Building a diverse and inclusive hospitality workplace for innovation and success

Claire Smith, Head of Learning and Inclusion at Nando’s, and Brantley Graham, Programmatic Account Director at Caterer.com shared their experience and top tips for creating and sustaining a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Your diversity makes you unique

Everyone on the planet is different and our diversity is what makes us unique and human. Claire is fascinated by this in her role. ‘Diversity is what makes you uniquely you. It’s the visible stuff, my gender, my ethnicity, my different abilities.  It’s also the invisible, it’s what’s inside people, their way of thinking, their background, their life experiences.’

‘It’s that combination that makes you exceptional. It’s your fingerprint in the world, and the lens that you see the world through, based on your lived experiences. We need to recognize that difference is absolutely endless, and not all differences are equal, and not everyone has the same experiences.’

‘As a business you need to acknowledge, appreciate, celebrate and really leverage all those differences to make every single individual be themselves so they can thrive.’

The business benefits of a diverse workforce

Diverse workplaces are known to be more innovative, dynamic and have a more engaged workforce.  Claire picked up on this point;

‘It’s been really well documented. There’s lots of research around gender and ethnicity, diversity and inclusion and how improved performance goes hand in hand.’

‘As an industry, hospitality drives inclusion, equity and diversity and customers are looking for brands and organisations to take D&I seriously. A diverse workforce gives you greater intelligence and insight and can make you more innovative. Companies with above-average diversity, produce more revenue through innovation.

‘Looking at recruitment, retention and development, research shows that employees in highly inclusive companies are four times more likely to report high levels of wellbeing and job satisfaction.’

Data is critical to understanding D&I success

Claire shared that to achieve D&I goals you need to understand what your company has in place already, what the barriers and access issues are, and that data is absolutely key to this process.

‘Think about what would actually make a difference in your workplace, rather than trying out loads of unproven things and hoping something sticks.’

‘For example, Nando’s has been looking into how we diversify our candidate funnel. We’ve looked at our job adverts and where we advertise, using analytics to get our ads in front of people that support our overall strategic goals.’

‘We’re very clear in our recruitment processes that we provide shortlists to hiring managers that represent the talent pools in our restaurants and where the gaps are. We’ve been tweaking the hiring procedures to create a level playing field. And we’ve done a lot of work with our team leaders because they make the day-to-day decisions about who they hire. You’ve got to have leaders with an inclusive mindset.’

Adopting an inclusive mindset in the workplace

Claire was keen to extol the benefits of inclusion, ‘Whilst it’s proven that diverse teams outperform homogenous groups, that only happens when people across your business behave inclusively. It’s part of your culture. Inclusion should be invisible, and your people should feel and sense that they are included. Equity is being part of something, without any barriers or access issues.

Claire continued, ‘As organisations you need every single person to adopt an inclusive mindset where everybody feels heard and respected, with access to opportunities.’

‘It starts at the top; you absolutely need your leaders to set the tone, they’re the ones making the decisions. So, you need inclusive leaders who make that emotional connection, are curious, empathetic, and manage people who are completely different and get the best out of them.’

‘You also need your policies, processes and practices, the cultural cues, the symbols that support your message so when you’re recruiting you are clearly sending a signal that you want people who have an inclusive mindset and who embrace difference.’

Removing unconscious bias to unlock innovation in teams

Brantley Graham is Programmatic Account Director at Caterer.com and believes that as humans we all have biases, they’re part of our survival instinct to assess and judge quickly.

“I think unconscious bias is intrinsically there, but you can make yourself more aware, and you can self-improve. People tend to be more attracted to people who are like them. If somebody is like you with the same background and views, they’re likely to agree with a lot of the same things you do.’

‘As a manager If you hire people who are different, who have different life experiences and think differently, you’re less likely to be in an echo-chamber where everybody agrees. The positives of D&I are you’re less likely to have a collective blindness and more likely to make better decisions, because as a team you see things from different angles, and it makes your level of innovation far greater.’

Recruiting for a diverse and inclusive workplace

Nando’s have taken positive action to create equity in their recruitment processes. ‘It’s about equity, not tokenism, recruiting for merit and skills sets.’ Claire said.

