The notion of diversity is continually evolving. For Marriott International, it’s about more than just tolerance. 
The topic of diversity is not a new one within the hospitality industry, as many hotel companies over the years have launched strategic programs and created specific processes to educate employees and enhance awareness throughout their organizations.
Much like the multicultural world itself, today’s notion of diversity is continually evolving, and its definition now encompasses more complex areas than ever before. This includes taking a closer look at the growing multigenerational workplace, supplier diversity, and creating a sense of inclusion, as opposed to simply, “tolerance.”Jimmie Walton Paschall, global diversity officer and senior vice president of external affairs at Marriott International Inc., is spearheading Marriott’s diversity initiatives surrounding “inclusion.” She says Marriott has made a decision to place less significance on tolerance and sensitivity, which is how many diversity programs were initially launched, and instead place a higher value on increasing a true comfort level among employees with different backgrounds and cultures.“
Diversity focuses on what’s different about us, so it focuses on our unique skills, talents, and experiences, which raises issues of culture, race, ethnicity, gender, age, etc.,” Paschall says. “When that is the lens, the reaction is tolerance, sensitivity, curiosity—and trying to understand where people are coming from, and how they are different than you.“
Inclusion, which is the direction we are moving toward, is optimizing our diversity and ensuring that everyone feels valued and respected for what is unique about them—whether they are an associate, a customer, an owner, or supplier, and to actually use those unique skills and talents to drive innovation and business results,” she continues. “We believe it will translate to improved customer service, perhaps the development of new products and services, increased preference and loyalty from our customers, and increased engagement and satisfaction from our associates.”
Another way to foster inclusion is providing language training to a growing global workforce. Last year, Marriott launched a partnership with the language education company Rosetta Stone that offers associates the opportunity to learn more than 30 languages. A second Marriot language program, Sed de Saber (Spanish for “thirst for knowledge”) uses a handheld device with voice recordings, games, and review exercises to enhance the English language skills of Spanish-speaking employees. Recently, the program has grown to include teaching Spanish to English speakers. According to Paschall, both language programs have received an overwhelmingly positive response.
Another major diversity challenge facing many industries is today’s multigenerational workplace. Across the world, it is not uncommon to have four generations working together, including baby boomers, retirees who may have returned to the workforce, and those from generations X and Y. In addition, many companies have employees who work from home and use technology to communicate with their colleagues.
Not surprisingly, today’s Y generation has grown up with cross-cultural experiences, and many have been introduced to international travel opportunities as part of their education. Most have been able to learn one or more languages while in school.Paschall emphasizes that it is a key priority for Marriott to address emerging workforce trends and issues, in order to remain a vibrant and attractive place to embark on a career. “I think one of the trends we see is that the young people entering the workforce have a different set of expectations around it,” she says. “They already behave in a more inclusive way, and are helping to influence the organizations and the cultures that they join. Work also holds a different place for them. It is an important component of their life—but it is not their life.”
Minority OwnershipAccording to Ray Bennett, senior vice president of lodging development at Marriott International Inc., by 2010, women or minorities will own more than 500 of Marriott’s 3,200 hotels worldwide. Currently, 61 percent of all Marriott employees are minorities and 55 percent are women. Bennett, who oversees Marriott’s diversity ownership initiative, points out that Marriott continues to increase its multi-ethnic ownership base, because it is vitally important that the owners reflect the diverse communities in which Marriott conducts business.
“There is a lot of hard work that has gone into our diversity ownership initiative and it starts with our chairman, Mr. Marriott. He is a strong component and supporter of diversity throughout our organization, whether it be in ownership, whether it be in our workforce, whether it be in supplier diversity, and it permeates throughout our organization,” Bennett says. “When you look at our ownership base, I think we have one of the broadest ownership diversity portfolios in the industry. And I think a lot of that is attributed to his dedication as well as to our organization’s focus against that target.”
Bennett is also involved with Marriott’s Diversity Ownership Education Symposium, a successful business seminar that is held four times a year for the purpose of introducing future hotel owners to the world of lodging. They participate in a day and a half of high-level education seminars about the hospitality industry, where they meet industry experts, as well as existing owners.
These seminars provide attendees with details about all aspects of hotel ownership, including feasibility, construction, architecture, finance, and operations. Once the potential owner has gone through this initial training, the company offers new franchisees more in-depth training.
Bennett says that Marriott has had a great deal of success with the symposium, including gaining a number of new franchisees, as well as new business leads. “The symposiums are vital to the success of our program and our owners,” he says. “We want our owners to feel empowered, create connections, and ask questions. Our goal is to create lasting partnerships. “We are embarking on a cultural confidence where we want to understand all of the different cultures around the world, and we want all of our associates to have a greater understanding.” he continues. “I think that any hospitality company that is doing business in this global economy will face the same challenges, making sure that their employees understand the customers with which they do business.”
