Offering hospitality to one and all

1-Oct-2008

Forget the word ‘diversity’ — think ‘talent’ instead. Jennifer Miller knows ‘diversity’ is a turn-off for listeners tired of politically correct talk. And when it comes to turn-offs, the words ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’ run a close second and third to the dreaded D word.

“We’ve got to the point where ‘diversity’, ‘equality’ and ‘inclusion’ are buzz words, and people think they know what they mean, but generally, the connotations that they associate with those words are quite negative,” acknowledges Miller.

“So people automatically go to their defensive corner and say, ‘Actually, we don’t discriminate, we are an equal opportunity employer and we’re not prejudiced’.”

Clearly she’s heard it all before. And in her secondment role as director of the One and All Foundation, a newly organised charity formed to shatter the glass ceiling separating talented people who face particular barriers to progression from management and board-level positions, Miller will hear it many more times.

But Miller and her boss, managing director Chris Sheppardson, at recruitment and HR consultancy Chess Executive, where she was a consultant until today when her director’s role kicked in, are focusing their attention on making sure that the sexy, desirable T word — talent — is the one that gets heard most often in their drive to open wide to all the door of professional opportunity in the hospitality industry.

“The word ‘diversity’ brings out the worst in people,” says Sheppardson, Chess Executive managing director, and founder and trustee of One and All. “So we try, as much as we can, to not use the word ‘diversity’. We talk about talent and talent growth.”

The need to find talented, capable people to fill management and board-level roles in UK hospitality businesses is considerable — as it is in too many other industries. But don’t whinge to Sheppardson about skills shortages in hospitality. You won’t get any sympathy from him. Speaking to Recruiter in a London Carnaby Street office, Sheppardson says: “The industry’s been talking about skills shortages, as every industry has. What we’re saying is, we haven’t developed the talent.”

Today’s [1 October] formal launch of the One and All Foundation (see News, p6), a charity led by Chess, supported by some high-profile names in UK hospitality and working closely with The Prince’s Trust, is aimed at correcting the situation.

As far as Sheppardson and Miller are concerned, the absence of a talent pipeline to management and board-level roles has more to do with ignoring talent that is waiting to be uncovered at the industry’s lower level workforce than a true dearth of ability. For example, there is a higher percentage of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups working in London restaurants than in the population itself, Miller points out.

“But we don’t see those groups moving forward into any form of management positions, and particularly up to board level or senior management,” Miller says. “There’s something not right about that.”

She adds: “You don’t leap to the board from grass roots, but certainly we should be seeing those people coming up through middle management and senior management levels at this point in time.”

The realisation that something was “not right” dawned on the Chess team last year. Chess publishes its own magazine for industry called En Passant, and the magazine’s editorial team wrote an article on (whisper it!) diversity in an issue. “When we wrote about it, we got a big reaction,” Sheppardson recalls. “There was a lot of emotion flying around.”

And Miller adds: “Because of the article, we knew we wanted to talk about it further.”

Chess then hosted a leadership forum where they further explored the subject of diversity within the industry and, initially, the lack of faces of colour at management and board level. A working party was created to examine the emerging issues.

“We came out of the working party with a to-do list,” Miller says. “We looked at it and thought, ‘This isn’t going to be a quick fix. We’re not going to fix it in the next three, four, five months. This is going to take a concerted, consistent and organised effort for us to get somewhere’. And that’s where the idea for the foundation and the actual charity came from.”

A big effort was going to be necessary to chip away at a big issue. Miller, an Australian who had worked as the national franchise manager for the Hudsons

Coffee Company in her home country before joining Chess, was singled out to take charge.

Initially, the effort centred on developing opportunities for people facing barriers to progression because of their ethnicity. However, the focus has broadened to include people affected by any of the six ‘strands’ of potential discrimination: age, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability and race.

Ironically, the whole debate had begun in 2007 with a discussion about the success of outsiders — Eastern Europeans — in UK hospitality businesses. “The Eastern Europeans, particularly the Polish, made such a good impression with their service ethic — their work ethic, that they would get promoted above UK nationals,” Sheppardson says. “The ones who don’t go back to Poland will stay here and they will get promoted. And then when they get promotion over the UK nationals, the question will be, what impact is that going to have?”

The charity’s launch means that Miller will spend much of her time trying to create true believers out of the many diversity-sceptics among hospitality industry leaders and line managers. However, even Chess staff have had to scrutinise and come to understand their own internal biases, as a result of taking on the company’s unanticipated role of diversity advocate.

Bias awareness training was one step on the road to understanding themselves. “You’re naturally going to build more rapport and have more of an affinity with the person who’s like you — for whatever reason,” Miller explains. “You form an affinity with people you feel comfortable with and who feel familiar. And that doesn’t just kick in when you’re sitting looking at two applicants for a job in an interview process. It starts way before that.

“If we can start to look at people’s biases, and the reasons that we’re drawn towards certain people and not others, and if people in management and decision-making positions can understand those biases and move beyond them, we have more of a chance of them identifying talent in others,” she says.

Sheppardson says that he learned a number of surprising lessons by listening more to candidates and acquaintances within the populations the charity is intended to boost. One especially bright woman with strong academic credentials, a supportive family and other factors solidly weighing in her favour shocked him with her lack of confidence that she, as a woman of colour, would be acceptable in a front of hotel role.

“Your eyes are only opened when you truly understand,” he says. “A lot of this is about self-esteem. It’s about understanding that not everyone is going to put their hand up as talent. They actually don’t have the confidence. Just because someone is shy doesn’t mean they’re not good, or potentially good. You need to be proactive to help that.”

How did clients react at the start of Chess’s drive? “There were definitely one or two silly comments,” Sheppardson says with a shrug. “That’s life.”

The foundation’s launch simply marks the end of the beginning. Neither Sheppardson nor Miller are under any illusion that their challenge is a short-term project. And it’s not a ‘nice to do’ activity for a team-building weekend — this is business.

By leading the charge on one of the riskiest and stickiest of issues, Sheppardson realises he is not playing safe with Chess’s fortunes. But he seems to like the idea of stirring these particular waters.

“Anything that’s going to cause change is going to ruffle a few feathers,” he says. “In my experience, ruffling a few feathers is not always a bad thing — as long as people know you’re genuine. Trust and respect — as long as you’ve got that, you’ll be ok.”