Promoting

With employees spread across all four corners of the globe, diversity is at the heart of Accor’s DNA.

By Verona Oliver, Accor: Director, Talent & Culture Sub-Saharan Africa

At Accor we foster an open and inclusive culture that welcomes all personalities, empowers team members and cultivates individual and collective innovation and performance.

Fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion is one of our main priorities. Our strategy is focused around four main key areas: Gender diversity and equality; Inclusion of people with disabilities; Richness of social, ethnic, racial and cultural diversity; and LGBTQI+ inclusion.

We strive to turn our vision into reality through global and local actions that have significant impact and are helping to drive progress. Various projects, led by our international diversity, equity and inclusion community, bring our commitments to life around the world and at all levels of our Group.

Initiatives to support team members

We have been implementing various initiatives to ensure we are supporting team members throughout their career at Accor and guests from the community effectively so they too feel that they can work, travel and discover the world safely by boosting visibility, recognition and integration of the LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and "+" for other gender identities and sexual orientations not specifically covered by the other initials) community within the Group.

We play a pioneering role in countries such

Verona Oliver

as South America, starting in Brazil, where we have been voted two years in a row one of the best companies to work for, by joining the Fórum de Empresas e Direitos LGBTI+ in 2017, an organisation aimed at encouraging companies to promote LGBTQI+ rights, spreading this across Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Peru.

In North America, we launched the "Love Limitless" package for Pride Month and in Spain, UK and Australia, our teams participate in Pride events throughout the country.

Another example of how our commitment translates into real action is the introduction of full parental leave benefits for all couples irrespective of gender, in both our Bangkok office since 2019 and in our Paris headquarters since 2022. Also at our Paris headquarters, team members have launched of the #TOGETHER! community, the Group's first LGBTQI+ employee resource group.

These global initiatives have challenged us in SA to rise and join the movement wholeheartedly. Training is essential to change the way people look at the LGBTQI+ community, to raise awareness of stereotypes, prejudices and decisionmaking biases, and thus to facilitate recruitment, integration and professional development – this is where we start to influence change!

We endeavour to remove obstacles so that there is less stigma attached to people declaring themselves as part of this network. 