The hospitality industry is coming off one of the most difficult years in its history. Every major travel company has felt the pain of the pandemic, with many experiencing furloughs and layoffs throughout the past year.
According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, more than 670,000 direct hotel industry jobs and nearly 4 million hospitality industry jobs overall were lost in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
The numbers are stark, but the travel and hospitality industry is nothing if not resilient. Travel will be back, and as it returns, human resources departments will quickly find themselves buzzing once again.
While rebuilding can certainly feel challenging, it also arrives with a gift: the opportunity to take intentional, thoughtful action to increase diversity at the leadership levels of the hospitality industry.
As you begin thinking about turning on your hiring engines once again, this is the time to take an in-depth look at your hiring practices and use this as a chance to reset and improve your diversity and inclusion recruitment efforts.
Invest the time now to prepare to take full advantage of this moment, before hiring activity ramps back up. To make progress, you must first know your starting point. Revisit your strategies and processes in attracting and hiring diverse talent to deliver more inclusive results.
Establish Metrics of Accountability Across All Processes
You likely have a wide variety of human resources programs in place. Take a look at them collectively. Are they aligned toward driving your organization to creating a more diverse workforce? What tweaks or shifts can you make so they connect better?
Consider what methods of accountability are in place. How are you currently holding your hiring managers and leadership accountable on diversity and inclusion efforts? Data from LinkedIn shows that while 69% of talent professionals feel their organizations are committed to diversity, only 47% believe hiring managers are held accountable for creating a diverse candidate slate.
Evaluate Sourcing Channels With a Critical Eye Toward Diversity
Begin by looking at the places from which you are currently sourcing talent. Is your level of effort merely checking a box, or is it a true desire to proactively look beyond the usual sources? Look for potential candidates outside of your normal networks.
Building strategic partnerships with diverse organizations, associations and colleges and universities will boost your diversity recruiting efforts and provide access to diverse candidates while deepening talent pipelines. Engage with historically Black colleges and universities and student organizations. Actively support professional organizations that connect diverse candidates to meaningful employment.
Promote Your Employee Referral Program
Employee resource groups are great brand ambassadors for your company. Pairing the organic efforts with the employee referral program can bolster pipelines. Leverage the talent networks of your employee resource groups to reach more diverse candidates, and seek their participation in the interviewing and onboarding processes.
Evaluate Your Employer Brand Through the Lens of Diversity
Company homepage, careers site, social media and marketing channels are effective in showcasing your employer’s brand. These should amplify your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Candidates are seeking companies where they can be their authentic selves. Clear commitments to diversity and inclusion efforts, employee resource group engagement, diverse imagery and testimonials can help to attract and engage diverse candidates.
Provide End-to-End Training on Inclusive Leadership and Decision-Making
Failing to align diversity initiatives and candidate slates is a plan to fail. Recognize the areas of opportunities may differ by function and devise an approach to track progress and drive accountability. Think about how to bring all leaders along on this journey and ways to train leaders to intentionally approach inclusive hiring practices in new and more thoughtful ways. Look at the various areas of training that could strengthen your overall hiring process. Address the unconscious biases in your hiring process — this includes diversifying your interviewers, not just the interviewees. It’s also important ensure you are onboarding for inclusion and intentionally identifying diverse talents for development programs.
We are approaching a great moment of opportunity for hospitality leaders to change our traditional hiring practices. Doing what we’ve always done will get us what we’ve always gotten, and companies that don’t adapt will be left behind. Don’t let this rare moment of hiring opportunity pass you by.
DeShaun N. Wise Porter is Hilton’s global head of diversity, inclusion and engagement.
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