Hyatt Hotels Aims To Double Number Of Blacks In Leadership Positions By 2025

Admitting its work is far from over, hospitality giant Hyatt Hotels Corp. has boosted the number of Black suppliers it buys goods and services to 350 nationwide — an 82% increase since June 2020.

The move is part of World of Care , a new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) platform for the Chicago-based company, including sharing its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The company recently provided BLACK ENTERPRISE responses via email on accountability, progress and other actions Hyatt is taking to advance its DEI strategy in upcoming years.

Attempts to expand DEI activity is a big deal as Hyatt is a global hospitality and hotel brand. It had over 105,000 employees, and revenue exceeding $3 billion last year.

“By 2025, Hyatt has a goal to double the representation of women and people of color in key leadership roles,” says Malaika Myers, Hyatt’s chief human resources officer. In America, 40% of all of its managers are people of color. Yet they are the least represented among its leadership roles at 26.5%.

To help change that, Myers says Hyatt is continuing to build a talent pipeline as over 50% of its entry-level managers in the U.S. workforce are people of color and 10% are Black. The company recently released more metrics, including such by race and gender. The company also shared DEI workforce data for the first time last year, making a commitment to provide annual reporting.

Further, Myers says Hyatt has partnered with MLT, the creators of the Black Equity at Work Certification, to support the company in developing action-oriented plans that support all three of its commitments under Change Starts Here.

Myers says Hyatt is doing more to boost its Black suppliers pool via efforts like Hyatt Loves Local. That effort aims to support small- and diverse-owned businesses. For example, Hyatt Regency Atlanta provided kitchen space to Anna Bell‘s Kitchen Mac & Cheese. The move allowed the minority-owned business to sell its product at the hotel locally while also expanding to ship product nationally.

“To advance our vision of a world of understanding and care, we must continue to prioritize DEI across every dimension of our business and take action to make meaningful progress against our goals.”

Parallel with its 2025 DEI goals, Myers says Hyatt has introduced internal recruiting and hiring guidelines that require a diverse slate of candidates for all leadership roles. She added that Hyatt is committed to a heightened level of accountability in this area. It ties annual incentives to progress against its DEI targets and links executive stock compensation to the achievement of the goals.

“Still, we know that until we see consistent growth across all diverse groups, there is more to be done and we are focused on continuing to increase representation across groups with efforts around talent development, retention and recruitment,” she shared among her comments.

Further, Hyatt says it is taking actions to boost its diversity efforts by 2025 with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This past spring, Myers says Hyatt convened a group of HBCU presidents and members of industry for a conference and discussion on how “we can work together to support HBCU schools and empower HBCU alumni to take bold steps forward in their careers.”

Myers pointed out that Hyatt sponsors over 100 HBCU students annually, making it possible for them to travel and attend a large career fair where they can interview with Hyatt and other industry leaders for internships and post graduate career opportunities.

“We are focused on providing HBCU students with hands-on, interactive and invigorating training programs that will help them establish long-term careers in the industry.”