The Emergence of Women Leaders in New Challenging Roles in the Hospitality Industry

THE HOSPITALITY industry is a constantly evolving space given the changing consumer trends and behaviour patterns. Brands in this space are always innovating to deliver excellent customer service, create unique experiences and hence create a strong brand recall. The talent in this ecosystem has a strong role to play in the growth of the industry. No technology or machine can on its own create a face to face experience that a human can. In the past 5-10 years, the hospitality industry has witnessed an increase in the women workforce across levels. As per a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel & tourism has almost twice as many female employers than the other sectors.  Across the G20, women account on average for 46.4% of Travel Tourism’s employment compared with 43.3% employment in the economy as a whole. This points to the fact that the clout of women in the hospitality ecosystem is on the rise. 

Within the hospitality ecosystem, women are also taking up unique roles that were before considered to be ‘male-dominated’. One such role is the safety and security of guests often known as crisis management or emergency response. In hospitality, this role involves mitigating the impact of a crisis or unfortunate incidents including fire, natural disaster, terrorism, medical emergencies amongst other incidents. Safety and security of guests are of utmost importance to the industry as a whole and the nurturing instincts, higher emotional quotient of women make them extremely suitable for this as also suggested by some industry reports. At OYO, my role makes me responsible for the safety and security of our guests, employee as well as asset owners. Within this role, we are required to be prepared and have all safety measures in places like CCTV, first aid kit, security guards, firefighting equipment like extinguishers, sprinklers, smoke detectors and most importantly the fire wardens who ensure safe evacuation in case of natural crisis or fire. It is also important to have SOS contact options for employees and guests at the property.  Forming a response team and assigning responsibilities is one of the crucial steps in emergency response planning. Ensuring the emergency response team members are familiar with their roles and responsibilities and trusting them to deliver is very important.

While globally across industries women are moving up the ladder to leadership positions as also suggested by Catalyst research which highlights that in 2019, 29% of senior management roles were held by women, there is still a long way to go. Similarly, within the hospitality industry, we need to create more opportunities and an encouraging ecosystem for women to not just join the workforce but also see a bright future in the sector. The initiatives are already underway and a lot of companies are offering women a healthy, flexible and safe work environment to chase their dreams. I strongly believe that as corporates strive to improve gender equality, we will see stronger, intelligent women leaders and employees emerge not just in the hospitality industry, but across sectors and therefore, boost the economy significantly.