Supplier DiversityAlthough supplier diversity has been in existence for a number of years, it has re-emerged as a critical area within the industry. Not limited to the United States, supplier diversity is a far-reaching, global issue. In fact, Marriott was approached to participate in a pilot program by the Australian Indigenous Minority Supplier Council (AIMSC), which is investing $3 million dollars over three years to foster commercial relationships between indigenous business and corporations. Beginning in September 2009, this pilot program will take place in multiple hotels in Sydney, where Marriott will partner with Message Stick, a company owned by indigenous Australians that will supply Marriott hotels with technology, communications, and media services.
Bill Hartwig, vice president of global supplier relations and international procurement at Marriott, spent two years living and working in China. While there, he found a new appreciation for other cultures. He points out that, traditionally, throughout the industry, supplier diversity has been a silo into itself, often isolated from other departments. He, along with the Marriott team, found this to be frequently problematic.
Hartwig says that positive changes have been made, saying, “Now, the focus is on education and integration.” He further mentioned that several of his team members have shown a passion for diversity, and have whole-heartedly embraced the company’s focus on inclusion, even if it means going above and beyond their usual job responsibilities. “I’ve engaged two people who actually serve on external boards for minority organizations,” Hartwig says. “There is a person in each of our international procurement offices who are the leads for diversity initiatives in their respective territories or countries.”
Hartwig also speaks to the positive impact technology has made on the industry,especially in the area of supplier diversity. He says, “In our case, utilization of a shared service center with a centralized accounts payable really has helped, because now we have technology that can measure for us. Whereas before, everything was very manual in terms of the processes. Going forward, we are currently piloting some e-procurement tools for ordering purposes.”
With the industry embracing diversity more and more, hotel companies will undoubtedly continue to launch new programs and benefit from the value of introducing employees to different languages and different cultures.As Bennett points out, the hospitality industry by nature is an extremely diverse community. Summarizing his outlook on this topic, he wrote in an e-mail, “As we expand, inclusion and cultural competence are becoming more of a focus. It is imperative that we evaluate and learn from each environment where we do business, so that we can best serve our employees, guests and local communities.”
Special Sidebar: Nurturing Diversity
Raul Leal believes there’s an opportunity to take diversity in lodging to new levels.
By Marla Cimini
Raul Leal, president of Tecton Hospitality, is a 30-year industry veteran who has been intimately involved in diversity issues throughout his career. Recently, Leal was appointed to the board of directors of the Hispanic Hotel Owners Association (HHOA), a nonprofit organization that works with Hispanics to own, develop, and operate hotels.
Leal says that one of his goals is “to continue to work with Hispanic hotel owners and make sure they continue to be aware of the opportunities out there for them, outside of their respective countries, and also some of the potential funding opportunities that exist, like governmental programs.”
According to Leal, inclusion also encompasses nurturing young talent from all demographics. He points out that he is extremely pleased to see students and younger industry professionals expressing a positive and progressive outlook on their future careers. In his experience, many are aspiring to hotel ownership, as opposed to operations positions.Sharing in their enthusiasm, Leal believes the lodging industry offers plenty of opportunities to learn and grow. Just two years ago, Tecton Hospitality had taken its diversity training to a new level by implementing an official program to educate employees about multigenerational working environments.
“We have never really taken full advantage of the cultural diversity in our industry until the last few years, when it has really started to come to the forefront,” he says. “We have a golden opportunity here to take the industry—from a diversity standpoint—to new levels in the 21st Century.
“There are lots of transparences in society today, and a lot more information available then when I was growing up in the business,” he continues. “So people are able to make more informed decisions as to what lies in their future, and to figure out what they want to do for the rest of their lives.”
Leal’s company has more than 1,000 employees worldwide, and the associates have been very forthcoming about their place of employment. In 2008, Great Place to Work Institute did an opinion survey of Desires Hotels/Tecton Hospitality employees where it reported results of 93 percent of employees responding positively to the statement, “All things considered, this is a great place to work.”
According to Leal, Tecton Hospitality plans to launch two new programs in 2010. The first initiative will be a revised, “Harassment Free Workplace” facilitation guide, which includes a broader reach of diversity topics.
Tecton’s second program will be a new supplier diversity initiative that identifies new vendors who are considered to be “diversity suppliers.” These suppliers include businesses owned by minorities, women, veterans, and the disabled. A component of this new program will also include notifying diversity suppliers within local markets of future procurement needs ordinarily met by local market businesses. This “outreach” is intended to provide opportunities for diversity suppliers to compete in fulfilling those needs.