HCNME POINT OF VIEW
More diversity = more information. More information = better & faster decision - making.
Diversity and Inclusion
IN HOTELS BY MARTIN KUBLER, CHIEF SLOTH AT THE GLUTTONOUS SLOTH, HORECA CONSULTING WITH ATTITUDE
D
o you know what I like most about working in hotels? The diversity of the days. No day is ever the same, regardless of what hotel you’re working in and despite the changes the industry has gone through over the years. Yet, in some ways, hotels often lack diversity, too. When was the last time you were checked into a hotel by a staff member, who was in a wheelchair? Or by an employee who was otherwise a person of determination? Have a think. I’ll wait. Personally, I can only remember once such instance in the last 30 odd years I’ve spent in the industry. Odd that, surely, because our guests come in all shapes and sizes, from all kinds of different backgrounds, and are generally a fairly diverse lot, yet our teams often aren’t. One of the very basics of
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great customer service, if I remember my trainee days correctly, is showing empathy and understanding for guests – you know, step into their shoes, and see things from their perspective. How are we to accomplish this, though, if our teams aren’t as diverse as our guests? I’m not talking about gender equality in our teams – that’s an ongoing discussion which, luckily, is producing results and showing progress. What I’m talking about are the great number of things, many of them invisible, which we’re currently not usually considering, and which could make us a more diverse industry. The arguments for diversity are compelling. More diversity = more information. More information = better & faster decisionmaking. Research has shown again and again that diverse teams outperform homogenous ones in decision-making, because they process information more carefully. A little while ago, I had the pleasure of speaking to an industry veteran in the UK, who – as he puts it – is an “Aspie”, i.e. he has Asperger’s. He walked me through what hotel and other travel experiences are like for people with neurodiverse conditions (e.g. ADHD, Autism, Dyspraxia, etc.). Navigating airports or hotel lobbies, for example, can often be challenging, because of bright lights, lots of background noise, and large groups of people, but because neurodiverse
conditions are mostly invisible, such travellers get less support than, say, travellers who are wheelchair-bound. Equally, neurodiverse people find it more difficult to get employed in the industry, because our workplaces and routines aren’t made for them. I was astonished to learn that, very often, accommodating “differently able” employees wouldn’t really cost a lot of money and time – it’s just that we don’t know, because we’re not really discussing it as an industry. A few years ago, a friend refurbished his rather tired-looking hotel restaurant and turned it into a vibrant, welcoming, and exciting space. He spent a lot of money, but the feedback and uptake were largely positive. Everyone seemed to love the new space, but then a regular guest commented that he preferred the old space to the new one. When asked why, he said that previously, the chairs had armrests, which he could hold onto when navigating the restaurant or sitting at a table and that, without them, he feels less able to do so. It turned out that the gentleman had difficulties navigating open spaces, which – just by looking at him – you’d have never guessed. Some of the larger companies in our industry have started to employ Chief Diversity Officers (a.k.a. Chief Inclusion Officers), but by and large we’re lagging behind other industries, and I wonder why? Is it, because we don’t understand? Or because we’re