Ethical issues

Chapter 4: Results

4.1 Primary Quantitative

Chapter  5 Conclusion and Recommendation

Chapter 6: Reflection

Reference List

 

Chapter 1: Introduction

Employee retention is the most important factor in the case of an organization's sustainability. Employee retention means the organization's ability to hold efficient employees so that they could not leave the company for better sources. There is a certain number who leave their job in a particular time frame; the entire incident is called the employee turnover. Any organization has to make a strategy to prevent employee turnover by offering them suitable promotions and remuneration. In the thesis, a company named Greene king has been chosen based on which the entire discussion will be revolved (advisory.kpmg.us, 2020).

1.1 Research aim

The study aims to point out, infer and analyze the challenges to employee Retention faced by Greene king amidst the COVID pandemic stagnation.

1.2 Research objective

Based on the research topic following research questions have been attributed.

• To formulate an understanding of the impact of Covid 19 on the Alcohol beverage Sector.
• To study in-depth the factors that impact Employee Management and retention.
• To find out and analyze the existing and imminent challenges that disrupts the smooth functioning of Green King.
• To trace the appropriate mitigation to counter the challenges of employee Retention.

1.3 Research Background

Covid 19 can be attributed as a lifetime pandemic. From time to time the various idealist waves can shake mankind. The various other companies as well as Greene king have to proceed with the situation for sustaining by crossing all obstacles. The long pandemic has a powerful impact on the physiological, emotional as well as economic impact on every angle of the population. A grave impact has been laid down on the employees also. But during the covid situation, this employee retention has faced an extreme hike in every organization. The Greene king is not an exceptional scenario in this case (worldbank.org, 2021).   

Greene king Company overview

1. Industry type: Pub retailer & buyer

2. Focused business area: Pubs, hotels & restaurants

3. History: Founded in 1799. Founded by Benjamin Greene. The entire family of Greene has a varied contribution to the company.

4. Greene king products: Beer, Abbot ale, Greene King IPA, Greene King XX mild, etc.

5. Contemporary incident: The company was bought by the richest family of Hong Kong on 26th April 2021.

Table 1: Greene King company overview

1.4 Research Rationale

The covid 19 pandemic has shown a grave impact on the financial condition of Greene King. The pub has faced a significant amount of losses during the pandemic situation. The assessment and the discussion of the loss amount of the Greene king. The thesis will assess the financial statement and employee retention factor of Greene king during the covid pandemic time.

Chapter 2: Literature review

2.1 Greene King response- Covid 19 pandemic

The initial phrase of Covid 19 & Greene King

According to greeneking.co.uk, (2021), the initial period was very much complex and tough. The Initial 36 weeks of lockdown of Greene King has made the reporting period. The sales of the company have declined to a large extent. For the obvious lockdown situation, the Grene king company has to shut down. The financial impacts are grave during the covid 19 crisis. All the 14 pubs across the country were closed during 14 weeks of national lockdown. The revenue has fallen to 562 euros. In the initial week, the profit decimation rate was 56 % and in the later time, the profit declaration was 63.4 % (deloitte.com, 2021). 

On the other hand, morningadvertiser.co.uk, (2021), has described which any type of bar including Greene king can manage its staff member during any kind of crisis. According to the source, the recruitment factor was the spectral problem towards the bar.

Greene-king response plan

Challenges due to pandemic	Greene King Response plan
1. First 14 weeks the pubs were closed for a national lockdown.	1. For the next 22 weeks, the pubs were opened according to the effective work schedule by following the curfew restrictions.
2. Pandemic curfew has been applied by the administration.	2. The pubs were continuing to publish the outlets. The delivery system was started.
3. For the constant lockdown, the jobs were constantly losing down.	3. The company has started the UK government's Job retention scheme for protecting the jobs.
4. The economic insecurity of pub tenants.	4. The company started a 90 % rent concession for the tenants. The company has launched a team member support fund of 66000 euros.

Table 2: Greene king challenges and response plan during Covid 19

(Source: greeneking.co.uk, 2021)

Greeneking.co.uk, (2021) describes in the initial time the pub as strictly closed for 14 weeks. But after 14 weeks, the Greene kings pub was open for the normal level products se3lling and for selling the alcoholic products in the place of pubs. Most pubs wherever possible are continuing to operate with all the mitigation measures. The government stated a most significant scheme for protecting the various private sector members' financial security and hardship issues. The company in this case specifically used the coronavirus job attention scheme. The company provided the 90 % concession for protecting the tenants whoever was tied down with Greene King. In this case, a total of 27 million euros was invested in this case (assets.kpmg, 2021).          

