ESG in the portfolio: Bastard Burgers
Interview with Simon Wanler (SW), Founder and CEO
Q: As the head of a burger restaurant chain, can you tell us more about how you build culture and manage the social part of the ESG work?
A: First of all, we are the only restaurant chain offering a full salary to employees during parental leave. We do this because we believe it's the right thing to do, but people appreciate it. We received an honorary award for this from Martin Servera, one of the largest suppliers to the Swedish restaurant industry. We also spend many resources on engaging with the employees. For example, we have an "idea box" where anyone can voice their opinion on new initiatives. In addition, we have implemented the Winningtemp software to collect feedback from all our employees.
Q: How about training and coaching while growing at this pace? And recruitment?
A: We have many training programs and competitions to reward high performing employees and restaurant teams. We also focus on building our leaders internally, and they can participate in weekly thematic education days to improve a particular skill. We also have a Future Leadership Program, where we choose cohorts of 20 promising employees and take them through a 9-month leadership program. When recruiting new employees, we believe in equal opportunities and that a diverse team performs better than the alternative. Therefore, we have a specific initiative to increase the share of female employees, even though we are proud to say that this share is already at above 40 per cent.
Q: With temporary layoffs and reduced opening hours, how have you been able to keep your employees during the pandemic?
A: I have received emails from employees willing to work without salary to save the company. We have seen restaurant teams collectively reducing their working hours to avoid having to lay off one or more team members temporarily. These stories tell me that we can achieve anything and that I want to invest even more in our team. That is why we recently launched our "Feel good like a Bastard" initiative to increase both physical and mental health among our employees. All our employees can participate free of charge, receive dietary advice, participate in yoga classes, coached training sessions, and mental health lectures.
Q: How has the pandemic affected Bastard Burgers?
A: Together with Equip, we had developed a crisis plan since mid-February 2020, so we knew what to do when the pandemic hit. The implementation was still complex, and the future looked uncertain. First, we had to implement routines to minimise infection risk among our employees and customers. For example, in a matter of days, all restaurants had stickers to ensure 1 m space in lines, all paper menus were removed, and disinfection was deployed. We also deployed cell phones across all restaurants in a matter of days to allow ordering, and we had to take a much more active approach to Wolt and Foodora, who suddenly represented a much larger share of sales. Once we had control, however, we saw that we had to adjust the staffing schedules. This was tough, both for our employees and for us, but I was genuinely amazed by the response and how the team stepped up for each other.
Q: How do you see the situation in the coming months, and what are your key priorities?
A: The situation is still uncertain, but we have learned to operate within this environment and are most definitely still pushing forward. As we opened fewer new restaurants than planned last year, we spent much time on operational improvement programs that we will benefit from once society opens up again. We have been tested very hard over the previous year, and I believe we have more than passed. People seem to love our food, and we continue to expand, not only to Sweden but also to Norway, New York, and Finland. And we will make sure to celebrate when the pandemic goes away, both internally and off course, with our customers.