Diversity and Inclusivity in Hospitality - Vol. 2: Kirs Jay, Hotel Experience Coordinator

Show Notes

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Kírs is an Experience Coordinator at a luxury spa and hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. Using their expertise and lived experience as a transgender and non-binary individual, they engage industry professionals in conversations regarding gender inclusivity with a focus in hospitality.

After recording episode 43 with Daniel Poulin on Diversity and Inclusion, we got to talking about what D&I efforts were looking like on the ground, within hotels, not just at the corporate level.

He introduced me to Kirs, who’s been heavily involved on the D&I committee at their hotel, and our initial conversations about doing a follow up episode led to a fantastic show about what it’s like for the employees tasked with delivering service day to day, how company efforts affect their ability to do their jobs, having sense of pride and belonging to one’s workplace and the actions companies should be taking if they’ve made no movement yet.

We’re continuing the discussion about Diversity and Inclusion on this episode. As hotels start to rehire after the pandemic, there is no better time to be talking about how we want things to look going forward.

On this episode we discuss:

Kirs’ involvement with the D&I committee at their hotel (5:38)
Coming out to their workplace (7:31)
How long it took for the D&I committee to form after coming out to their workplace (10:32)
Company interaction standards (13:52)
Companies may not know how to move forward, resulting in no action (15:22)
One year in… where is the D&I committee today? (19:47)
The pace of change from a committee member’s perspective (24:58)
Guest-centric vs. Employee-centric perspectives (29:14)
Removing bias from everyday language (31:18)
Bridging personal guest experiences and internal diversity efforts (32:59)
The fear of having uncomfortable conversations (38:33)

About Kirs

Links

Pulse iSpa Magazine: https://pulse.experienceispa.com/

Instagram (Kirs): https://instagram.com/kirsarthur

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