As the crusade for talent across all sectors reaches fever pitch, IHG is taking a lead in revitalising workplace culture to make the hotel industry an attractive place to work.
Busting the myth that hotels are all work and no play, IHG is rolling out a comprehensive compensation and benefits strategy alongside a flexible work philosophy, to draw a more diverse talent pool to bring innovation and new perspectives into the business.
“IHG is pulling out all the stops to build the reputation of the hotel industry – and IHG – as an aspirational place to work,” said Matt Tripolone, IHG’s Managing Director – Australasia & Pacific.
“Our market-leading approach brings together an array of benefits and programmes to support our colleagues in both their career and life journey with IHG, providing unmatched flexibility and benefits to support them now and the future.”
All IHG hotels now have a diverse range of initiatives to create an engagement and retention strategy that works for them, no matter their size or location, meaning that as employees progress and move to different parts of the business, they can still enjoy all the benefits they are used to.
“It’s creating a culture in hotels where the people matter, whether it’s their career, their residency, their long-term employability or simply life balance,” said Lynda Ugarte, IHG’s Head of Head of Human Resources – JAPAC.
“It makes IHG exceptionally competitive against direct and indirect competitors for talent, differentiating it as an ’employer of choice’, promotes retention and lowers the cost of turnover.”
Bring on the benefits
Understanding that life and work is not linear, IHG has introduced myBenefits – an initiative that brings together a range of supports and perks for all team members to ensure a career at IHG is a fulfilling one.
The programme is designed to support professional and personal development, wellbeing, personal interests, and lifestyle choices.
Among those benefits are generous leave entitlements for full- and part-time colleagues including paid parental leave for up to three months, wellness leave, birthday leave and sabbatical leave. It also includes discounts across third party retailers, and accommodation, and food and beverage with IHG worldwide.
All about balance
IHG is also flipping the traditional working model on its head, by prioritising flexibility – allowing its people to choose when and how they want to work.
Through myFlex, IHG team members can balance their own personal commitments while still enjoying a rewarding career.
“myFlex takes the concept of casual work to a new level, providing a great hourly rate along with the ability for colleagues to choose when and where they work – as well as accessing all the benefits,” said Deborah Leong, IHG’s Director, Reward – Australasia and Japan.
Equal opportunities
IHG’s meaningful partnerships with charities, universities, schools, and job networks, provide further opportunities to reach untapped talent.
Through its partnership with food rescue organisation OzHarvest, IHG sponsors and supports at-risk youth to gain hospitality skills and qualifications.
In August, IHG launched a Partnership Pilot with Spinal Cord Injury Australia (SCIA) at three hotels, providing meaningful work for people with physical disability, while learning from their lived experience and introducing a pool of diverse untapped talent to the business.
“IHG has an ambition to become known as a market leader in disability accommodation to the 1.3 million Australians with a disability who take one trip per year, become loyal and repeat guests, are more likely to stay longer and book multiple rooms,” said Ugarte.
Rise up the ranks
Through a constantly evolving learning and development program, IHG is working hard develop and nurture talent, whatever an employee’s career goals might look like.
Journey to GM supports and mentors budding general managers to work their way to the position within 12-18 months, while RISE is a mentoring and sponsorship initiative that supports female leaders to progress their careers and strengthen their ambition to hotel or corporate senior leadership roles.
Diverse perspectives are welcomed in all areas of the business, most notably through LINK, IHG’s shadow leadership team, which offers an important viewpoint on important issues in discussions with the IHG JAPAC leadership team.
Long game careers are IHG’s hallmark, so career milestones are a cause for celebration, and further reinforce the connection within the team at IHG. In August, more than 500 hotel colleagues joined the JAPAC leadership team at hotels around Australasia through ‘Eurovision’-style live cross feeds across all participating hotels for an annual celebration.
“It was a palpable moment where hearts, lives, careers and community came together,” said Ugarte.
To find out more about IHG’s amazing careers, visit http://careers.ihg.com