‘We started with gender-decoded job descriptions, we standardised our interview processes and introduced blind CV’s, removing any personal identifiers. We’ve also started to introduce diversity panels to examine how we can get people to start challenging other people’s thinking when interviewing, so they’re not hiring a mini version of themselves.’

‘We’re asking our people to think about ‘culture add’ rather than ‘culture fit’. We have clear targets that drive accountability and create transparency. And we’ve got a great CEO who is the advocate for our D&I agenda who we meet with regularly to share how we’re doing.’

Using tech to support diversity and inclusion in your hiring

Hospitality recruitment has evolved dramatically over the past few years with tech playing a huge role, from video interviewing to Artificial Intelligence CV screening.  One tech area that is clearly demonstrating its value in supporting D&I in recruitment is Programmatic Advertising.

Programmatic Advertising makes sure your job ad is seen by the right candidates on the right sites at the right time, to meet your hiring strategy. It does this with the use of big data, targeted job ads, and campaign optimisation. Many hospitality employers now use Programmatic Advertising to enhance their hiring success via Caterer.com.

Equality Boost: tech to support your D&I strategy

In 2020, Caterer.com launched Equality Boost, enabling HR teams and recruiters to adopt a programmatic approach to their recruitment and boost D&I in their hiring.

Brantley explained: ‘It’s a real D&I goal to be able to reach underrepresented groups, targeting both gender and ethnicity, but many hospitality businesses struggle to find a way to do this effectively.

‘Equality Boost is a really practical tool that helps employers get their key messages and recruitment ads in front of their target audience. We work with you to establish where you are in your D&I strategy, what areas you are struggling to recruit in, and where we can help.’

‘Essentially Equality Boost is a ‘retargeting’ solution – candidates will see your programmatic job ads as they move around the web, whether they are looking for a job or online shopping. The ads follow the candidate and highlight suitable vacancies, using messages that say, ‘we’re hiring people like you, people like you are welcome here.’

So how does Equality Boost find the candidates to target in the first place?  Brantley explained, ‘We use census data, where people are from, ethnicity, minority backgrounds. We also use first-party data, supplied by the candidate themselves, when they register for a vacancy.’

‘The goal of Equality Boost is to serve the right ad, to the right user, at the right time, to ensure that they are fully aware that your company is an inclusive employer.’

Diversity and inclusion are essential for future workforce success

A diverse and inclusive workplace will drive your business success now and into the future. You’ll benefit from access to a wider talent pool, experience an increased positive perception of your brand in the marketplace and you’ll be seen as an employer of choice by candidates looking for an employer with similar values.

Building a diverse and inclusive workplace isn’t straightforward, but there are tech tools out there that can help. The first steps are to understand and embrace diversity and inclusion in every aspect of your business and form a strategy that enables you to become a hospitality employer that all candidates want to work for.

Claire & Brantley’s top tips for building a diverse hospitality workplace

Ask your teams what D&I means to them and get examples of what they consider to be good D&I practices

Put aside assumptions and stereotypes and be aware of your unconscious bias.  Listen and take action – show your teams that you are actively embracing D&I and they will feel included and be more willing to contribute, innovate and engage at work.

Support and celebrate your differences

Share traditions, special days, and embrace new cultural events. Create a shared calendar that highlights these and ask your people to add their own cultural events to it. Show understanding of and respect for the diverse cultures in your business.

Use technology to recruit under-represented groups

Many employers struggle to recruit top talent in under-represented groups. The tech exists to help you, and with Caterer.com our Equality Boost tool is designed to help hospitality businesses build a diverse and inclusive workforce, by effectively targeting candidates by both gender and ethnicity.

Redefine your communication channels

A key factor in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is communication. For example, how you plan meetings, the make-up of your audience, the language used, the personalities involved, must all be considered in creating an environment that allows everyone to share their views in a way that works for them.

Be vocal about your inclusion practices

Make diversity and inclusion a visible core value for your business, so that everyone, from new starts to long-serving employees, knows what you stand for. D&I is an important factor to highlight when recruiting, as potential hires will look for a company where the culture and values align with their own.