A leadership initiative aimed at championing women in Australia’s Travel, Hospitality, Accommodation, Tourism and Events (THAT) industries has launched on Thursday.
Founded by Sarah Derry, former CEO of Accor Pacific and recently appointed Group Chief People Officer at The Star Entertainment Group, WomenTHAT is on a mission to unlock opportunity for women of all ages through collaboration, allyship, connection and advocacy.
After being approached by numerous women seeking career guidance and raising concerns about lack of representation in the industry, Derry recognised an overwhelming need for leadership in this space.
“Women represent over 55% of the hospitality workforce, but that is not translating as you move up through the chain,” Derry told HM.
“It’s overwhelmingly an industry that women want to be part of, but how do we actually make sure that the people coming through are inspired, energised, and have the same opportunities?”
Over the past year, Derry and group of female leaders, including Ovolo Group Director of People and Performance, Nicole Downs, and leadership expert Dr Stacey Ashley, have met regularly to set about answering that question, laying the foundation for WomenTHAT.
With the tagline, ‘Imagine. Influence. Inspire.’, WomenTHAT’s top priorities are to: “Imagine a future where more women achieve their full leadership potential; influence progressive, innovative, allyship approaches to a modern workplace; and inspire women across industries to step up, stay in, and shine.”
WomenTHAT launches with three channels, a website as well as a LinkedIn public page and private group, through which it will distribute leadership content including a video series spotlighting various women’s career journeys, webinars, as well as a podcast.
The group will also facilitate in-person networking, mentorship opportunities and provide a speaker bureau, offering a diverse range of voices to speak at industry events.
“We’re inviting women to join a private group, but we’re also inviting everyone, men and women, to follow what we’re doing as a community and become allies for mentoring,” Derry said.
“We want to facilitate cross mentoring and reverse mentoring opportunities.”
Lobbying for greater representation of women in leadership will also be a core focus for the group.
“I’m really excited about it, because I think that this industry is one that can actually turn very turn things around very quickly,” Derry said.
“We’re creating a platform where there is a united voice, where people can share across industries. It’s not about competition; it’s about making sure that everyone has access to opportunities. And I think the industry will support it.”
WomenTHAT Founding Committee Member Lynda Ugarte – previously Head of Human Resources Operations, JAPAC at IHG and now Non-Executive Director at Service and Creative Skills Australia (SaCSA) – says it’s a pivotal time for these industries to take action on female leadership.
“Our industries (hospitality and travel) have such growth in the next five years and now, with at least 1.5 million employees already working, we’ve got a retention issue, and we’ve got an attraction issue,” Ugarte said.
“It doesn’t make sense if more than half of your workforce is not being considered for your talent pipeline.
“There is progress being made. We have 25-35% female representation at General Manager level, which is pretty good compared to five years ago, but it’s not near the national average of 45%, and they are not progressing to CEO or board level.”
Ugarte says that allyship is central to the solution, given that many of the issues preventing women from progressing in their careers are also holding men back.
“The answer to getting more women into leadership supports what men want too,” she said.
“We now have dual income families, we have men that want equal participation at home, so not having equal participation at work just doesn’t make good business sense.
“There are many great employers in our industry who are blitzing the national average, they are doing great work, but there are others who are well below, and they’re the ones that get the headlines, unfortunately.
“We want to shine the light on women who are already doing well.”
With technology promoting greater flexibility, Ugarte says there’s an opportunity for the industry to promote greater work-life balance.
“We are the most flexible industry in the world,” she said. Hotels are open 24/7, planes are flying all the time, tourism parks are always open, and they are always hiring,” she said.
“With technology now, people are often being able to self-select their shifts and their rosters well in advance.”
Currently entirely volunteer-driven, Derry is hopeful that with industry support, WomenTHAT can continue to grow.
“We’re supporting this financially at the moment, but it’s completely volunteer-driven,” she said.
“Our intention is that it becomes a community association at some point, but we need sponsorship and allies to take this to next level.”