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Diversity and Inclusion

July 24, 2020

Dear Heartists,

I’m following up with you today to share the specific actions we are taking on the Diversity & Inclusion
commitments we shared last month.

The power of a diverse leadership group is something that I have always believed creates a stronger
organization. A team of leaders collaborating together utilizing their different experiences, backgrounds,
ethnicity, gender, life experiences, is invaluable. There is no doubt in my mind that our differences spark
awareness, innovation, creativity and fundamentally, we make better decisions to support our Heartists
and growth as an organization.

The other key component, I know we are more impactful when we work together toward a common,
measurable goal. And so, today I am pleased to share our three year goal – by the year 2023, we
will aim to have 30 percent BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) leadership in NCA
(manager and above, hotels + regional office).
Our Diversity & Inclusion Committee has been working closely with the leadership team on a plan to
achieve this goal, as well as deliver on our commitment to ensuring that Accor is a safe, welcoming, and
inclusive place where ALL Heartists are empowered, supported and thrive. Implementation on the
following action items is already underway:

Listening Forums: Increase our efforts to make our workplaces trusting places to have complex,
and sometimes difficult conversations about systemic racism and ensure that no barriers exist to
prevent BIPOC Heartists from advancing within the company. Create and maintain an environment
that fosters open dialogue, including listening forums where our people feel comfortable to gain
greater awareness of each other’s experiences and perspectives.
Expand Inclusiveness & Impact: Invite more BIPOC Heartists to participate on the Diversity &
Inclusion Committee and Cultural Sub-Committee. Implement Diversity & Inclusion leads at each
property to create Hotel Committees, share objectives and progress, and drive activity to meet
hotel-level targets.
Educate, Educate, Educate: Institute company-wide mandatory Diversity & Inclusion training,
starting in September – training topics to include: unconscious bias, addressing bias in recruitment
and workplace decisions, anti-racism and your role as an ally. Also roll out resources and resource
groups to facilitate learning, discussion and support.
Scholarships: Introduce scholarships to ensure that we have a strong community of BIPOC leaders
for tomorrow, through partnerships with the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality (NSMH)
and historically black colleges and universities.
Local Community: Connect with our local communities to facilitate diverse partnership,
engagement and employment opportunities. Forge relationships with organizations such as the
National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators and Developers; the Black Business and
Professional Association; and other community leaders. Strengthen our public commitments through
support of programs such as Black North, the Canadian Council of Business Leaders’ initiative
against Anti-Black Systemic Racism.
BIPOC-Owned Business: Continue and grow our purchasing programs aimed at the support of
diverse and BIPOC-owned businesses.

One of the strongest things we can do as leaders is know when to ask for help. We have spent the last
few weeks conducting research and interviews to find the right partner to guide us in this process. Our
goal was to secure someone with notable expertise in Diversity & Inclusion and a proven track record
in retaining, developing and advancing traditionally under-represented talent. We are happy to share
that we have selected as our partner Korn Ferry, globally renowned consultants with more than 50
years’ of experience in impacting positive organizational change. Their role will be to help us facilitate
the listening forums, evaluate our processes and procedures, track qualitative and quantitative data and
analytics, and rework our Talent Acquisition and Talent Management policies and training. They will also
serve as an honest, unbiased view on how we are doing, where we are making progress, and where
improvement is still needed.

The biggest need for diversity in hospitality is not only to acknowledge the fact that it is still an
opportunity, but to turn conversation into action and to ensure that we are creating real change. The
above is the first step, and more communication will follow over the coming weeks and months. A huge
thank you to the Diversity & Inclusion Committee for all their hard work in helping to move this forward.
The Committee’s passion, along with that of all our Heartists, is truly inspiring.
There is no question that these are challenging times but it also true that times of trial can drive
remarkable change.

I know that by working together we can make real change.

Heather McCrory
Chief Executive Officer, North & Central America

Spotlight: Children's Book - The Skin You Live In

Skin You Live In

There is renewed interest in a children’s book written and illustrated by a couple of Chicagoans. “The Skin You Live In” was published in 2005 by the Chicago Children’s Museum.

https://news.wttw.com/2020/07/06/childrens-book-the-skin-you-live-in-chicago

Author Michael Tyler says it was a yearlong effort that “required 10 years and 147 rejections by traditional publishing houses. I finally took it to the Chicago Children’s Museum, and the book was very successful right off the bat,” he said.

