With diversity and inclusion being at the forefront of discussion, many companies are reassessing their recruiting and hiring strategies to attract more diverse employees. 

We surveyed our audience of hospitality professionals about their thoughts of how diverse the hospitality industry really is and how important it is to them as employees and job seekers. 

The majority of our respondents (65.5%) believe that the hospitality industry is more diverse than most other industries, and 75% of our respondents answered that they would not work for a company who does not show support or efforts in diversity and inclusion.  

The first step is hiring more diverse talent, but make sure to also plan on how to retain your employees and creating a supportive work environment. 

Effective diversity retention 

1. Take a data-driven approach – When possible, survey your new hires and current employees to gather their feedback on how well you are doing as a company and what you could improve. This will help reinforce that your employees have a voice in the company and help you improve.
2. Begin measuring diversity turnover and its costs – If this is possible for the company, develop a process for measuring these two factors. This can help drive home to managers and senior leaders the value of hiring, developing and retaining diverse talent. 
3. Treat each individual person as their own group – Never “lump” employees together. You never want to assume diverse employees are staying with or leaving the company for the same reasons as each other. Take the time to understand and support everyone’s individual opinions, feelings and backgrounds. 
4. Add a diversity onboarding option – According to an Aberdeen Group report, 90% of employees decide to stay or leave a company within the first six months of their employment. If companies are effectively getting feedback from other employees, they can help tailor the onboarding process for new hires. 
5. Create diversity training opportunities for managers – This can help ensure that unconscious biases are identified and minimized in the workplace, creating a better and supportive work environment for everyone. 
6. Support diversity affinity groups – Affinity groups have shared goals, backgrounds or interests, and can be indispensable for diversity retention. These groups can help provide valuable mentoring and education opportunities. 
7. Conduct stay or exit interviews – Stay interviews can help with all of your company retention goals. These can be one-hour meetings with managers that can help identify and reinforce the positive reason employees are staying with the company. On the flip side, if an employee decides to leave, use an exit interview to understand what your company could improve, or what is causing them to leave the company. 

If you choose to employ any of these practices, make sure they are a genuine effort and not just for show, however these can help you attract and retain more diverse employees if that is part of your business goals.