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WORKFORCE 2025

In 2016, we set out to ensure diversity efforts more clearly aligned with our purpose as a company, which is to care for people so they can be their best. One of the first steps focused on identifying ways we bring our purpose to life across the organization and incorporating diversity touchpoints into communications and programming. To ensure we were supporting inclusive mindsets and experiences for our workforce, we developed specific diversity priorities and implemented them into our overall strategic priorities for the organization. This process brought us to the idea of Workforce 2025, which is the guiding principle for how we are developing our future workforce. With Workforce 2025 as the foundation, global teams are able to evaluate current talent flows and gain a line of sight into requirements for our future workforce. The creation of Workforce 2025 also invited the opportunity to conduct research on building an inclusive and diverse workforce, which we completed through Evidence-Based Practice.

EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE & FINDINGS

As the first step in the journey to Workforce 2025, we leveraged Evidence-Based Practice (EBP). Although not a new concept, EBP, in terms of workforce development, is an approach we took to increase the diversity of our workforce and foster an inclusive environment where colleagues feel valued, respected and supported each day.

EBP involves three basic components: (1) credible and relevant research/evidence of best practice workforce processes, approach and strategy; (2) subject matter expertise to assess an organization against research to identify opportunities and barriers to future workforce development; and (3) participant choice in terms of their talents, aptitudes, career goals and need for self-sufficiency.

In 2016, we began working with Mercer’s data-based consulting practice on an EBP journey that aimed to create a workforce necessary for future business success. This included analysis of our organization’s culture and values, colleague surveys, leadership interviews and a variety of focus groups. Along with the detailed analysis from Mercer’s proprietary Internal Labor Market (ILM) Analysis®, we looked at colleague perspectives on interests, values and needs. We also sought out industry-wide best practices. Once all of the findings from these inputs were combined, we were able to identify new opportunities within workforce talent areas for engaging, selecting and retaining top performers.

Rooted in learnings from our EBP journey and colleague input, we identified a num- ber of opportunities to drive greater impact for our Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) efforts across the organization. We have established a number of priorities based on those areas of opportunity to build on I&D efforts, including:

  • Evaluating all aspects of the flow of talent into and out of the organization to attract and retain top performers that help to create a culture of inclusion
  • Ensuring colleagues globally are receiving I&D communications and understanding how these tactics contribute to positive impacts across the organization
  • Increasing talent pipeline development and ensuring diverse groups are represented in our workforce across corporate offices and worldwide hotels

HYATT’S ACTIONS SPEAK TO ADVANCEMENT IN HR PRACTICES

Armed with learnings from the Mercer analysis, our senior leadership team, along with the Inclusion & Diversity team, is actively working to integrate I&D practices, build awareness and commitment to inclusive practices, and take consistent action to improve the quality, diversity and depth of our future leaders.

The increasing amount of research focused on the value of diversity and belonging in organizations is encouraging corporate leaders to raise the level of commitment of their staff. At Hyatt, we believe our leadership’s inclusive mindset enables us to focus on the well-being of colleagues and develop new ways of attracting, hiring, and promoting candidates in order to create positive impact.

After identifying our strategic priorities of attracting and retaining top performers, ensuring I&D communications reach our global audience, and increasing and developing the talent pipeline for diverse groups, we mapped out a variety of programs to extend these priorities to our colleagues’ day-to-day.

The following actions, programs and partnerships in 2017 and 2018 work to move the needle on our strategic priorities and serve as the key foundational pieces of our journey to Workforce 2025.

  • COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
    To bring our inclusive mindset to communities where we live and work, we established community non-profit partnerships to address the gaps in education and bring more opportunity to youth. As part of these partnerships, which include colleague participation through volunteer time, community youth receive training and support to help them prepare for future employment.
  • DIVERSITY BUSINESS RESOURCE GROUPS (DBRG)
    These groups promote diversity and inclusion efforts to colleagues, and provide professional development opportunities, mentoring and networking. Each DBRG is sponsored by an Executive Business Sponsor, who provides access to, and insight of, our leadership team.
  • INTEGRATING I&D INTO HR PRACTICES
    Conducting talent reviews with a lens of diversity and leveraging diverse talent slates in our recruiting processes to increase our need for innovative mindsets and diversity of thought leaders
  • LEADERSHIP COMMITMENT & SUPPORT
    Created a Global Inclusion Council to ensure that Hyatt’s purpose and strategic priorities are thoroughly embedded in I&D tactics and increase the visibility of I&D. Comprised of senior executives, colleagues representing all organizational functions, the CEO and global vice president of Inclusion & Diversity, this group is responsible for encouraging the actions and behaviors required to improve the culture of inclusion.
  • LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
    A number of colleagues have attended Women ON Point, an executive leadership summit for professional development and networking designed and delivered exclusively for and by top-performing women. We also launched an Emerging Leader program to accelerate the development of high potential talent. The program focuses on multiple aspects of diversity- gender, racial, generational.

We know that learning trends have evolved beyond the idea of passing a test, and more toward the reflection and application of knowledge gained. With that line of thinking, we view education initiatives and formal programs as having two components spanning short-term retention of knowledge as well as long-term ability to apply that knowledge.

At the end of each year, we aim to measure our initiatives in three ways:

  1. Various assessments that gauge the movement over year to year of cross-cultural competence
  2. Social ownership, meaning the way colleagues are talking the talk, walking the walk, and sharing information with others
  3. Continuing to collect data using the EBP data measure and assessing growth according to our goals

With our purpose to care for people so they can be their best, it’s no wonder the path toward inclusion has ignited with a focus on our colleagues. We maintain the understanding that diverse colleagues operating at their best have the ability to outperform the competition and enhance customer service experiences. It has become a cultural mindset that every colleague brings their best self to work each day so that they perform at their best, provide better care for others and help move the needle on goals for Workforce 2025.