“I wrote ‘The Skin You Live In’ to promote acceptance, and I think that in this moment right now where we’ve seen division on a magnitude that we haven’t seen since 1968, perhaps, that this book can emerge as a tool for educators and parents to try to give that lesson to their children about acceptance. And it’s also the kind of book that when adults read it, it gives them a little internal audit themselves. So that’s what I’m hoping it’ll do in the moment,” Tyler said.

Illustrator David Lee Csicsko says the book is a “really gentle way to talk about important issues.

“The book has always found its audience, from hospitals to schools and arts centers. With what’s going on now, the book has been a really gentle way to talk about important issues,” Csicsko said.

Other titles, to look for:

https://www.popsugar.com/family/kids-book-about-racism-interview-with-author-jelani-memory-47521742

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBlpZ81pFAQ/?igshid=aeedc7g1ftrs

A Message from our Co-Founder, Steve Wilson and CEO, Craig Greenberg

To all our teammates across the properties, we hope this note finds you healthy and safe.

Looking back to just a few short weeks ago, writing this note and building this website wasn’t even imaginable. It was just the middle of March when the large shift in the U.S. began, and now we are in the middle of an unprecedented global crisis. While it is critical that we do our part in helping to halt the spread of Covid-19, please know that the decision to suspend operations at all nine of our hotels was not made lightly. You, our valued teammates, are always our priority. We care for you and your loved ones and understand how difficult this time of uncertainty is for you.

We look forward to opening as soon as it is safe and possible and look forward to welcoming our teams back into the building. You are what makes the 21c experience so unique. The way you give of yourself to ensure the days of others, both guests and fellow employees, are made better. You are truly the heartbeat of our hotels, museums and restaurants.

Until that time, please check back often to this portal. It was designed in an effort to keep in contact and the team will be updating with new resources and new information as it is received. If you have any questions during this time, please reach out to your Talent & Culture representative.

401k Q&A

Dear all,

During this challenging time we know that both yourselves as well as MassMutual have received a high number of inquiries about the 401k plan, and the CARES Act provisions.

Please click HERE to view a resource document that we’ve put together for our Heartists which addresses most of the questions we’ve been seeing.

Heartists can contact MassMutual directly for any questions or assistance with their 401k account, loans, etc.

Thank you,

Jen

Jennifer Skelly
Director, Pension Programs and Compliance

Learning and Development Resources

Dear Team,

I am pleased to share the following Learning and Development Resources with you.

Free Resources:

· Free eCornell Courses (ondemand.ecornell.com/corp/accor-odrl)

· Free LinkedIn Courses approved unlocked LinkedIn Learning’s courses

· Free access to getAbstract which contains book summaries (you must sign up with an Accor domain name email for this one) www.getabstract.com/signup/accor

Paid Resources:

· Paid eCornell Courses: https://www.ecornell.com/portal/academyaccor/

Here’s also a taster of what you can expect from our own in house Digital Learning Library, INES, click on the following link to Meet Aya, and hear about our new INES system: Meet Aya

With best wishes from your Academy Team

Rachel

Rachel Moosa
Vice President, Learning & Development, NCA, Talent and Culture

New York Times Article

My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

Forced to shutter Prune, I’ve been revisiting my original dreams for it — and wondering if there will still be a place for it in the New York of the future.

Click HERE for the full article.

News from Accor

As the world is facing an unprecedented health crisis that is having massive and unique impacts on the tourism industry, the Group has just published its first-quarter 2020 revenue down 17% as reported – expected results due to the spread of the epidemic and the enforced lockdown.

Although the next months are shaping up to be the most difficult of the year, the Group can rely on a robust balance sheet thanks to its recent transformation. It will enable it to absorb the economic consequences of this crisis in the coming quarters.

Regional initiatives are multiplying to fight the epidemic and support employees in need, government authorities, healthcare professionals and local communities. Sébastien Bazin salutes and applauds the Group’s ability to organize, listen and take action, as well as that of our teams and partners around the world.

Accor is also positioning itself as a key actor in the hotel sector, in order to prepare for the rebound, with great energy.

« Accor will never be a spectator of its own world:

Accor is an actor, more so than ever, in 110 countries. »

All Heartist Fund

Accor Launches the "All Heartist Fund" in Response to COVID-19

As we face an unprecedented global crisis that is affecting not only the hospitality industry but our community as a whole, Accor’s top priority is the safety, security, health and well-being of its employees.
The ALL Heartist Fund is a charitable fund that has been set up to support Accor Heartists who are in distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund will provide financial grants to assist with medical expenses, food and other essential supplies and services.*
To learn more, or to apply for a grant, please visit NCAALLHeartistFund.com, call toll-free 1-888-760-1717 or email nca.allheartistfund@accor.com
We are all in this together.
*Grants are available to eligible Accor North & Central America Heartists at all locations. All applications will be considered and administered on a case by case basis.

