by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
What’s the difference between the Hyatt and the United Nations? The folks at the Hyatt seem to get along.
With employees from nearly 50 countries, the hotel has made a reputation for itself as one of the most diverse workplaces around. According to Hyatt General Manager Phil Tufano, the idea behind diversifying is in line with Hyatt’s corporate goals. Locally, the Hyatt is hoping the effort will slowly make the city of Jacksonville a running mate with cities like New York and San Francisco in the race to be an international destination.
“Jacksonville’s not there yet, but it’s getting there,” he said. “Hopefully we’re a microcosm of other parts of the United States and hopefully we will become more of a company with an environment that other establishments try to emulate.”
The first Hyatt was established in 1967 in Los Angeles as the Hyatt House. Over the years, the hotel chain’s name has become synonymous with diversity – not just among its employees, but also with vendors and clients. The hotel splits its diversity initiatives into five parts: commitment, accountability, training, measurement and communication.
The hotel has received dozens of accolades from groups such as the NAACP, Advocate Magazine and the AARP for its attention to encouraging upward mobility for minorities and have diversity policies supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees and senior citizens.
The Hyatt’s Downtown location near the Landing illustrates these efforts clearly just by the staff guests encounter upon entrance. Many of the front desk attendants and guest services representatives in the hotel’s lobby are from outside of the United States. Shane Peart, for example, has been with the Hyatt as a guest services rep for nearly a year now and is from Jamaica. He said he often encounters clients who, as soon as they hear his accent, inquire about where he’s from and are delighted to learn about how his culture differs from Jacksonville.
“And I’m happy to tell them,” he said, adding that it is one of the most rewarding things about working at the Hyatt.
Director of Human Resources, Mary Menz, says Peart’s open personality is exactly what recruiters look for when hiring employees for one of among many positions, and that many of the applicants from overseas are aware that they are bringing something special to the Hyatt.
“That’s because we embrace diversity,” she said. “The key to attracting minorities is providing an atmosphere in which you’re nurturing them.”
Menz said that out of the 400-plus employees at the Hyatt, more than 50 percent are originally from outside of the United States. Some of the employees are recruited from eastern Europe to come and work for a year, but most are already residents of Jacksonville. Once they start work here, citizenship usually isn’t an issue.
“Many of our employees applied at our Web site, but there are some that learn about opportunities with us through things like job fairs and also through temp agencies and groups like the new Fresh Ministries,” said Menz. “We also do campus recruiting and offer incentives like scholarships and tuition reimbursement to help the employees who come to work for us to advance.”
According to Tufano, the hospitality industry by nature is an industry that usually has a lot of minority employees because many hotels are located in gateway cities that tend to foster more of an ethnic and cultural mix of people.
“When people come from other countries to start off their careers, often times they may not have a lot of job experience or job skills and they’ll start off in positions in this industry, be it as a housekeeper or a house attendant or as a server,” he said, adding that what Hyatt has done better than most is take those individuals that have great attitudes and future potential and develop them into employees with a long-range future with Hyatt.
“We have a lot of different programs in place to develop them for further growth in the company into areas like management,” said Tufano. “That’s why we’ve gotten a reputation, because people have been able to work their way up to GM within the organization from being a server in the restaurant.”
Contrary to popular belief, the fact that for many of Hyatt’s employees, English is not their first, but second language, is not an issue either. Menz said there is almost always an employee who already works at the hotel that can help translate for a new staffer if their English skills aren’t perfect. In addition, Menz added there are rarely any employees who speak no English at all.
“We do look for basic English skills in every employee,” she said, “but we offer English as a second language course to any employee who may need it.”
Training sessions for minority employees who don’t speak English are facilitated in other languages. For the eastern European recruits, training is done in four languages: Croatian, Farsi, Spanish and English.
“Most guests like to learn about where people are from,” said Tufano, pointing out that Hyatt employees used to put their country of origin on their name tags. “It’s always been a conversation piece.”
In line with helping Jacksonville become an international hub, and knowing that things are constantly changing, Tufano says the hotel will keep doing what has proven to work best – speaking in what he calls the “universal language.”
“It doesn’t matter what country you come from,” he said, “if you smile and you’re friendly then that’s what translates. People don’t have to speak the same language to understand and appreciate a smile.”