Our view

Working conditions in the service industry have recently received media attention in Norway, and Espresso House has been mentioned in this context. We therefore want to address this from Espresso House's point of view.

Espresso House aims to be a safe and good workplace for everyone, where our employees thrive. Like the rest of the service industry, we have high turnover and many young employees, which comes with great responsibility and some challenges. The Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority prioritizes the service industry and has conducted several thousand inspections in the industry in the recent years. These inspections provide us with good guidance and direction for our continuous improvement work.

Industry challenges were intensified after the pandemic shutdown, which resulted in an enormous recruitment need in a short time. Training, culture building, and routine work have therefore been prioritized. We still have a way to go, and we have a good dialogue with the Labor Inspection Authority and the worker representatives at Espresso House.

Currently, we have several ongoing inspection cases in Norway, some of which have resulted in decisions on measures. We take these cases very seriously and work systematically to correct them. Often, the decisions involve a lack of documentation or formalization of routines. This is sent to the inspection authority before the issues can be concluded as solved.

In a 2021 report, the Labor Inspection Authority described a comprehensive inspection at the head office and three departments. The report states that "It is the Labor Inspection Authority's view that Espresso House has done thorough and comprehensive work to ensure that the employees have a fully satisfactory working environment."

Below are some examples of the initiatives we have taken in recent years to develop Espresso House as a sustainable place to work:

- Every day, our employees can give us instant feedback on how their shift has been through Barista Pulse. We simply take the pulse of the working day: green, red or in between.

- An Advisory Board with senior management. In this forum, we discuss ideas that come from our employees and turn them into concrete activities for the benefit of our guests and employees.

- We have developed our direct conversations with employees through focus groups, in-shop staff meetings and the Facebook by Workplace platform where employees can share experiences, ideas and get direct answers to questions that arise in their daily work.

What improvements are being made going forward?

The job of ensuring good working conditions never ends, and we strengthen the HSE team another HSE resource in 2023. The main focus of the HSE work will be to implement our established routines. In addition, we are working to improve communication between the employee representatives and management so that changes and measures are introduced as early as possible. We also recently established the leadership program “Greater Oslo” to ensure development of our leaders.

Espresso House has a particularly large responsibility considering that we have so many young employees. We are proud to be the entrance to working life for many, and we will be a responsible and predictable employer.

We invest in our employees, and from January 1, 2023, we implemented a significant investment in the form of increased wages for all employees in our coffee bars.

Espresso House Norway made several new appointments to the management team in 2022, and the effects of new measures are beginning to take shape. New routines have been established and reinforcements have been made in HR , in addition to improving training and guidance for daily managers of our coffee bars. The employee representative role has also been strengthened, and there is better dialogue with employees at all levels. Espresso House has also improved its reporting systems. We are also in the process of introducing new "Scheduling Principles" to ensure good planning for managers and increase predictability and planning for our employees.

We are continuously working to improve. Our goal is for Espresso House to be a safe and good workplace for everyone, where our employees thrive.