Starwood Hotels announces strategic roadmap for female talent in celebration of International Womens' Day

12 Mar 2015  2040 | World Travel News

SINGAPORE - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific celebrated International Women's Day with the announcement of a strategic roadmap that seeks to empower female associates through a series of initiatives alongside leveraging on existing programmes. In addition, Starwood Hotels in Asia Pacific has also signed the United Nations' Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP), pledging to support the empowerment and advancement of women in the workplace and community.

"Diversity and inclusion are key components of Starwood's business strategy, especially important as we celebrate International Women's Day. The signing of the Women's Empowerment Principles further strengthens Starwood as an equal opportunity employer as we continue initiatives to support the surfacing of female talent and leaders." highlighted Stephen Ho, President, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific.

The WEP comprises of seven principles for businesses, offering guidelines on how to empower women in the workplace and community. Some of these principles include establishing high-level corporate leadership for gender equality; and promoting education, training and professional development for women.

As a result of an extensive global internal study, Starwood placed the spotlight on female General Managers (GM) with a strategic roadmap that seeks to increase female GM representation globally. The roadmap comprises of initiatives, programs and trainings aimed to prepare female associates to assume executive positions. Other initiatives include strengthening the success with Starwood Careers, the integrated talent management & development system conceptualized specifically in Asia Pacific to fit the region's unique needs. Since 2003, Starwood Careers has nurtured more than 10,600 Associates across various levels in the organization and surfaced closed to 72% of its female GMs internally.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific will also enhance and expand mentoring programmes in the region. One such example is the Women's Initiative Network specifically in the Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia region. The network will continue to offer mentorship and delve into deeper discussions on career development.

On the trajectory of career development, Starwood in China will run an edition of Starwood Careers Day on 17th April 2015, following which Starwood across Asia Pacific will debut 'Starwood Careers Month' in June 2015. Starwood Careers Month is set to be a refreshed extension of the successful Starwood Careers Day – the 2014 edition was held in more than 120 locations across Asia Pacific with more than 25,000 job positions available throughout the region. Starwood Careers Month will not only focus recruitment but will also comprise of activities revolved around talent diversity; and internal talent career growth and development.

"The rapid growth and global success of Starwood is anchored on our associates. The signing of the United Nations' Women's Empowerment principles is not only well-aligned with our current focus of advancing female talent, but also provides a spring board to increasing female representation in leadership positions." Said Claudia Al-Bala'a, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific.

In line with surfacing female talent, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Asia Pacific partnered with other Hospitality Industry Pipeline Coalition members led by Diageo to launch a White Paper a week earlier. Slated to be a useful resource that provides forward looking analysis of the hospitality industry and workplace practices, Starwood showcased practical examples of how it successfully addressed talent shortages in the sector through deliberate talent identification and development approaches such as elevation of employee capabilities, promoting from within; and leveraging on Starwood's culture of diversity and inclusion.

Starwood continues to be one of the fastest growing hotel companies in Asia Pacific. It currently employs over 74,500 associates, of which 42% are women and 38% of these women are in executive roles. Starwood has 290 hotels in operation; and in 2014 alone, the company opened 30 hotels across its nine distinct lifestyle brands in Asia Pacific.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia 

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