Responsible Employment in Tourism example to follow
The reason that Lemon Tree Hotels are standing out as leaders in responsible employment is because they have wholly committed to barrier free employment. This means they are ensuring that people employed throughout the organisation, front of house and behind the scenes, are from groups of people who, in India, are often otherwise marginalized. This is a tricky issue in India where social security does not support people with disabilities or those from deprived backgrounds. And so Lemon Tree Hotels believes that it has a responsibility to ensure that people with physical, mental, emotional and indeed financial needs are introduced into mainstream employment and well supported throughout. In other words, removing the barriers that previously prevented many people from working in tourism. In so doing, the company believes it is contributing to fair and sustainable “nation building”; something many more nations could think about when it comes to hotel employment.
In India, barrier free employment doesn’t just refer to people with access needs, but also to those known as ‘Opportunity Deprived Indians’ such as women who have been physically abused, widowed or people living below the poverty line. Lemon Tree Hotels’ fair employment record also stretches way beyond any sense of tokenistic box ticking, with 13 percent of employees having a disability or special need and nearly 500 employees coming from marginalised sections of society, which is a super impressive 25 percent of staff. A figure they plan to double in the next five years.
So, if you are staying at Lemon Tree Hotels, and your waiter, receptionist or any member of staff hands you a piece of card that makes you aware of his or her own needs or constraints, while also offering ways in which they can help you, then please smile and know that you are also playing a very important role in this fresh, fair and totally pragmatic approach to responsible employment.
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