To create a cultural shift around talent in hospitality organizations, the “tone must come from the top,” delegates heard at the IHIF EMEA in Berlin on Monday.
“One thing we keep hearing in the industry is the need to have the right people,” said Felicity Black-Roberts, senior vice president development Europe, Africa and Middle East (EAME), Hyatt Hotels. “But if we don’t grow people and allow them to grow through, and take people from a wide pool, the situation is only going to get worse.”
Kristen Kozlowski, managing director, PineBridge Benson Elliot, suggested that the real estate industry wasn’t “achieving [its] fullest potential,” and would “miss opportunities if it didn’t include the diversity of thought that should exist."
Barriers to Change
However, both leaders expressed frustration with the number of “barriers to change” for the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topic in both hospitality and real estate. Added Black-Roberts: “One issue is learned experience – if you have been through something yourself you are better equipped to lead on that topic.” She suggested that “every person and every minority group” faced challenges that they could share.
Kozlowski said that she had recently been compelled to ask for “additional training” to participate in her firm’s currently all-male investment committee. She said that speaking up was crucial for personal growth – “not asking for special treatment but asking for a specific tool”.
Black-Roberts agreed that progress in this area was “not about special treatment” but about “getting the very best from the people you have hired.”
Moderator Charlotte Sweeney, founder of Charlotte Sweeney Associates, said that her firm had recently conducted research at a C-Suite level, which had revealed that many leaders had admitted that they “don’t make decisions on recruitment and promotion meritocratically” and that they “wanted to see change but thought it was difficult to see how they would do things differently.”
Black-Roberts suggested that executives might want to think about how to drive change on an individual level. “Starting small actually leads to things that are much bigger,” she said.
Uncomfortable Conversations
Kozlowski added that “we need to become much more comfortable with uncomfortable conversations”, noting that neurodiverse individuals often have records of “outperformance.” But, she added, “I wouldn’t know how to interview a neurodivergent person” and “would need to bring someone along that had that lived experience.”
She said that a lot of internal company success on the topic at PineBridge Benson Elliot related to “talking about DEI informally” to see “what really works for us”. She added: “Some of the backlash that exists is for DEI initiatives, rather than the culture of looking at people and making sure that they are treated as humans.”
Concluded Black-Roberts: “Hyatt needs people. We all know that in the hospitality industry, great experiences come from great people.” She noted that Hyatt’s youth advancement program, RiseHY, had successfully introduced thousands of young people from around the world to careers in hospitality. “We are currently on target to have 10,000 people in our organization from this program. That gives you an idea of the quantum we are talking about -and these people are much more likely to be retained within the organization,” she said.