2.2 Green king financial impact during Covid 19

As per the Greene king financial report, the company has faced a lot of financial devastating issues during the 10 a.m curfew. The review, profit, and materialistic impacts the company is facing constantly. The government of the UK has supported Greene king also during the covid financial crisis. The company received funding of 159.7 million euros from the UK government. The temporary reduction of the vat was performed by the format for serving of a particular company. The directors were in constant tension after the closure of the company in March 2020. The securitization bond was created between several similar types of companies for the surviving objective during the pandemic situation (ec.europa.eu, 2021).        

2.3 Greene king business model

Greene King has the sophisticated business model by which the company has progressed to a lot of extents by which the company has survived and managed during the Covid 19 pandemic situation. The company business models mainly follow the 3 main attributes. The attributes are 1) Managed-division 2) leased and tenanted mechanism usage, 3) The effective promotion of brands and brewing. 

Figure 2: Business model of Greene King

(Source: Self-created)

Key business models of Greene King

1. Managed division: the Company’s main key profit areas are the selling of drinks, foods, and gaming machines.

2. The leased and tenanted mechanism: The owner of the property can rent his property to the particular company and can do income from rent. The tenants can supply the foods and drinks and can earn income from this source.

3. Brands and brewing: The company has made effective income from providing and creating the brands in several pubs.

Table 3: Greene king key business models

(Source: greeneking.co.uk, 2021)

greeneking.co.uk, (2021), also describes the key markets of Greene king. The description of the main 3 markets has been described with proper accordance.

1. Eating & drinking restaurants: the Greene kings have a long history of eating and drinking restaurants. For the Covid 19, pandemic business was isolated severely. The company rules and restrictions were normalized after the covid 19 pandemic situation.
2. Ale-market: the company is also famous for its vast expanse of ale market. For the covid 19 pandemic, the market was reduced by -14.6 % in the UK. On the other hand, the market declined by -36 % all over the world (Khalid et al. 2018).

2.4 Risk factors of Greene King

Greeny king has various types of risk factors which have been discussed and elaborated on below. The discussion of the risk area in the context of Greene King and the possible management will be discussed according to the context of the company's management policy.

Risk factors of Greene King

1. Strategic risks The failure for adopting an effective strategy Customer offer related risks

2. Market & economic risks Brexit issue

3. Operational risks Data breaches Risk of cyber-security

4. Financial risks Inadequate requirements of findings Various pension-scheme funding risks

Table 4: Greene King risk factors

 

Risk factors and mitigations

The mitigating factors of the risks have been described below.

1. Strategic risks: The Company has hired efficient HRs who have managed and made effective risk measures. The mitigating factors of risk factors have also been discussed. The customer's offers have been managed effectively with maximum usage of resources so that the situation can be controlled.
2. Market risks: For the BREXIT issue the UK economy along with the company has suffered severely. After receiving the issue, the company has managed a new financial strategy and got out of the situation.
3. Operational risks: The company is recruiting IT experts to prevent these types of situations.
4. Financial risks: The company is improving its infrastructure for managing these types of issues (Khalid et al. 2018).      

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Research philosophy

According to the research scenario, the research topic is predominantly based on realism because the factors and factors of the thesis are mainly based on realistic problems (SAUNDERS et al. 2019).  

3.2 Research approaches

According to the research scenario, the research is mainly based on the explanatory study design. This type of research approach mainly finds the answer to a given question with proper logical reference (Maylor, 2007).   

3.3 Research strategies & design

The research strategy is mainly based on the quantitative research procedure. Quantitative research had been conducted on a population. At first, a sample population was collected then the questionnaire interview was conducted to the targeted population. The constant questionable interview can reflect the problem most vividly. In this thesis, the research is mainly performed on 31 persons. The targeted population is the bar employees. Based on the questionnaire survey the data has been collected. The question was one-ended and numerical by which the entire research result will be concluded effectively. The proper graph creations were completed after collecting the numerical data. Not an only presentation of the numerical data but also the representation of graphs based on that data has been created so that the reader can understand the entire research outcome (Bell, 2005). 

According to wssu.edu, (2020), the quantitative has been divided into mainly 4 types. The 4 types are 1) Descriptive research, 2) Experimental research, 3) Correlational research, 4) Quasi-experimental research. In the context of the thesis, the entire research is based on a descriptive research approach. In the case study, the entire research is conducting and collecting the recent data. The recent data discussion is being analyzed by the current scenario concentration (Denscombe, 2007).   

3.4 Data collection method

In the research study, the primary data collection method has been chosen. In this research scenario, a target population consisting of 31 employees had been chosen. Their experiences and answers were recorded based on their given answers. The main 4 data collection methods are mainly coconuts of 1) surveys, 2) interviews 3) the observation inside the collected data and 4) the experiments. As in the case of the research scenario, the targeted source of the data so direct interview and its analysis (Bryman, et al. 2007).

