The Drinks Trust has limited resources to help as many people as it can in the drinks industry. Which is why it needs your help to determine the areas you want to see it offering support in by taking part in its Drinks Industry Survey, explains chief executive, Ross Carter and project manager Lucy Marcuson.
You have just launched your first drinks industry survey – can you explain why now?
Over the last few months, The Drinks Trust has been able to award a significant number of financial grants and will have helped over 5,000 people in 2020, a 400% increase on 2019. In addition, we’ve introduced an increased selection of wellness services to support people in the industry.
The Trust will continue to provide these services. However, the emerging and likely long-term effects that the current situation will have on the community has led us to launching our first Drinks Industry Survey, which we plan to do annually, allowing us to chart the evolving needs and opinions of the workforce.
What do you hope the survey will help you better understand about the industry?
The survey has been created to establish how members of the hospitality and drinks industries are feeling, what their concerns are and to better understand what their thoughts are on diversity and inclusion in our industry. The results will help to evolve the services and support supplied by The Drinks Trust as well as businesses in the drinks and hospitality sectors. The survey includes four sections covering you, your work life, diversity, and your wellbeing and should take approximately 12 minutes to complete.
As well as looking at your existing services you are also looking to focus on diversity and inclusivity with this survey – what role do you think The Drinks Trust can play here?
Following the excellent survey created by Gus Gluck and his team looking at diversity within the wine trade, we wanted to develop this by extending it to the drinks industry. By understanding the diverse nature of our industry, and what more needs to be done to evolve it, we are able to better support the drinks industry community. This will provide us with more data on which we will base our future plans both internally and externally.
We hope to work with a variety of key organisations within the drinks industry to promote greater understanding of diversity and how we can all improve.
Is there a role for wider mentorship schemes and initiatives in the drinks industry?
We believe so. The Drinks Trust aims to offer support and services to help its community thrive, to upskill, to broaden their knowledge, to network and learn from one another. Mentoring is one of the projects we are working on at the moment.
Could this be particularly encouraged in terms of promoting greater diversity and inclusivity in the industry?
Definitely. We need to ensure that everyone can find a role model that they can identify with so the better the diversity and inclusion, the wider the appeal.
You are also looking at work life balance? What are you hoping to better understand here?
Everyone has been under a lot of pressure recently and we are trying to identify how we can support people better. The wellness services have included support with mindful drinking, sleep and insomnia and online therapy but we expect that other areas of people’s lives has been affected by the pandemic. If there is a significant need for other services, we will look into providing them
Covid-19 has seen a big increase in the demand on your services – which have been the most in demand and how have you been able to help people?
We have been inundated with requests for financial support both through our main application and our specific funds.
Your Wellness services have been running through the summer -how have they gone and what is the next step to help develop them?
We are extremely pleased with how the industry has responded to our new services. Through the wellness services, we have been able to provide our colleagues with bespoke holistic support to safeguard their physical and mental health. Through the results of this survey, we will review these services to ensure we are meeting the industry’s needs. We are also looking at how best to empower the workforce to help one another. We have plans to introduce training for individuals to support their colleagues and act as a conduit to The Trust.
Are you still looking for additional financial support from the trade – what options are there for people and businesses?
We are exceptionally grateful for all the support we have received to date. The generosity of the donations and fundraising activity from businesses and individuals has been incredible however we believe that the long term effects will mean that financial support and other services will be required well into 2021 for many people.
We welcome anyone who would like to discuss becoming a Business Partner or arranging a fundraiser for us. For anyone interested in supporting our work please visit our website drinkstrust.org.uk and the donate section here.
What pressures and demands on your services do you see coming across the winter months and how are your preparing the charity?
More of the same – ongoing issues ranging from financial support as a result of the end of furlough and redundancies where businesses have had to close. In addition, we feel that our wellness services in particular, therapy may be required in the longer term.
There is a growing need to address any form of discrimination as well as promoting diversity wherever possible in conjunction with other organisations to provide a united front and also creating a place for people to come to for advice.
- If you would like to find out more about what The Drinks Trust can do for you then click here.
- To take part in the Drinks Industry Survey CLICK HERE. It has been created with the support of We Are Wellbeing in association with Best Bar None, NDML, NTIA, SIBA and WSTA.
