Diversity Training in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry - Essay Example

Diversity Training in Tourism and Hospitality Industry Question 2 Diversity Training in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Introduction The role of workforce diversity has been emphasized in the recent past and many organizations are making efforts towards the full embracing and adoption of diversity strategies. Many organizations realize the critical value and the significance of workforce diversity and are willing to take measures of promoting such diversity. One of the steps taken towards the promotion of diversity in the workplace is offering diversity training. According to the Australian service chatter, workplace diversity translates to valuing the differences and the similarities of employees, decision making, which exhibits equity and fairness, strategies of eliminating discrimination, employees treating each other with dignity, and having a secure workplace. Diversity in the workplace should promote the inclusion of people irrespective of their gender, age, cultural background, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity and religious believes (Jones et al, 2013). Organizations usually focus on offering diversity training using programs developed to achieve certain outcomes related to workforce diversity. This paper will discuss in detail the purpose of diversity training to Australian organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry. Using a case study, the paper will describe how a certain hotel has benefited from carrying out diversity training. Diversity training is considered one of the key strategies that define diversity initiatives. It serves as an opportunity for organizations to educate employees about diversity. It plays a key role in creating an awareness of what workplace diversity comprises of as well as its significance to the organization. An additional role of diversity training is enhancing the skills of employees, especially those related to communication. Diversity training presented a forum whereby employees become more aware of their differences and similarities and gain skills on how to tolerate each other while focusing on organizational goals. Organizations have to ensure that they offer the relevant training to employees so that they can be more tolerant of individual differences and focus on using diversity in promoting organizational goals (Bezrukova, Jehn, & Spell, 2012). Potential Benefits of offering Diversity Training Organizations operating in the hospitality and tourism industry can register remarkable benefits if they achieve the workplace diversity. Offering diversity training will transform the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of employees attracting these benefits. The increased adaptability that results from a diverse workforce is something desirable for organizations in this industry. This is because the diver workforce has the potential of bringing forth new ideas, which can serve as alternative solutions to the organization’s problems. The fact that diversity in the workplace includes individuals from different backgrounds and various experiences means that each individual can have a unique contribution to the organization (Clements & Jones, 2008). The diversity of skills and experiences brought about by a diverse workforce help the organization survive challenges of fluctuating markets and being able to meet the customer demands. Diversity in the workplace also serves to ensure that there are employees who can offer a broad range of services to customers from different regions. Evidently, the hospitality and tourism industry serves clients from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, if the workforce is diverse, there is a higher likelihood that the needs of the different clients will be met (Reynolds, Rahman, & Bradetich, 2014). Organizations in the hospitality and the tourism industry can benefit from a diverse workforce because of the variety of the viewpoints emanating from the different employees. Such viewpoints are critical when defining the organization’s business strategy (Waight & Madera, 2011). This means that organizations that utilize the pool of knowledge, which results from a diverse workforce, are more likely to develop effective workplace strategies. Workforce diversity has also been known to register effective execution of tasks. When an organization is clear about its commitment to promoting workforce diversity, then employees become motivated towards a higher performance (Singal, 2014). This eventually results to remarkable productivity from all the departments and translates to returns for the organization. Case Study of the Accor Hotels in Australia and Diversity Training The Accor Hotels in Australia comprises of more than 200 hotels and hires over 7000 people. Accor Hotels are ranked as leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry. The determination of Accor to maintain a diverse workforce across the globe and in Australia specifically has been an inspiring move. The organization carries out research on the potential needs of workforce diversity in different regions. Accor hotels have been recognized as one of the organizations that offer diversity training to employees. The Accor hotels have exhibited a long lasting commitment to diversity and its diversity is inclusive of people from different ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds. The company is known globally for the provision of extensive diversity training to all its employees. It does this to ensure that all the employees have an understanding of different cultural aspects and are determined to meet the needs of their guests (Artofmultimedia, 2014). The management of Accor hotels has been focused on developing initiatives of promoting workforce diversity. Since it operates on a global front, it hires employees from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the hotel management focuses on helping such employees become more competent in their responsibilities through different forms of training. In its 2015 goals, the Accor Hotels Group highlighted its commitment to support the growth of employees. Moreover, the Group sought to ensure that diversity is an asset before 2015. One of the specific goals was ensuring that populations of 35% of all its hotel managers were women. Accor has designed numerous training programs that serve to ensure that employees have the relevant skills and that they develop diversity consciousness. Training at Accor begins during the recruitment process whereby the potential candidates undergo five-day training with a section of that training focusing on workforce diversity and its significance (Artofmultimedia, 2014). The Accor Hotels Group includes all the employees in diversity training. The realization of the group management that its customers register a high level of diversity has led the group to ensure that all its employees embrace diversity and use their varied skills and competencies in ensuring that the Groups achieves its business strategies. This is the reason why the group is committed to making diversity an asset by 2015. Notably, the group has been awarded for its commitment towards workforce diversity, although this occurred in its French hotels. However, the strategies it used in the French market by offering extensive diversity training is in place in Australia in a bid to ensure that all employees received the relevant training concerning workforce diversity. In addition to the different training programs provided to the employees during recruitments, the group has designed an online eLerning center for its employees. The eLerning center offers employees a range of courses that are intended to improve their competency in the workplace as well as courses related to the significance of diversity (Artofmultimedia, 2014). The most notable achievement of the Accor Hotel Group in the development of Academi Accor in different countries. The role of the academy is to provide