Trigon Hotels

TRIGON

Highlighting Inclusion

Trigon Hotels, in partnership with the Cope Foundation and its Ability@Work service, worked to highlight inclusion and foster lasting relationships

Ability@Work is a dedicated supported employment service, run by the Cope Foundation and funded by the Government and the European Social Fund. It aims to bring young people, aged between 18-29 years, with intellectual disabilities and/or autism, closer to the labour market.

Aaron Mansworth, Managing Director, Trigon Hotels, recalls, “Initially our HR Director was asked to speak at an event hosted by Ability@Work, on an accessibility project she had previously worked on. From that day, friendships were formed, and we began to engage with them.”

Through lockdown Trigon Hotels continued to support Ability@ Work by a variety of means, which included taking participants on the hotel group’s induction and getting feedback on how to make it more accessible. This led to a review of workplace practices within the hotel group.

“The aim of this project was to provide employment and training opportunities to people that quite often would find employment opportunities challenging. We Aaron Mansworth, Managing Director, Trigon Hotels

also wanted to become more aware and educated on how best to adapt our practices to make our working environments more inclusive and accessible for all,” notes Mansworth.

Now the group’s onboarding process, advertising of positions, and training process are all done using easily readable methods. “We have adapted how we train, to a blended approach using the skills of job coaches, video and easy read formats for the members that have accessible issues.”

Accessibility has been incorporated into Trigon Hotels’ overall five-year strategy and each

WE HAVE ADAPTED HOW WE TRAIN, TO A BLENDED APPROACH USING THE SKILLS OF JOB COACHES, VIDEO AND EASY READ FORMATS FOR THE MEMBERS THAT HAVE ACCESSIBLE ISSUES

department has an action plan which they work from. They also introduced Just A Minute (JAM) cards to the hotels. All team members are trained on these cards, which allow them to identify when someone needs extra time and how best to respond to them. Trigon were the first hotel group in Ireland to introduce these.

SENSORY GARDEN They also came up with the idea of a sensory garden at Cope. Over the past number of months both participants from Bonington Training Centre and Trigon Hotels have been working on this project. The sensory garden is growing produce that will be used in the hotel kitchens, which feeds into one of their goals of sourcing more products locally and contributing to decarbonisation.

“The garden has been a labour of love and team members throughout all of our properties have given up their time to work on it. Our chefs have also been involved teaching students about what best to plant for a busy production kitchen and sharing their knowledge on food with the students.

“We have plans to further develop the sensory garden. It is located beside Root’s Café and the Beech Hill Garden Centre at the Cope Foundation. We hope that people coming to both businesses will avail of the garden and get enjoyment from it, as it is an oasis of calm.”