Building an inclusive culture
This section of the toolkit offers strategies that create, support and nourish inclusive working environments in the hospitality sector. Building an inclusive culture mitigates against high turnover, low performance and low morale. When people feel they belong at work, they experience greater meaning, satisfaction, and stability; and as a result, their performance is positively impacted.
Have clear policies and processes for handling inappropriate customers and clients
While incidents of inappropriate behaviour from customers and clients may not be an everyday occurrence, nonetheless, it is important for your employees that they understand your organisation will take a zero-tolerance approach when it does happen. A 2022 report from Be Inclusive Hospitality found that 39% of Mixed ethnicity, 37% of Black and 28% of Asian people among 1,000 hospitality workers surveyed have experienced or witnessed racism in the workplace. Your employees will feel safer at work, and more empowered to handle difficult situations if they have received training on your organisation’s process for handling inappropriate behaviour.
Ensure your employees have access to (internal or external) HR
With customer service being such an integral part of the industry, it is crucial that staff feel able to be their best selves, in order to provide a consistently high-level of service. It is important that there is a person or procedure they can rely on in the event they face discrimination from customers. A trusted and independent HR function, clearly identified to employees, gives staff confidence that issues they raise will be handled fairly and confidentially.
If you do not currently have the budget to hire an internal HR Lead, consider outsourcing your HR function to an external consultant, who will act as an extension of your team and a key point of contact for your staff. Most micro-enterprises and small organisations do not have a HR team. Outsourcing this role protects your business and your employees. More details on the pros and cons of outsourcing HR are available.
Collaborate with your employees to build your culture
One way to ensure that your organisation grows with an inclusive culture is to start as you mean to go on and engage your current employees in defining and setting out your organisation’s vision, values and culture. Ask them what sort of working environment they want to be a part of? Engaging your employees this way has been shown to increase the likelihood that they will then display the behaviours agreed upon, and that employees feel valued, increasing the time which they subsequently stay with an employer (Kyriakidou, O. and Gore, J., 2005). It also involves teamwork and compromise, skills which are required in the hospitality sector.
Ensure your team and social events are inclusive
Always organise events with accessibility and inclusion in mind, so that team social events are welcoming for everyone. Unlimited has produced a useful and comprehensive guide on running accessible events that can be adapted to social and team events. For instance, religious reasons may mean that some of your staff do not drink alcohol; the timing of your social events may mean that working parents with dependent children cannot attend due to caring responsibilities; or, your chosen social events may not be inclusive to those with disabilities. Having a conversation with your staff when planning team events should help you to make choices that are inclusive to all.
Here are some ways to get started and support religious holidays and promote interfaith inclusion in your workplace:
- Identify an EDI calendar which incorporates religious holidays or identity-based observances (e.g. Black History Month) throughout the year. Send out a survey to better understand how employees want to be supported or want to celebrate different holidays and/or identity-based observances (e.g. offer flexible working during Ramadan);
- To raise awareness and promote inclusion, identify internal and external speakers to talk about the meaning of different religious holidays and identity-based observances;
- Recognise the practical elements of religious holidays. For example, does your office have a quiet and private space for prayer and meditation in the office? Are staff supported during periods of fasting? Can you accommodate prayer times in the break-rota?). Read more here.