Better Together: A Message From Katie Button

“It’s a time for honesty and humility.”

As restaurateurs and hospitality professionals, we are taught always to project confidence. But behind the scenes, constantly shifting factors demand that we make endless big and small decisions, doing the best we can in real time. At the end of the day, a myriad of influences determine whether or not a restaurant succeeds, and but because the fate of a project is the sum total of our judgment, any closing feels like a personal failure.

That makes sense, but sometimes we take it a little too far: do any other businesses soap up their windows when they fail and have to close the way restaurants do, obscuring our empty dining rooms from public view?

Restaurants are worlds unto themselves, fashioned after the vision of the chef and/or owner. When we welcome guests into them, we invite them to partake of ourselves. So when we are forced to close, the rejection feels personal, the same way it does to an auditioning singer or actor—it’s not just our restaurants that are being turned down; it’s us.

I’ve been there. About a year ago, I closed my Asheville restaurant Nightbell. We hung on for almost five years, which to be honest was longer than we should have. Throwing in the towel was the right thing to do, but it was also a very public blow to my confidence. When restaurants go down, it’s news. Food blogs and local papers write about it. You have to make a statement and put the best possible face on it. But no matter how well you navigate all of that, it’s embarrassing and leaves you feeling ashamed and vulnerable.

Many restaurant owners who were forced to close, or limit daily operations to takeout and delivery due to the COVID-19 crisis, did not have a say in how this would affect their businesses. Even the most successful saw their doors close, and now many of us are feeling this same vulnerability—a failure without truly failing. We just so happened to be the collective that suffered the hardest blow from this global health crisis, taking a hit to those very places that are the very expressions of ourselves, our merriment, our passions. Nevertheless, the feelings have come: we’re all anxious and worried, for ourselves, and our staffs. We wonder if our businesses will survive. Our futures are murky. It’s terrifying.

In addition to all of that, we are all experiencing the same shameful feeling of closing a restaurant, or almost nearly closing a restaurant. It’s a disorienting moment, but we need to shake off that shock and get down to the work of saving our restaurants. And my personal feeling, and humble message for you, my colleagues, is twofold: if we are to survive this crisis, it is not the time to worry about being embarrassed or timid. We need to ask for everything we can possibly get, from everyone who might provide it.

The three most immediate needs to ask for are intertwined:

Time
Financial Assistance
Compassion

To tie it all together: we need time to make any existing creditors whole and bring our restaurants back when it’s safe to do so; we need short-term financial assistance—whether in the form of debt forgiveness, deferrals, or payment plans—from landlords, purveyors, lenders, and others; and we need (yes, need) to be engaged on a human level as we humble ourselves to ask for help.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover that most people see the connectivity among our various industries. When I took the plunge and began calling lenders, vendors, and insurance companies, I found that representatives, even of large corporations, were prepared to graciously listen to our problems and meet us halfway—sometimes more than halfway—in working out a fair and viable solution. They understand that our eventual renaissance works to everybody’s advantage.

The one crucial party from whom we needed help, but couldn’t get it, was the landlord of our corporate offices, who wouldn’t engage in a conversation with me or their other hospitality tenants. As a Hail Mary, I took the extraordinary, and very uncharacteristic, step of posting a video to my social media channels, naming the company and expressing my frustration. The other day, I offered to call their lender for them to try to work out an arrangement on their mortgage that would enable them to be lenient with their tenants. We’re now actively speaking, and while I don’t know what the solution will be, being in discussion makes me hopeful.

There’s another population with whom we will need patience and understanding, a population we are not used to asking anything of, even by implication—our guests.

We all need to accept that these are desperate times for the industry. When we reopen, there will be no concealing our pain: We’re all forming and joining coalitions that are trying to get as many Americans as possible to focus on the plight of independent restaurants. When we start welcoming and serving guests again, there will be no putting that genie back in the bottle—anybody entering our doors will know what we are going through.

And that’s okay.

The weeks and months ahead are going to be a tightrope-walk. When we start welcoming guests again, we have to be prepared for limited business. Our dining rooms won’t be full and our staffs won’t be fully re-hired, not right away. We will strive to project happiness and bonhomie, but even if we’re successful, guests will know that we are still struggling.

Re-openings are almost the same as openings. They are expensive and inefficient. Our individual and collective success will depend on towing a tight line on expenses relative to check averages and number of covers. Keeping costs at bay while maximizing revenues will be a prime determining factor in whether or not we survive a year or two after reopening and eventually get back to the kind of business we used to do.

