IHG Hotels & Resorts partners with disability employment service

IHG Hotels & Resorts has partnered up with Spinal Cord Injuries Australia’s (SCIA) employment service, EmployAbility, to provide career opportunities for people with a disability across their hotel network in Australia.

The aim of the partnership is to increase employment options beyond a desk role for people with a physical disability, to assist with providing an inclusive environment where guests with a physical disability can feel at ease while giving IHG colleagues a strong insight into providing a seamless inclusive service.

“At IHG we’ve been focused on helping to connect more candidates with physical disability with our extraordinary world, and part of this has been forging new relationships to be able to connect with new candidate pools and join untapped talent to a future at IHG,” said Lynda Ugarte, head of human resource operations at IHG for Australasia & Japan.

“We want to showcase what’s possible for people with a physical disability; and not focus only on office-based roles but also roles within our hotel operations too.”

Ralf Bruegger, general manager of the InterContinental Sydney Double Bay, said “There are plenty of job opportunities out there for people with a disability; let’s not stereotype and make things more complicated than they need to be.

“I’m proud to be part of the change in providing better opportunities for people with disability and I hope that this encourages other organisations to do the same.”

EmployAbility manager, Phat Ngo said EmployAbility is a relatively new service that has been designed specifically to support people with physical disability on their journey to work.

“Many people with physical disability, particularly those who have had to reassess their employment choices after an accident or injury, often choose not to apply to roles due to concerns the employer would deem them unable to perform due to their disability,” Ngo said.

“At EmployAbility we work with a number of Employers, like IHG Hotels & Resorts, who are developing career opportunities, not just a job, and willing to support the needs of people with physical disability.”

The partnership came about through a mutual connection, Kerry Williams, founder of The Accessible Group, which is travel consultancy that strives to provide people with the best available accessible accommodation and experiences in Australia.

Williams made the initial introductions and conversations soon commenced with IHG and SCIA’s EmployAbility, around creating employment opportunities for people with physical disability in their hotels.

A pilot program with EmployAbility has already kicked off in a number of IHG Hotels, which will see EmployAbility working closely with InterContinental Sydney Double Bay, Crowne Plaza Darling Harbour, Crowne Plaza Hunter Valley and IHG Sydney Support centre, to increase their recruitment and employment of people living with physical disability.