As one of the largest hospitality companies in the world with over 5000 hotels in more than 180 countries, IHG is a global company. As part of its graduate programme, IHG has decided to include two weeks of volunteering work for its Future Leaders to truly understand that a hospitality career involves taking the whole world into consideration.
“As our global approach to business is ever evolving, we need to ensure that our Future Leaders are set on the right path to face the challenges they encounter and be able to inspire and lead others,” said Gil Mulders, Head of Learning, Europe at IHG. “Our Future Leaders will be truly global citizens and ambassadors for IHG. The aim is for the team to be out of their comfort zones and pushed to use their skills and ingenuity.”
From the 4th – 18th of March 2017, a team of 13 IHG Europe Future Leaders and 2 Business Partners will work with International Volunteer HQ to take part in an opportunity to live, work and help in one of the most deprived environments in the world. This makes IHG one of the first hospitality companies to include a CSR immersion project of this scope in their graduate programme.
This project is being piloted in Europe, with the goal being to involve all 100+ graduates around the world to participate starting in 2018.
During the two weeks, IHG’s team of volunteers will be living life like locals and embracing their culture. The group will be living in a local homestay, (which may involve sharing a room with up to five other volunteers), taking part in preparing and cooking local foods and ensuring that all household chores are carried out.
Then follows two very different aspects of the volunteer programme: Slum Teaching and Empowering Women.
These two projects will push graduates out of their comfort zone and enhance their soft skills such as empathy and global cultural awareness, allowing them then to have an understanding of the global scope of IHG’s business.
“Our business is tremendously linked to people; we welcome people in our properties and amongst our teams to offer a true hospitality experience to our guests,” said Lauranna Gardey, Graduate Programmes Executive, Europe at IHG. “Having our graduates understand the challenges and opportunities they will encounter in other parts of the world will ensure we have a generation of Leaders ready to take our business to the next level in the upcoming years.”
As well as the volunteer activities, the Future Leaders will also be spending time with IHG colleagues at the Indian Corporate office. There will be many opportunities for the European Future Leaders to work with their counterparts discovering common themes, addressing topics and shaping the future.
To make this happen Future Leaders have to prove that they are the right people for this opportunity by demonstrating that they have ambition, self-awareness, confidence and excellent leadership skills. They also have to take the responsibility for the fundraising aspect of their trip. Each member team member is responsible for raising a full month’s salary to contribute to the cost of the volunteering project. When applying to the programme, Future Leaders have to choose a specialisation between Finance, Revenue Management and Operations. The skills they develop over the first year of their programme are used during this pre departure period, so they have to treat the whole project as a business. Budget planning, sales, marketing, cost control and customer relations are in the heart of the organisation of the journey.
“We take our commitment to be a responsible business very seriously and we anticipate this volunteer project will be the start of a great enhancement of the Future Leaders programme, combining our graduates’ skills to our commitment to CSR initiatives,” added Gil Mulders.
