The Stonegate Group’s Director for Late Night, Sarah Miller, is passionate about hospitality and promoting the equality, diversity and inclusivity agenda, to open up conversations and create workplaces and social spaces that are better and more accepting of all.
Hello all, my name is Sarah Miller and I am the Director of Late Night at Stonegate Group – I know quite the title! I look after some wonderful brands such as Be at One, Slug & Lettuce, Popworld and the UKs largest group of LGBTQIA+ venues.
I’m here to write openly about my role specifically related to Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity (ED&I). I have always worked in the hospitality industry and often get lots of questions around the two careers that I have had in operations and in human resources, with the emphasis always being on which do you prefer? And the truth is, that I would always choose operations. But, I know that my approach is heavily influenced by my time in HR.
My love affair with hospitality began aged 16, when I got a part-time job waiting on tables and washing dishes. I quickly discovered that hospitality had a balance that I did not know I was looking for. It was:
- Structured, which I liked, as I was still studying and this gave me security and confidence.
- Hard work, which I enjoyed, as at the time I was fake adulting, which means that I could brag about my achievements and how hard I worked, but my mum still dropped me off each shift.
- Fun. We laughed at everything. Even when we were in the weeds, we still laughed. 4.
- EVERYONE was welcome. And, no matter what, I could not break this bond with hospitality.
I ended up ditching university and joining a management programme at the pub company – much to my parents’ horror! I worked my way through and found myself, a fair few years later, in the training department. It was here that I discovered that you could influence at a deeper level through strategy, insight and values. So, my career in HR began, which culminated in becoming an HRD [Human Resources Director] and leading on a people approach that focused on listening to the teams and hearing them.
Throughout my time in HR, my biggest opportunity was understanding more about why central strategies don’t always translate at bar/pub/club level. And so I took an Area Manager role and learnt the hard way. I discovered that the roles weren’t that different: in both areas we choose what we want the priorities to be, and they become the conversation. My question became: how do you make sure you have the same priorities, without becoming an admin-fuelled corporate entity that never engages with their teams’ aspirations? The answer became clearer to me the more I explored the role of ED&I within hospitality and more importantly at a site level, where we needed to encourage the conversation and answer the questions.
As a very proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, the ED&I agenda is very important to me. It’s both important to me personally – as I celebrate being legally married, having a 16-year-old daughter and being openly gay – and from a business perspective, as we celebrate this community, get involved in events and throw the best parties in the land, particularly during Pride month. This is, of course, a month full of celebration and inclusivity, but it is also a time to mark the journey we have been on to get here. Just to be writing this is significant!
Pride month actually began in conflict and violence, as a riot in a bar in New York called the Stonewall Inn, as patrons retaliated against the police brutality towards gender non-conformity (as it was known back then). This was June 1969 and the start of the Stonewall Uprising. The first Gay Liberation marches actually took place one year later in Chicago, LA and New York to commemorate the riots and continue the battle towards equality. London held it’s first Gay Pride Rally on July 1, 1972. And the name changed to Pride in the 1980s, as the levels of activism shifted culturally to a deeper level of celebration. The acronym PRIDE stands for Personal Rights in Defence and Education
So, Pride is both serious and fun to me in equal measures. As I write this, my heart still hurts that this movement only started 50 years ago and gay relationships are still criminalised in 72 countries across the world. We still have a way to go. I am grateful to those who stood for the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, so that we can be seen, accepted and included, and I am PROUD to be part of a community that will continue to champion equality for all.
Represented by the Rainbow flag, Pride is easily recognisable nowadays and the umbrella title represents over 50 different groups – and yes, all with a different flag – now that’s diversity. The celebration of inclusivity this year during Pride led us to think about how we widen our reach: how do we all become more inclusive and expand the conversation to educate and accept? And so, the Serving with Pride event was created, in partnership with our friends at Heineken.
We came together to look at how we can celebrate the unique role that pubs and bars play in championing inclusivity, and to hear from some of the amazing people who work in venues and how they promote inclusivity – because it is the right thing to do and because it drives a bigger market share for our businesses. Stonegate commissioned some research for the event, to facilitate discussions and to share best practice on how pubs and bars can continue to be more inclusive.
It showed that where venues demonstrate they are inclusive and will not tolerate discrimination, the more likely they are to be visited by the majority of the population. Around 60% of people are more likely to visit pubs that are inclusive, with this number jumping to 76% for people who identify as LGBTQIA+, 82% for people who have accessibility needs and 73% for people from ethnic minorities. Sadly, the research showed that discrimination still takes place, with 45% of LGBTQIA+ people having experienced some kind of discrimination, and 34% not feeling able to be their true selves in a pub or bar for fear of discrimination. Across the board, the survey showed that the most common reason people visit a pub or bar is to relax and meet with friends, which highlights the need for hospitality venues to provide a welcoming environment.
The well-attended event gave us the opportunity to celebrate, but also to discuss how we can encourage inclusivity. You can’t just tell people to be inclusive – beliefs are hard-wired – and behaviours represent this.
My over-arching messages are not ground-breaking and I am far from an expert, but here are my principles:
- People learn with information, so encourage the conversation and try to answer the questions together: I may not understand what’s important to you, until I understand you
- Approach every interaction with kindness and curiosity – diversity is rich
- Protected characteristics are defined; inclusivity is not Here’s to us all making a small change with every conversation until inclusivity isn’t something we have to work at.