employees with an opportunity to learn different concepts related to their workplace. In addition to courses on diversity, the academy also provides certifications such as communication and leadership development programs. Academi Accor has been recognized as one of the efforts exhibited by the group in ensuring that their employees have the relevant training in different aspects. The fact that it considers offering diversity training in this forum serves to place emphasis on its commitment towards developing a diverse workforce that can utilize diversity in the promotion of organizational goals. Training at Accor hotels is available to all the employees and is tailored to meet the needs of the different employees (Artofmultimedia, 2014). In each country where the Accor Hotels operate, the Group has developed policies and action plans targeted to promote diversity training. According to the needs of each country, the company is able to design the content of training offered in different stages from recruitment to other training programs that seek to ensure positive career development of employees. Some of the topics emphasized in the programs include the value of inclusion, the potential benefits of embracing diversity, challenges of embracing diversity, different types of discrimination as well as the actions of alleviating discrimination. Such training offered at different stages during the individual’s progression in the organization serve to make employees have a diversity conscious mind hence utilize it to benefit the organization. Evaluation of the Success of Diversity Training Although many researchers have argued that diversity lacks effective measurement tools that can help in the evaluation of the success of diversity training six levels of evaluation have been discussed. Level one of the evaluations considers whether employees who received the diversity training were satisfied with the content of the program and assess the reaction towards the program and whether they have any planned actions after receiving the training. This level of evaluation is usually effective if an organization only focuses on ensuring that employees have positive attitudes towards the training they received. However, many organizations are focusing on ensuring that diversity training presents a positive impact on job performance (King et al, 2012). This places a compulsion for the organizations to advance to two other levels of evaluation. Notably, the second level of evaluation considers how much the participants learned from the program while level three of evaluation seeks to determine the application and behavioral transfer exhibited by employees after the training program. In the case of the Accor Hotels Group, there is a salient need of carrying out this level of evaluation in a bid to determine whether the training programs offered to employees at different levels especially those related to diversity training have any impact on the job performance. Organizations may be compelled to advance to the other levels of evaluation, which consider the level of business impact, the benefit cost ratio, and the sixth level, which considers intangible. Since the Accor Hotels Group intends to make workforce diversity an asset by 2015, it must ensure that it carries out an effective evaluation of the impact of diversity training programs on its overall business strategy. If diversity training is successful, it must present measurable outcomes related to the attitudes of the employees, rates of productivity, increased returns to the organization and a higher market share for the organization. The evaluation strategy adopted should consider outcomes in all these levels. Some of the basic aspects that may be used to guide the evaluation include; the level of satisfaction of the employees with the course, the values and skills that employees learn from the course, the potential of employees to demonstrate skills, values and knowledge related to the diversity that they learned, and the benefits of the training to the promotion of business strategy. Reasons why Organizations do not use Diversity Training Although there is a salient need for organizations to carry out diversity training, some of them prove to be highly reluctant to organize such types of training. The cost involved in delivering a diversity training program to employees may serve as a potential barrier, and is one of the reasons why some organizations avoid diversity training. They fail to realize that, investing in diversity training can have potential benefits the organizations if diversity can promote business strategy. An additional reason why organizations avoid diversity training is an existing myth that diversity training programs are ineffective. Organizations that have not tried out offering diversity programs are afraid of spending on the training and registering no outcomes (Cocchiara, Connerley, & Bell, 2010). However, this is a myth, which has resulted from the wrong implementation of diversity training. If diversity training is to present positive outcomes, then it should be tailored to conform to the need of the organization. A proper assessment of the needs is to be conducted before the organization can carry out the training program. Experts of offering diversity training must collaborate with the organizations management in ensuring that the kind of training offered is relevant to the work environment of the organization. Conclusion Evidently, there is a salient need for organizations to invest in diversity training because of the potential benefits it presents. More specifically, the hospitality and tourism industry should embrace workforce diversity because customers in this industry belong to diverse cultural backgrounds. Therefore, embracing workplace diversity can serve to promote business strategy. Offering diversity training is one of the initiatives towards developing diversity consciousness. The Accor Hotels Group is one of the organizations in this industry that has actively engaged in diversity training as described above. Although some organizations are reluctant to carry out diversity training, they should be adoptive of this initiative. References Artofmultimedia. (2014). eLearning in Australia and Asia Pacific. Retrieved on 12th September 2014 from http://artofmultimedia.com.au/solutions/online/elearning-accor-hotels-australia-asia-pacific Bezrukova, K., Jehn, K. A., & Spell, C. S. (2012). Reviewing Diversity Training: Where We Have Been and Where We Should Go. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 11(2), 207-227. Clements, P., & Jones, J. (2008). The Diversity Training Handbook : A Practical Guide to Understanding & Changing Attitudes. London: Kogan Page. Cocchiara, F. K., Connerley, M. L., & Bell, M. P. (2010). A GEM for increasing the effectiveness of diversity training. Human Resource Management, 49(6), 1089-1106. doi:10.1002/hrm.20396 Jones, K. P., King, E. B., Nelson, J., Geller, D. S., & Bowes-Sperry, L. (2013). Beyond the Business Case: An Ethical Perspective of Diversity Training. Human Resource Management, 52(1), 55-74. doi:10.1002/hrm.21517 King, E. B., Dawson, J. F., Kravitz, D. A., & Gulick, L. V. (2012). A multilevel study of the relationships between diversity training, ethnic discrimination and satisfaction in organizations. Journal Of Organizational Behavior, 33(1), 5-20. doi:10.1002/job.728 Reynolds, D., Rahman, I., & Bradetich, S. (2014). Hotel managers perceptions of the value of diversity training: an empirical investigation. International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(3), 426. doi:10.1108/IJCHM-02-2013-0079 Singal, M. (2014). The business case for diversity management in the hospitality industry. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 4010-19. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.02.009 Waight, J., & Madera, J. M. (2011). Diversity training: examining minority employees organizational attitudes. Worldwide Hospitality & Tourism Themes, 3(4), 365. doi:10.1108/17554211111162471. Read More