Primary data collection Pros & Cons

Pros.	Cons.
1. The data which is collected from the field is always up to date.	1. The entire process of primary research can be most time-consuming. Because it needs a lot of time for finishing the research.
2. The individual has not to rely on the other secondary sources of data which can be vague.	2. For this research purpose, the individual or the group has to go to a place, then the individual has to conduct the survey. This entire process is time-consuming.
3. If one organization can collect the primary data from a field area the individual organization can purchase the data in the right time scenario.	3. This type of data collection can be most challenging for its field-work procedure.
4. The primary research is conducted on a small segment of a market which characterizes the familiar condition of the entire market.
5. As in the sequence of the research, the data has been collected from 31 employees who reflect the entire set of employees in Greene king.

Table 5: Pros. & Cons. of Primary data collection

(Source: startuploans.co.uk, 2021)

3.5 Sampling

In the thesis, data collection had been conducted based on the employees of Greene king. As for the sample the 31 employees have been chosen for the homogeneous population on which the entire research has been conducted. According to thh.nhs.uk, (2021), the main purpose for conducting the sampling is 1) large size of the population, 2) accuracy measures, 3) inaccessibility of population. The sampling type for the thesis is Convenience sampling.           

3.3 Primary data-collection instrument

Question 1: What was your workplace situation during the pandemic?

Assertion evaluation: As most of the employees replied, the first 18 weeks the pub was closed. After 18 weeks in some places, the pubs were open. But for the work, selective employees were chosen.  

Question 2: Did your company remove you from work after lockdown?

Assertion evaluation: It was asserted from the maximum population's reply, the company has chosen a few numbers of selected employees for work progress. The remaining employees were on hold for 41 weeks.  

Question 3: Was there any type of help from the company's end during a lockdown?

Assertion evaluation: Maximum employees have been told there was no help from the company's end. Some said the situation was horrific because their one-month salary was not cleared.

Question 4: Did managers effectively handle the employee's requirements?

Assertion evaluation: The reaction is mixed in this case. 40 % of respondents say the management was awful. The remaining 60 % are saying the worst management they have ever seen.

Question 5: Have you benefited from the company's response plan during a lockdown?  

Assertion evaluation: In the case of the upper hierarchy, the company benefited from the company. But there was no help from lower-level employees.   

3.4 Data collection

In the above research case mainly the 6 processes have been done for the data collection.

1. Interview: a selective sample was created of 31 persons. The interview was taken based on a questionnaire (Creswell, 2009).
2. Surveys: surveys have been conducted based on the collected data.
3. Observations: the proper observation is done based on the collected data.
4. Conclusion of the data: the conclusion of the data has been conducted based on the research scenario (Cassell et al. 2004).

3.5 Ethical issues

According to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, (2021), ethical issues are the most important components in research. The researcher should follow the ethical issues when the research is conducted or ongoing. Main 5 ethical issues can be assessed during the research.

1. Study design: the study design should not be taken from an author without prior consent. If it is used then the proper acknowledgment has to be given (Cooper et al. 2001).
2. Data analysis: the data should not be pirated. The data either has to be collected or has been taken from an authentic source.
3. Authorship: when the data has been collected, proper acknowledgment of the author has to be given in the form of texting (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, 2021).  

Chapter 4: Results

4.1 Primary Quantitative

4.1.1. What is your Age?

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
19-25	31	9	29
25- 28	31	8	26
29-  35	31	6	19
36- 45	31	4	13
47- 50	31	4	13

Table 4.1 Survey Question 1

Analysis

It is understood from the first Question the employees working in the Greene King Company that the highest age group comprises of 19 to 25 years old and the percentile figures showcase 29. Therefore it could be understood that the sector predominantly uses the young population.

4.1.2. What is your Educational Qualification?

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Graduate	31	7	23
Post Graduate	31	8	26
Technical	31	16	52

Table 4.2 Survey Question 2

Analysis

Question 2 pertains to the Educational Qualification. It is identified through the survey that the majority of employees sought education in technical fields. Technical education is therefore one of the prime requisite to working in the following sector. The percentile figure for the Technical field comprises 52%. The Post Graduate and Graduate comprises 26 and 26. Therefore the fear of losing a job belongs to the technical workers.

4.1.3. Which areas of operation do you belong to?

 

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Sales	31	7	23
Manufacturing	31	15	48
Marketing	31	10	32

Table 4.3 Survey Question 3

Analysis

Question 3 belong to the area of operation. It is understood and found out that the different operational capabilities and policy making of employees are interrelated or interconnected. This could be understood through the percentile figures. Around 48% belongs to the manufacturing sector. The other percentile figures belong to 23 for sales and 32% for Marketing. Therefore employees are more in the manufacturing sector.

