I’m going to be honest with you about something.
Before I introduced the system I’m about to describe, the daily task management at Teal Farm Pub was a mess. Not catastrophically bad — the pub ran fine, customers were happy, the standards were there. But every single day involved some version of the same conversation.
“Has anyone done the litter pick?” “The glasswash hasn’t been cleaned.” “Who was supposed to do the line check?”
I was spending mental energy I didn’t have chasing tasks instead of running the business.
The Problem With How Most Pubs Handle Tasks
The standard approach is a paper checklist on a clipboard. Staff tick boxes. You hope they actually did the task. Nobody is quite sure who’s responsible for what. When something’s not done, there’s a brief awkward conversation and then it happens again next week.
The problem isn’t the paper. The problem is that ticking a box on a clipboard has no meaning beyond the moment. There’s no record. There’s no accountability. There’s no reason for a member of staff to feel anything about completing or not completing a task.
💬 “If there’s no consequence for not doing it and no recognition for doing it, why would anyone prioritise it?” — this is what one of my staff said when I asked them directly. They were right.
What I Tried First
Before landing on the system that worked, I tried a few things:
- Stricter verbal reminders. Worked for a week, then back to normal.
- Different paper checklists. Same result — ticked without being done.
- Assigning tasks to specific named staff. Better, but created resentment when people felt tasks were unfairly distributed.
- Cash bonuses for good shifts. Expensive and hard to define fairly.
None of them solved the root problem, which wasn’t really about the tasks at all. It was about engagement.
The System That Changed Everything
I built a points-based gamification system. Every task in the pub — every litter pick, every line check, every bar close, every deep clean — earns XP points. Staff log tasks on their phone. There’s a monthly leaderboard. Tasks that haven’t been done in too long turn red and jump to the top.
The first week I ran it I said nothing to the staff about competing. I just made the leaderboard visible.
By day three, two members of staff were comparing their scores.
🍺 The result: Within two weeks, task completion rates were up across every category. Not because of pressure. Not because of consequences. Because of competition.
Why It Works — From the Staff’s Perspective
I asked my team what was different about the new system compared to the paper checklist. Three things came up consistently:
“You can actually see what you’ve done”
The activity feed shows every task logged that day, by everyone. Staff can see their contributions. That visibility — knowing your effort is recorded and visible — changes how people think about tasks.
“It’s something to do between customers”
Multiple staff said this independently. On a quiet Tuesday afternoon, checking what tasks are available and knocking one off for points is more engaging than standing around. The gamification element fills quiet moments productively.
“I want to stay top of the leaderboard”
This was the most powerful driver. Once one person cares about the leaderboard, others start caring about not being at the bottom. It’s social psychology in action — and it costs nothing to maintain.
The Numbers (Teal Farm Pub)
I’m not going to pretend I have a controlled scientific study. But here’s what I can tell you from running the system in a real pub:
| Metric | Before vs After |
| Daily “has anyone done X?” conversations | Multiple per shift → near zero |
| Litter pick completion | Inconsistent → completed daily without prompting |
| Deep clean task completion | Patchy → consistent weekly schedule maintained |
| 5-star Google reviews mentioning staff by name | Occasional → regular — staff actively seek them for points |
| Manager time spent chasing tasks | Daily → minimal |
How to Implement This in Your Pub
The exact system I use is available free at SmartPubTools.com. It’s called Staff Gamification HQ. It runs on Google Sheets, takes about 5 minutes to set up, and costs nothing.
You don’t need any technical knowledge. There’s a setup guide built into the Google Sheet itself. You put your staff names in, deploy the web app, share the link with your team, and you’re live.
| 🍺 Get the Same Free System I Use at Teal Farm 👉 Download Staff Gamification HQ Free → Free forever. No apps to install. Set up in 5 minutes. |
Honest Caveats
This isn’t magic. A few things to be realistic about:
- It works best when managers actively acknowledge leaderboard positions. If you introduce it and never mention it, the engagement drops off after a few weeks.
- Some staff won’t engage with it — that’s fine. The ones who do will more than compensate.
- The system needs occasional updates — new tasks, point adjustments. Budget 10 minutes a month for maintenance.
- It solves task completion. It doesn’t solve every staff management challenge — scheduling, conduct and performance still need the human touch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will staff think a points system is childish?
Every landlord I’ve spoken to has worried about this before launching it. Every single one has reported the same thing: staff embrace it faster than expected. Friendly competition is not childish — it’s human nature.
What if staff log tasks they haven’t done?
The system doesn’t remove the need for management judgement entirely — you can spot patterns in the log. But in practice, dishonest logging is far less common than you’d expect, especially once the team culture is engaged with the system.
How long before I see results?
In our experience, the competitive element kicks in within 48–72 hours of launch. Task completion improvements are visible within the first week.
About the author: Shaun runs Teal Farm Pub in Washington, Tyne and Wear under a Marston’s retail partnership. He is the founder of SmartPubTools.com and built Staff Gamification HQ to solve a real problem in his own pub.