Introducing the 'A' Circle of Commitment - Ambassador Engagement

The A Circle of Ambassador Engagement is all about providing the work environment where our Ambassadors will thrive and one which will help us to attract and retain high level Ambassadors for years to come, by providing diversity, equity, inclusion, support, training and a living wage in a values-based culture. 

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that this circle aligns with are:
3 – Good Health and Well being
4 – Quality education
5 – Gender equality
8 – Decent work and economic growth
10 – Reduced inequalities
11 – Sustainable cities and communities

Our A Circle of Commitment is directly connected to our Coast Hotels strategy of “Engaged and Productive Ambassadors”.  Once again, this is about providing the work environment where our Ambassadors will thrive and one which will help us to attract and retain high level Ambassadors for years to come by providing diversity, equity, inclusivity, support, training, and competitive to living wages in a values-based culture.

Our materiality assessment uncovered the following areas that are important to a Coast Hotels CSR:

• Ambassador attraction 
• Diverse and inclusive workplace
• Supportive work environment
• Values based culture
• Health, Safety and Wellness

We have developed 5 goals related to these areas and Ambassador Engagement

1) Our first goal is: Coast Hotels commits to an inclusive workforce that fully represents diverse cultures, backgrounds, and viewpoints and is accompanied by a robust Inclusive Language Policy.

We recently learned about inclusive language and how important diversity, equity and inclusion are in the world today. Being welcoming to all, by definition means we are not excluding any potential guest or ambassador, and it encourages us to be proactive when competing for business and employees as more organizations make inclusivity and diversity a priority.

A strong Diversity, Equity, Inclusion policy will help to attract and retain Ambassadors. 

2) Compensation is a huge part of retention and attraction. In the last few months, as we have looked to recruit and retain Ambassadors, we have found compensation to be competitive and we have been somewhat reactive in reviewing and updating our base wages. At Coast Hotels we know we offer more in terms of compensation than just the hourly wage we pay, but we have to ensure that our compensation philosophy is one that is proactive and incorporates pay equality, wage ratios, living wages and total compensation as a mechanism to ensure high Ambassador engagement.

Our second goal is: Coast Hotels commits to creating and measuring a compensation philosophy/policy that incorporates pay equality for each relevant group, wage level ratio, and ratio of entry level wage to mandated minimum wage with the short-term goal of ensuring we provide a competitive wage and the long-term goal of providing a living wage in every location where we do business

 3) Sustaining our industry with long term ambassadors starts with fostering relationships with our educational partners and our communities. Hospitality schools can provide us many new Ambassadors, and we want to be top of mind with the faculty and the students alike. Similarly, conducting work experience programs and tours to secondary school students and community associations we will find our company on a list of potential employers.

Our third goal is: Coast Hotels commits to partnering with schools and the community to engage new workers by conducting visits, career guidance, tours, and job shadowing events.

4) Our Ambassadors work long hours in sometimes physically laborious roles, or highly people interactive roles. Both of these can take a toll on our mind, spirit, and body. As a company, we want to help our people stay healthy and able to come to our workplace engaged and ready to take on the day. 

Our fourth goal is: Every Coast Hotels location commits to help Ambassadors thrive in body, mind, and spirit through a Wellness Strategy and an effective Health & Safety program.

5) As part of a good health and wellness program, a positive work environment is key in engaging and retaining Ambassadors. Working with people from diverse backgrounds and experience can be challenging sometimes, but there is never an excuse for bullying or harassment. We offer an annual bullying and harassment training session, and we are asking all of our locations to make the commitment to provide training to our ambassadors and embrace our anti-bullying/harassment policy/environment throughout the company. This is just one of the training areas that is critical to the development of our Ambassadors. Continuous training and professional development need to be maintained and organized.

The final goal is: Coast Hotels commits to training our Ambassadors on workplace skills and professional development, as well as cultivating a supportive workplace culture across our company with annual training on topics such as anti-bullying and harassment.