How the hotel industry is closing the gender gap

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It’s International Women’s Day, and to celebrate the hotel industry has shown up in force with a whole host of female-led initiatives to take us closer to closing the gender gap.

To kick off, Mantra Group has shared its latest data that shows of the group’s 4500+ team, 61 per cent are female, which sits 9.2 per cent higher than the industry average, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

Meanwhile women in department head positions have jumped by 16 per cent, as the number of females in general manager positions has climbed slightly by two per cent.

The rise in women in management roles comes in the few years since launching its Women in Mantra initiative in 2014, which focuses on flexible working arrangements and the career development of female employees.

These results also coincide with greater gender diversity in the company’s Board of Directors, with the appointment of Liz Savage as an Independent Non-Executive Director.

Around 300 Mantra Group recruiting managers from around Australia will converge today for the company’s newest training program – Managing Unconscious Bias. The training program aims to highlight Mantra Group’s progressive goal of a diverse and inclusive workforce.

To coincide with International Women’s Day, InterContinental Hotels Group has come to the party, launching a new program called RISE, which will inspire female leaders in Australia and New Zealand to ‘lean in’ to General Manager roles.

RISE will provide a career development programme for female leaders who have aspirations to become General Managers, demonstrating the immense value the company places on diversity in creating an engaged and high performing workforce. RISE participants will also be inspired to motivate female leaders in their own hotel, through Lean In Circles.

RISE will provide support to these high potential female leaders, through the following key elements:

Mentor – a current female General Manager will guide and support each RISE participant
Sponsor – a senior male leader as a ‘champion of change’ to provide career advice, whilst also benefiting from ‘reverse mentoring’ from the participants on supporting Gender Equality in operations
Career Planning Support – via face to face sessions with IHG’s Learning and Development team

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