Despite the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, hospitality, travel and leisure companies have made progress around diversity and inclusion efforts over the past year, though more work needs to be done.
According to a new report from Women in Hospitality, Travel & Leisure in partnership with The MBS Group, in 2021, female representation has increased at the board and executive committee level, however the proportion of women at the direct report level is lower than it was last year, which could have a long-term impact on diversity in the sector.
The report, titled Inclusion at the Core of Recovery: The WiHTL 2021 Annual Report, includes data from more than 120 hospitality, travel and leisure (HTL) businesses and conversations with more than 100 chairs, CEOs and HR directors.
It finds that the sector has steadily progressed on female and ethnic minority representation over the past three years, and that the number of HTL businesses with a D&I strategy in place has increased since 2020 from 80% to 86%.
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Regarding gender diversity, there is 29.9% female representation at the board level, up from 28.9% in 2020, while female representation on executive committees is 31.4%, up from 27.2% in 2020.
In comparison to the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 businesses, there is a greater proportion of women at the direct report and executive committee level in the HTL sector.
There have been gains around ethnic diversity, as well: Ethnic minority representation on executive committees is 4%, up from 3.4% in 2020. Seventy percent of businesses say they either collect ethnicity data (37%) or are in the process of doing so (33%), up from 56% in 2020.
Because of the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been significant progress on the number and maturity of strategies designed to improve ethnic diversity, the report finds, with 87% of organizations saying they have strategies dedicated to ethnic diversity compared to 25% in 2020.
Improvement needed
At the direct report level, female representation has dropped to 34.5% compared to 37.7% in 2020. At the executive committee level, gender diversity has fallen from just 10% to 7% since 2019, while the number of companies with no women on their boards has increased this year from 15% to 21%.
“We have never had a stronger supply of capable, experienced women in the workforce than we have today. The pipeline of talent is full to overflowing, but we’re just not using it in the way we should be,” says Denise Wilson, CEO of Hampton-Alexander Review.
“Generally speaking, there’s a lack of knowledge in our leadership around the value of diversity, and the benefits that it can bring to a senior team.”
There is room for improvement around ethnic minority representation, as well: According to the report, ethnic minority representation at the board level is 6%, down from 6.4% in 2020. At the direct report level, ethnic minority representation is 4.7%, down from 4.8% in 2020.
Meanwhile, three-quarters to four-fifths of executive committees still have no underrepresented minorities at the most senior levels, and almost half of HTL companies have no racial or ethnic diversity at the direct report level.
According to Keith Barr, CEO of IHG and WiHTL Advisory Board member, the strategy forward should be for the sector to collaborate, not compete. “It’s an amplifying effect – if we’re all focused on it [D&I], the industry will move faster. Without that committed solidarity, the sector as a whole won’t be attractive to the great diverse talent we need.
“We all have parts of the solution but we need to openly share with each other to keep that momentum. If we focus our resources on getting women into those top roles, the gender pay gap will close itself. There’s a bigger gap when it comes to ethnic diversity, but now more than ever society is watching and waiting for us to do the right thing.”
A download of the full report is available here.