Inclusion and diversity in the hospitality business

This post is quite personal to me and started being drafted a few weeks ago, before pesky things like my work and personal life got busy and it had to be parked for a while. So here I am on a chilly Saturday morning in Melbourne CBD with a coffee and Sam Smith on the sound system to finally collect my thoughts on what I feel is an ever-present topic.

When I started writing this, IDAHOBIT was just around the corner, and it felt like a relevant time to share some thoughts on workplace diversity and visibility – not that there is ever a time when these things are not relevant. There was a wave of allyship display building across digital and physical media, with individuals and companies of all sizes and industries kicking their rainbows into gear. 

It’s impossible to ignore that there is so much more discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace than ever before. It’s brilliant to see and it’s great that hospitality is part of that conversation. But unfortunate that it is not immune to the caveats and pitfalls that the corporate world falls into.

Over the years we’ve seen the usual symptoms.

Rainbow flags and pins come out a couple of times a year for World Pride and IDAHOBIT. First-Nations designs adorn email signatures during Reconciliation Week. Don’t forget a bit of purple and green for International Women’s Day and there’s your diversity tax paid, right?

This could not be more wrong.

If executed only on a surface level, chances are these cosmetic initiatives are not only doing the bare minimum but could be making your team members feel less seen and less heard. A friend of mine recently shared how they felt a rollback in LGBTQIA+ visibility and recognition as their industry returned to business as usual after World Pride. This made them feel that their interest in their community and culture was only performative, a fad that had passed.  

Let’s process how that makes a person feel for a minute, to have your community and support for it be commodified quite so cynically. And it’s not unique to the queer community. There is an overall approach to diversity in the workplace that can sometimes feel overly curated and staged, like making sure that certain team members are front and centre for a photo taken at a luncheon for the company's LinkedIn reel.

A whole other question comes from business managers or owners with low diversity in their teams: “If we don’t have (insert group here) on our team why would we talk about dates or events relevant to that community?” 

Here I could talk about supporting our communities and being on the right side of history. But the sad truth is that neither of those things help pay the bills and that’s what most businesses are focused on right now more than anything.

Except that they do help pay those bills.

Let’s put the consulting hat on for a moment and look at how true, genuine displays of diversity and allyship flow through directly to your bottom line.

Creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace is so much more than ticking a box once every few months. It’s about the message you send to your team and your customers. A message of recognition and of values that align with theirs. This is what fosters a feeling of belonging for your team and your customer base, it creates loyalty.

Loyalty and belonging help staff retention and create a returning customer base who are then more likely to recommend your business as an inclusive place to work and frequent. Which has a direct and positive impact on your overall commercial performance.

In the most literal sense, it is diversifying your consumer demographic.

Speaking from the point of view of the queer community, we are far more likely to return to a venue where we feel seen and safe. Which is more than a rainbow flag on the door, but that rainbow flag is a start. A signal to the community that we are welcome here and that this is an inclusive space.

Let’s face it, a queer couple with four cats is a lot more likely to have the disposable income to pay for weekly brunch or a $30 dollar cocktail than a cis couple with four kids. Why wouldn’t you want us in your venue on a regular basis having passionate discussions about the finer politics of Ru Paul’s Drag Race over oat-milk lattes or gin martinis?

To the business operators who are cautious of alienating certain demographics with a display of allyship, I have some questions.

Who are you scared of offending? 

Do these people form a core part of your business model?

Would you be comfortable if they were to visibly display their non-inclusive views on your premises?

It might seem cynical to think of it this way. But if it gets more business managers and owners thinking about the importance of inclusivity and diversity as something more than an occasional pander, call me a cynic every day of the week.

Consumers will vote with their values and their money.

So should the businesses they frequent.

AK