This week, to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, 2023, HM is giving female leaders in the accommodation industry a platform to share their views on ways to support women in hospitality careers.
Here, Dorsett Melbourne General Manager, Natalie Bussenschutt, recounts the powerful women that have influenced her and calls for more supportive work structures to foster female leadership.
I have enormous respect for female leaders. Those who may be a sole parent, and juggling a demanding career, those who may be caring for their parents or are putting themselves through further education.
Female talent, in particular hospitality leadership roles, more often leads to an empathetic, caring and authentic working environment, that values the individual and their contributions to the workplace.
My first hospitality job was working the front bar of my parent’s pub in Adelaide; where for many years I’d observe my mum working in the office and dad managing the bar while the locals ordered pint after pint and threw in a cheeky remark. I look back fondly on the pub, where I had to stand on a crate to reach the overhead spirits and wasn’t allowed anywhere near the TAB.
While I grew up within a hospitality space, it was at a 5-star hotel that a career in hospitality first began to interest me. I remember a phone in the bathroom, friendly staff and even at a young age I noticed the attention to detail of the General Manager. The hotel felt a secluded kingdom of perfectly pressed beds, beautiful breakfast buffets and swimming pools that to my young eyes, appeared to stretch far into the sunset.
While I became enamoured by the prestige of 5-star hotels, it became more and more obvious as I moved through my career, that women dominate the hospitality industry – except less often at the very top. Pleasingly, this is changing and is something that I hope to make a difference in during my career.
Globally, women have become engines of economic growth, and time and time again continue to prove that having women in leadership furthers gender diversity within a team and is key to an organised, successful and thriving business.
As an industry, while we continue to strive for a gender-balanced workforce and inclusive culture, we remain a step behind when it comes to big corporates offering things like childcare support and flexible working arrangements. The last few years has proven that staff can be trusted with flexible working arrangement within a supportive work structure.
Now, as General Manager of Dorsett Melbourne, I’m proud to be a part of a senior management team of over 60% females. We are led by Winnie Chiu, J.P. who is our President and Executive Director of Dorsett Hospitality International. Winnie is a powerhouse businesswoman, responsible for all properties within our international footprint in 23 major cities worldwide, and a mother too.
A big part of our culture at Dorsett is our genuine belief in our core values. We have four ‘I’s — Inspiration, Innovation, Integrity and Initiative. A shared responsibility to our guests, each other and our community: these attributes have become an integral part of our company culture.
As an industry, it’s time to nurture and support the next generation and current generations of women in hospitality. That starts from the top and is a topic I am personally focused on in my role. In a real-world sense, this means enforcing better wages, better conditions and ensuring that we break long-held biases so that we can see more women stepping into leadership positions.