In those first months back, as we are doing now, we need to put bottom-line wisdom above ego and trust that our customers will understand the way others are doing right now.

It’s a time for honesty and humility. I genuinely believe that our guests are rooting for us and that they will be there for us the same way we’ve been there for them. And when we’re whole again, our relationship with them will be that much stronger.

Humbly yours,

Katie Button
Cúrate and Button & Co. Bagels

Take Away Only, an emergency podcast about the hospitality industry, produced in collaboration with our friend, journalist Howie Kahn and his team at FreeTime Media, continues. New episodes are being released daily, so head to iTunes or Spotify to subscribe and have a listen.

And we continue to support The Independent Restaurant Coalition, which was formed to save the local restaurants affected by COVID-19. IRC is founded on the simple belief that there is power to affect legislative change if we unite our voice. This national movement is quickly growing and EVERYONE is welcome to join. Together, as small businesses across this country, we represent up to 4% of the nation’s GDP. For the 11 million people across the country employed by restaurants – and the hundreds of millions of workers up and down the food supply and delivery chain who depend on restaurants – these small businesses cannot fail. Learn how to get involved here.

News from Accor

The health crisis we are experiencing is continuing to accelerate and have a strong impact on the Group worldwide. To address this situation, Accor has taken proactive measures to protect its business and support its employees and partners, including the creation of the “ALL Heartist Fund”.

From the Group’s head office in Paris, Sébastien Bazin wanted to address all employees to renew his support and unfailing commitment to the teams during this difficult period. He also emphasizes the essential role of the “ALL Heartist Fund” to help employees and partners facing difficult personal situations.

Humility, Strength, Trust: this is the message Sébastien Bazin is sending to employees to weather the storm together and prepare for the rebound.

(French Subtitles)

Sébastien Bazin once again wished to address all employees to take stock of the current health crisis and its impact on the Group’s activity.

While the global situation regarding the propagation of the Coronavirus (or Covid-19) is accelerating and our industry is going through an extremely difficult time, the Group must react and take necessary protective measures in order to preserve its business. The goal is to be ready for the rebound, all together, when the crisis will be behind us.

Sébastien Bazin also recognizes the commitment and mobilization of all employees around the world who have undertaken numerous local initiatives to help those most affected by the crisis.

Click HERE to watch the video.

Training Opportunities

In partnership with the American Hotel & Lodging Foundation (AHLA Foundation), we are offering you complimentary access to online training for a limited period of time. Many hospitality professionals are finding themselves at home as hotels and lodging operations reduce service to try and slow the spread of infection.

During this difficult time in our industry, we’d like to offer the opportunity for hospitality professionals to make good use of their time at home to develop skills that can help take your hospitality career to the next level. Now through April 30, you can access complimentary online training. Employees who are currently furloughed or laid off are eligible to apply for AHLEI certifications as long as they were employed as of March 1, 2020. Click here to get started: https://www.ahlei.org/free-training/

From Our Friends - 21 Reasons Video - No Kid Hungry

Hi friends,

Reaching out to hopefully put a smile on your face today, knowing that each day continues to bring the most difficult challenges. We can’t even begin to know how each of you is managing, but our hearts are hurting for you all. We know, like you, that this is not just about hotels or restaurants, but that the hospitality of the 21c empire has provided something unique since its inception. And we’ve been so fortunate to be the beneficiaries of your hospitality, over and over.

While we feel a bit helpless on our end right now, we did want to just send you all a little something to let you know we were thinking of you and share some of our No Kid Hungry hospitality back ‘acha.

But before you watch from the below link, here’s my official disclaimer that we, like many, have been cooped up inside with kids and husbands, so if we seem a bit unpolished and off-brand, you’ll know why. ? Enjoy the giggle- we sure did!

Click HERE to watch the video.

Jessica DiBenedetto

Event Manager, National Markets

No Kid Hungry campaign

Choose your dates:

Click on your home property for more resources in your community

Diversity and Inclusion

Spotlight: Children's Book - The Skin You Live In

A Message from our Co-Founder, Steve Wilson and CEO, Craig Greenberg

401k Q&A

Learning and Development Resources

New York Times Article

My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

News from Accor

All Heartist Fund

Better Together: A Message From Katie Button

News from Accor

Training Opportunities

From Our Friends - 21 Reasons Video - No Kid Hungry

Connect with us

Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date

Choose your dates:

Covid-19 Resources for our 21c Team

My Restaurant Was My Life for 20 Years. Does the World Need It Anymore?

Connect with us

Join our mailing list to stay up-to-date