Case study - EHL Group

How EHL group grew their Purpose program to engage 3x more staff and students in one year

EHL Group EHL Group encompasses a portfolio of specialized business units that deliver hospitality management education and innovation worldwide. Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Group includes: EHL Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne is an ambassador for traditional Swiss hospitality and has been a pioneer in hospitality education since 1893 with over 25,000 alumni worldwide and over 120 nationalities among its students. EHL is the world’s first hospitality management school that provides undergraduate and graduate programs at its campuses in Lausanne, Singapore and Chur-Passugg, as well as online learning solutions.

EHL Swiss School of Tourism and Hospitality has been one of the leading hospitality management colleges for hotel specialists for 50 years. The College delivers Swiss-accredited federal diplomas of vocational education and training and of higher education in its 19th century spa-hotel in Chur-Passugg, Graubünden, to Swiss and international students from 20 countries.

EHL Advisory Services is the largest Swiss hospitality advisory company specializing in service culture implementation, business consulting, as well as the development and quality assurance of learning centers. EHL Advisory Services has offices in Lausanne, Beijing, Shanghai and New Delhi and has delivered mandates in more than 60 countries over the past 40 years.

Company:

EHL Group

Industry:

Higher education

Number of employees:

500 in Switzerland & Singapore

Number of students:

3400 in Switzerland & Singapore

Case focus:

Implementing a program that engages both staff members and students, moving from one-off centrally-led initiatives to year-long activities both top-down and bottom-up

The context Noémie Danthine, Associate Director & Head of Sustainability, designs and deploys EHL Group’s sustainability strategy, including environmental sustainability, skillsbased sponsorship, and ethical and social responsibility. This also includes creating the strategy and implementing the volunteering and giving program in collaboration with Alaya. She shares how EHL Group came to implement their program and to encourage staff-led (or bottom-up) initiatives from 0 to over 30 in one year, while also 3x participation.

Sustainability is an important part of EHL Group's 2025 Strategy. In developing their Sustainability strategy, it became clear that fostering a culture of giving back to communities was one of their objectives. This includes engaging both students and staff members in the Group’s CSR activities by providing them with opportunities to build this culture of giving back.

“Sustainability is of strategic importance to EHL Group.

With the younger generations being ever so implicated in the change for a better world, businesses must adapt. EHL is directly influenced by its young students and its educational model… Our students are the younger generation, they represent the future leaders of tomorrow, so we want to equip them with the skills and values to thrive in the working world and have a positive impact in their future careers.”

- Noémie Danthine, Associate Director & Head of Sustainability

The challenge EHL Group’s activities centered around 2 annual events: Solidarity Month and Sustainability Week to encourage the EHL community to give back and raise awareness about environmental causes. This took a lot of effort and coordination to propose a variety of activities, only for everything to be dropped until the next year.

As of 2020, with the COVID pandemic and as their collaboration with Alaya became closer, this strategy has been strengthened to include year-round communication and initiatives.

“We are in a transition from a program being promoted by the institution to a program shaped by our staff and students. In 2020, they have spontaneously proposed over 30 activities and suggested nonprofits to add to the platform and support through our program,” shares Noémie.

Their main challenges were to: Centralise and manage both centrally-led and bottom-up events in one place Make it easy for staff members and students to find and participate in activities to support causes close to their hearts, in a variety of ways Provide ways for their whole campus to participate in their sustainability initiatives, from anywhere Easily track and report on their initiatives and contributions to the community

The solution An all-in-one platform to manage

Instant tracking and reporting to

centralised & bottom-up initiatives

share their progress

EHL Group implemented an easy-to-use online

The organising team can also track and report

platform, enabling them to centrally manage

on key metrics such as participation,

their annual events, saving time while being

volunteering hours, and causes supported to

able to scale the program to offer a wider

include in strategic reports for management

choice of activities, manage registrations and

and external stakeholders. Students are able to

ultimately, drive participation. In particular, to

build up social impact profiles, an asset for

empower students and staff to take initiative.

their future.

Online activities to support community connection, from

“Ever since the confinement in May 2020, participation on the Alaya platform has

anywhere

increased, with many members of our

Just as EHL Group was preparing to launch their

community wishing to help out where

2020 Sustainability Week, lockdowns were

possible. We also added the Purpose

implemented around the world. With a digital

Challenges feature for our 2020 Sustainability

platform, they pivoted to offer EHL Group’s

Week, along with extensive communication

staff members and students internal

which allowed for increasing momentum around

initiatives to support each other with childcare

the platform. EHL’s Junior Enterprise, led by

or coursework, as well as sustainability-

students, even built an activity on the platform

themed Challenges, like using a reusable

and recruited via this activity. Other students

shopping bag, or saying no to single-use items.

used the platform to offer their help with course work at the time when they were not allowed on campus - Noémie Danthine, Associate Director & Head of Sustainability

Online brainstorming sessions to help a nonprofit raise funds It was such an accessible and fun way to volunteer despite the pandemic. Thank you, Alaya, for connecting motivated people to impactful causes!”- Chloé, student

Virtual Purpose Challenges to raise awareness & take action “The challenges were very interesting and for sure helped me to explore sustainable daily habits that I am able to develop.” - Kelly, student

The results

+2.5x

30+

+3x

volunteering hours

from 0 to 36 bottom-up activities

participation

“Alaya provides varied opportunities for staff members and students. It also allows us to redirect all volunteer and giving back initiatives in one same channel and to track participation. Our objective is to increase participation on Alaya by 50% and to encourage teambuilding activities through the platform. Building a culture for students, staff and faculty of giving-back both socially and environmentally, which will be an added-value for students and staff applicants.”

- Noémie Danthine, Associate Director & Head of Sustainability

Tips and advice for other higher education organisations 1.

Internal communication is key - find the right balance to keep your people informed without overloading them is essential, get input from your communications team on best practices.

2.

Involve influential personas from across the organisation to

3.

Allow room for students and staff to bring in their ideas and

champion the program and platform.

suggestions, as they are the most likely to motivate each other to join.

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