More than a year after former Mikkeller employees went public with stories of bullying, harassment, and the company’s indifference, Mikkeller announced today a formal plan to make amends. While full details of individuals’ offers are not known, financial compensation is a part of some proposals.
The Mikkeller Reconciliation Program (MRP) launched in July, with Mikkeller hiring workplace consultancy Hand & Heart to orchestrate it. In November, Hand & Heart produced a multipart podcast about Mikkeller; Mikkeller subsequently hired Hand & Heart (at an unknown fixed fee) as a third party to lead the MRP. Hand & Heart founder and managing partner Kate Bailey says Mikkeller had an “administrative role” in the MRP but that “Hand & Heart independently investigated claims, though at times and with consent, sought cooperation from Mikkeller.”
A general report, issued today by Hand & Heart, outlines several areas:
Methodology for how cases were collected and verified.
The impacts that bullying, sexual harassment, abrasive leadership, and a harmful culture have on employees generally, not specifically at Mikkeller.
Suggestions for how Mikkeller can improve as a company moving forward.
Recent leadership changes at Mikkeller complicate the picture of whether and how the company will change moving forward. In its announcement, Mikkeller stated that "our priority is that participants of this program feel that their experiences have been acknowledged by Mikkeller, that the program has entailed reconciliation between the participants and Mikkeller, and that the results from the program will help Mikkeller to develop and ensure an even better work environment."
In an email to Good Beer Hunting, Ditte Lassen-Kahlke, general counsel and chair of the board, says that Mikkeller has already started several initiatives from its Work Environment Action Plan, although declined to provide specifics about how the company plans to initiate specific changes recommended by this week’s report.
"It is a key focus for us to ensure that we keep learning and improving as an organization, and the MRP has been an important part of this continuing important work," Lassen-Kahlke wrote. "Moving forward we continue to be inspired to learn and will still focus on improving to be the best work place we can be, and help others by being a leading positive voice in our beloved craft beer community.
The program represents a structure for making formal amends for harmful workplace conditions within the beer company, many of which came to light via an outpouring of accounts of sexual harassment shared last May. Bailey says the agreements are a legal contract signed by both individuals and Mikkeller.
Affected workers who participated in the MRP were not asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, and are free to discuss their experiences. However, because the full terms of reconciliation packages aren’t made publicly available, details about the exact nature of the compensation or redress employees received are not clear.
“Were we compensated for what we lost? Not even close. But it’s something, and it’s something that a year and a half ago, I wouldn’t have been expecting at all,” says a former employee who worked for MIkkeller in Copenhagen between 2018-2019. They asked that their name not be used to avoid potential harassment. This person says that through the MRP, they received financial compensation related to violations of their employment contract, as well as physical and emotional stress.
“I’m at peace with the whole thing,” they say.
WHY IT MATTERS
Mikkeller faces other urgent business priorities in addition to the MRP. In August, the company announced it would “focus less on expansion” and more on profitability, citing difficult business conditions for production breweries like itself. Less than two weeks later, the company said it would close its San Diego brewery, its sole U.S. production facility. Mikkeller also announced it would close its San Francisco bar after nine years in operation.
Mikkeller will have to reorient the company at the same time it makes changes to its workplace culture if it is to meet suggestions offered in Hand & Heart’s general report. In addition to the reconciliation plans agreed to by affected workers and Mikkeller through the MRP, Hand & Heart recommends seven further steps the company should take to improve its culture and business. These include:
An investigation “into any and all complaints within the last five years that did not reach a formal resolution.”
A financial impact study to investigate the cost of employees leaving the company due to hostile workplace environments, which the report notes negatively affected the performance of former employees. (According to Gallup, disengaged employees have a 37% higher rate of absenteeism—generally in the form of sick days—than engaged ones.)
A review process with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion for public-facing materials, such as beer labels, to ensure that there are no racist or classist elements are published. (A group used protest art last year to highlight what they said were racist and sexist marketing practices by the company.)
A more robust human resources structure, with an independent, executive-level team focused on HR. The report states that HR “has been a dismissed component of the Mikkeller organization since its inception. The company does not have the adequate experience in HR operations to enhance and develop the program.” Lassen-Kahlke says that Mikkeller has already “significantly expanded our HR department” in addition to making HR “part of management.”
Coaching and/or training for people identified in testimonials from the MRP as “abrasive leaders.”
Workshops and coaching for employees on topics that are not specified.
A review of current systems for reporting workplace problems and consideration that these be handled by an external third party.
Despite an in-depth outline of how to address company culture, it’s not clear when or how changes would take place, especially after major shakeups among Mikkeller leadership. Former Mikkeller CEO Kenneth Madsen, who had been overseeing the MRP, was replaced in August by a three-person committee made up of Mikkel Bjergsø (founder and creative director), Martin Connie Pinborg (CFO and director), and Ditte Lassen-Kahlke (general counsel and chair of the board). Bjergsø had previously been criticized by former employees for ignoring complaints and allowing severe harassment and misogyny to persist. Now, he’s part of the leadership team tasked with charting a better path forward for the company.
In the wake of employees sharing their stories last year, Bjergsø was initially defiant, dismissing their accounts and telling two Danish media outlets that activists were trying to ruin his business.
In October of last year, after pushing back against employees’ claims for months, he issued an apology.
Announcing the MRP in January, he took further responsibility, stating: stating: “I acknowledge, with sadness, the experiences we have come to know about Mikkeller’s workplaces during my time as CEO. I take responsibility for that, and I am sorry to each and every person impacted.”
The former employee who worked for Mikkeller in Copenhagen expresses relief that the process is resolved.
“It’s been a little thorn in my side, and I just wanted it out,” they say. “Now that it’s out, I feel that much better. … I’m hopeful for the future. Going through this whole process was a little more motivation for Mikkeller to really follow through on things.”
Words by Kate Bernot