From Seat At The Table To Taking The Stage - Our Research In Action

Through a combination of serendipity, tenacity, and courage, I took my seat at the table. As the lead at the Sociable Scientists, a leisure research company, I was happy to lend my support to WORTH Association’s first research study in partnership with Joanna Jagger. Thanks to the Unified Grant at Capilano University, we hired two students as research assistants, further extending the circle of knowledge and experience for this project. After watching an exodus of talented women leave the industry, we decided to answer the question, “how do we retain and develop women of recreation, tourism and hospitality?” 

We were welcomed at the BC Tourism and Hospitality Conference, with the intention to continue the dialogue that occurred at Seat At The Table with 50 industry leaders. 

We presented the dynamic results of the study by sharing recommendations related to balance, flexibility, benefits, inclusion, learning, and safe workplaces. We offered each attendee a Gender Equity Checklist so they could audit their own organizations. After each topic we paused so the audience could interact with one another, sharing their own insight on how to develop and retain women in leadership roles within our industry. Women (and men!) in the room were energized, clearly motivated to support the project and findings. 

We broke down the themes we saw over and over in the data. Women of recreation, tourism & hospitality desire more transparency, better inclusion leaders, and more attention towards flexibility.

Transparency: 

A common theme we encountered was the lack of transparency. Women don’t want to be in the dark about pay-grades and wage equity. They want to know about the learning options and career paths available. They want transparent efforts towards inclusion and policies to reinforce these concepts. 

We recommend examining the communication channels from the top. This means evaluating how leadership shares information, and considering if it is enough. Better yet, question what you are not sharing and why. We recommend reviewing salary bands and being open about them, both internally and in job postings. Done correctly, this is a powerful retention and recruitment tool. Finally, look at the opportunities available to all women in your organization and make intentional movements towards inclusion by setting measurable goals towards equity. 

Inclusion Leaders:

We learned from our study that champions for inclusion are absent in many organizations. We recommend creating a balanced employee resource group, ensuring the labour is not solely asked of women and women of colour. Companies should develop a mentorship program and provide this support to newly hired individuals. Finally, employers should evaluate hiring practices. This starts with looking at the language used in job descriptions, using a panel to make hiring decisions and sourcing candidates from diverse backgrounds. 

Flexibility:

Unsurprisingly, we learned that one size doesn’t fit all, but all seem to want more flexibility. Our recommendations include modernizing the tourism and hospitality workforce and shifting some of the traditional models. This starts with evaluating benefits, learning plans and scheduling to offer employees more choice. Flexibility offers women the opportunity to feel more control over their work environment, rewards and growth.

We were pleased with the response from the audience.  Sebastien Laroye, our student researcher was thrilled to learn that industry leaders were taking the checklist he designed back to their organizations in the days following the conference. Sebastien said, “this inspired my optimism toward our hard work being heard and applied” Julie Johnson Lepine, just 19 years old, shared, “this is just the beginning of an exciting paradigm shift that will leave the industry better than we found it”. 

Our work continues as we reach to further mobilize the knowledge we’ve gained through Seat at the Table and our presentation at the BC Tourism Conference. We ask you to invite your colleagues into the discussion and to find ways to put this (and other relevant) research into action at your own place of work. We know we have an abundance of value to bring to our roles as leaders and change-makers in our careers and our communities. Like all WORTH initiatives, we want you to use your voice to bring these ideas into your team meetings, your hiring practices, your strategic planning sessions, your everyday conversations. You can take a seat at the table to elevate our industry to the equitable place we all know it can be.