4.1.4.  Do you think that the present policy of employee Management is not enough for the Greenee king?

 

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Agree	31	7	23
Strongly Agree	31	13	42
Neutral	31	3	10
Disagree	31	6	19
Strongly Disagree	31	2	6

 

Table 4.4 Survey Question 4

Analysis

The very questions that pertain to business are where the fear of job loss reigns rampant. This could be identified that different scenarios enable room for introspection. This could be well understood through the percentile. Around  42% strogly believe that management is not happy. Around 23% of the respondents believe that the management is not happy.

4.1.5. Do you agree that the Management of Greenee king is dissatisfied with the output?

 

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Agree	31	11	35
Strongly Agree	31	10	32
Neutral	31	2	6
Disagree	31	5	16
Strongly Disagree	31	3	10

 

Table 4. 5 Survey Question 5

Analysis

The question pertains to the satisfaction level of the people. According to reports, the management is not satisfied with the level of work being done.  32% of the employees fear the company policy would not be good enough in the coming time and this calls for introspection because the around 35% that is 10 employees of Greene King fears job loss. This has indirect references and is addressed in the overall understanding.

4.1.6. Do you think that Company needs to bring in internal reforms towards efficient handling of the workplace?

 

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Agree	31	9	29
Strongly Agree	31	9	29
Neutral	31	5	16
Disagree	31	3	10
Strongly Disagree	31	4	13

 

Table 4. 6 Survey Question 6

Analysis

This question pertains to internal reforms that are expected from a business organization. The pandemic has affected badly the internal reforms. Around 39% calls for internal reforms. Around 19% of the employees believe that the present system would be sufficient for this kind of system. This needs to be addressed that this reform is needed in a pandemic derived economy.

4.1.7 Are you satisfied with the present COVID norms followed by Greenee king?

 

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Agree	31	6	19
Strongly Agree	31	2	6
Neutral	31	12	39
Disagree	31	6	19
Strongly Disagree	31	5	16

4.1. 10.  How do you consider that Greene King needs to retain only the Experienced workers?

	Total number of  Response	Response	Percentage
Agree	31	2	6
Strongly Agree	31	3	10
Neutral	31	2	6
Disagree	31	12	39
Strongly Disagree	31	12	39

Table 4. 10 Survey Question 10

Analysis

The discussion is related to the core recruitment policies for the company in the coming time. There might be reasons more than one. The lions share of the review is shared by the Strongly disagree and Disagree. This comprises a  value of around 39% and 39%. This could be understood through the overall study and analysis that the company is good enough with experienced workers. The company believes firmly that retaining experienced employees is abid deal here. The experienced leaders would be able to guide the company in the coming time.

Chapter  5 Conclusion and Recommendation

Post-Conducting Survey of 31 employees of the Greene King Company many elements cropped up. According to the survey it could be read and understood that the company needs to bring in a lot of changes in accordance with proper planning. This could be understood and mentioned through the fact that Greene King's company needs to bring in reforms internal to the business. This could be found out that a lot goes into defining Employment arrangement. One gets to see and analyse the fact that employee Retention has become one of the biggest challenges. That is why Greene Kings inducts more young employees. Young employees are floating employees and they are extremely useful in deriving long term economic success. Taking this into consideration it could be said that percentile segregation ( 29%) forms as one of the important aspects

In the concluding discussion, the mention of the job losses and their impact on the company and employees are to be mentioned. This could be understood that an apposite discussion needs to be done to analyse and understand the impact of economic recession upon the company. Question 4.1.8 and 4.1.9 bears the logic of whether Greene King needs to put the inappropriate amount of fund for development. This points directly towards the COVID 19 hurled recession that has hit the company activities as well as budget heavily. Here it needs to be mentioned that the company rules and regulations for company development are hit severely. This takes appropriate measures to related to the fact that the revenue generation of the Company is hurt to such an extent ( -44%). Therefore it is qute enigmatic regarding the steps taken by the company to resist the attack of the COVID 19 pandemic. The overall market is reduced to around -14.6% in the UK. This Data is related to the Ale industry all around the UK. The fall of the international market is more serious. According to the study, the Global Ale market is down to around -36%. The following fall is indicative of the fact that the COVID 19 pandemic is hurt by quite a thick percentage. One of the other aspects of the overall development is the management of funds.  Greene King is considering different financial sources so as to reinvest confidence in the overall market.

Under the COVID 19 pandemic, the overall fall in the market is indicative of the fact that there are large scale market reforms that are being targetted by the business organisation. The COVID 19 has badly affected the overall economy.  There are large scale risk factors that need to be kept in mind. This Challenge includes Strategic Risks, Market and Economic Risks, Operational Risks and Finacial Risks. In this connection the mention of point 4.1.6 finds significance. 

Therefore it can be identified that the overall market could be identified through different segments of analysis. Greene King Management needs to take note of the different needs and their analysis in order to perform a better analysis of the requirements.