The JEDI Initiative: A New Standard of DE&I In Hospitality

🎧 Subscribe on your favourite platform iTunes | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | TuneIn and RSS.
✉️ Sign up to receive our weekly newsletter packed with HR Insights sent directly to your inbox.

In this episode, I'm joined by Sarah Brown, Corporate Director of People at Virgin Hotels.

Sarah discusses the various initiatives and programs Virgin Hotels has implemented to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization and the broader hospitality industry.

She shares insights on the Unlock Potential Program, a proactive approach to disrupt the prison pipeline by providing meaningful job opportunities to youth who have experienced the juvenile justice system, have parents who were incarcerated, have been victims of human or sexual trafficking, or have been in foster care.

She highlights the JEDI Initiative, a formalized program focusing on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI), which involves analysing the demographics of each Virgin Hotel property and comparing it with the demographics of the city it's located in. The aim is to identify gaps and partner with community-based organizations to address these disparities.

Episode Highlights

Unlock Potential Program is disrupting the prison pipeline and providing meaningful job opportunities
Autism checked trains hotel staff to assist individuals with neurodivergent or hidden disabilities
JEDI Initiative focuses on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Virgin Hotels' commitment to being good partners to their communities and the world
The challenges faced by the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how Virgin Hotels managed to navigate through these difficult times while maintaining their commitment to their employees and their core values.

Chris Rainey 0:00
Sarah welcome to the show. How are you?
Sarah Brown 0.05
Great. How are you?
Chris 0.10
I'm alright. Nice to see you again. Nice to hear. I'm still trying to figure out like, where do I go on holiday? Where there's virgin hotels?
Sarah Brown 0:14
Yeah, Chicago, New York. We're also in the UK. So just let me know. We'll get you a nice little friends and family discount.
Chris Rainey 0:23
Where are you in the UK? What have I missed that?
Sarah Brown 0:26
Edinburgh? Oh, yeah. And then we're opening one in Glasgow as well. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. And more in the pipeline. But it's, you know, super top secret. So when we can share, we will
Chris Rainey 0:35
Yeah, we'll get, we'll get told off by the PR and comms team. I've always, you know, that's
Sarah Brown 0:39
Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, lots of great things go.
Chris Rainey 0:44
Amazing. Before we jump can you tell everyone, sort of a little bit more about you, and your journey to where we are today, you know, did HR choose you? Or did you choose HR?
Sarah Brown 0:54
I think HR chose me. You know, it's interesting, I don't think, you know, I was gonna say, I don't have the typical HR path. But what is the typical HR path?
Chris Rainey 1:04
That's just a good point. Yeah,
Sarah Brown 1:06
Mom always says, you know, she's like, you know, no kids wake up, like, you know, in kindergarten and say, Gosh, I hope I can be a human resources professional when I grow up. But, ya know, I had a really kind of interesting journey. I initially, excuse me, wanted to get into a degree of social justice, which is kind of a rare degree, only some schools offer it. My sister went to Marquette University, and they had that degree there. So I was like, wow, I can basically just have a career that does good in the world. I did ended up going to Marquette. So the school I went to Illinois State University had a sociology degree, went down that path. And it's embarrassing to say now, but I ended up changing, essentially, because of a professor, you know, 18 year old me was like, Ah, I don't really like you. So obviously, this isn't my career path, which is embarrassing now, but it all worked out.
Chris Rainey 1:59
It's all meant to be. Yeah, you know,
Sarah Brown 2:01
asking 18 year olds what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Like it's just it's tough. So then moved over to teaching. I love children. But I discovered that I particularly love well behaved like, which isn't the case for all so little life. Yeah. So then fast forward, found a business. And Professor, you know, mentioned HR and how I really love, you know, helping like the business world, but to see the connection to human beings as well. I was like, this takes kind of my passion for people and social justice, in my desire, you know, to be in business. And bam, here, yeah. All together. Yeah, a little bit of a journey. But
Chris Rainey 2:45
I'll have to do that. Right. Like when I look back at my career, like you have to taste different things and try different things to really then know what you want to do. Like the idea. We're asking kids like, what do you want to do when you're older? I have no idea. No, I have no idea. Like, I can't name any of my friends or family that actually do a job that's related to what they studied. Very few, like a tiniest percentage of. Yeah,
Speaker 2 3:10
yeah. But what's interesting is my mom also says, now she's like, I do kind of see it. So the story goes, when I was in kindergarten, I would get in trouble because I would just go to my teacher's desk and like, essentially interview her. And she was like, hey, yeah. Sweet, but you know, if she wouldn't mind, like, she's, like, interviewing me every day. So,
Chris Rainey 3:33
yeah. And who you are and who you are. What was your first footsteps into the HR world? Where did you start? Or whatever? Yeah,
Sarah Brown 3:40
so I actually started in hotels, which was another kind of interesting. Hotel. So yeah, I was HR systems. Okay, cool.
Chris Rainey 3:50
Yeah.
Sarah Brown 3:52
But, you know, the hotel industry wasn't something that I was even, you know, aware of, necessarily, of course, you know, we stayed at hotels as kids, but you're not thinking about the behind the scenes of it. So I remember when I first applied, I was like, you know, what, is this what a person even do in HR? And no, I certainly know there's so much to it. I'm so fell in love with the industry. The hospitality industry is just so fun, fast paced, progressive. And I love that, you know, the heart of what we do is making experience experiences for people like How fun is that? Ryan, you're
Chris Rainey 4:30
way very clear. It's a celebration,
Sarah Brown 4:32
you know, every day of course, some people are staying for you know, other reasons, but for the most part, we're here to delight you and you know, make it great. So I love that
Chris Rainey 4:42
love it. Is that one I'd like to ask you a question. Maybe that links to it, you know, what are the costs or principles that were that come through from the Richard Branson brand from the Virgin brand? In the hotel group?
Sarah Brown 4:55
Yeah. So everything we do is connected to the overall virgin In culture, mission and vision created by Richard Branson, so I mean, we talk about him and his values on a daily basis. But one of the biggest ones that I'm super passionate about is all virgin companies, our core value and purpose is to change business for good. So no matter what virgin company, we're looking at, everything we do has to have people at the heart, and doing good for the community and for the world. So, you know, as I've, you know, worked for different companies, there's many that have had great culture and purpose. But this one just rings so true and authentic. In every single, you know, decision that we make, so, yeah, it's, it's amazing. Um, through our orientation, we we teach the team all about all of you know, these things. There's Virgin Unite, which is the philanthropic arm that is, you know, amazing stories about building orphanages in Africa, and there's criminal justice reform, and I could go on and on and on. But I love that I work for a company who, yes, we have a job to do. And we have a business and we need to make money and all those things. But really, first, we have to make sure that we're being good partners, to our communities in the world.
Chris Rainey 6:16
Yeah. Suppose that links quite nicely back to your first point about your passion for social justice. Does good link now to good fit, like,
Unknown Speaker 6:25
for my values?
Chris Rainey 6:26
Yeah. I know when we spoke to you quite passionate about the launch of your which amazingly named Jedi initiative in 2020, to talk about what that is, and then how it continues to expand and evolve.
Sarah Brown 6:41
Yeah, so our Jedi programme. So we've been doing a lot in the world of, you know, diversity, equity and inclusion, you know, since the foundation of version hotels, but last year, we decided that we wanted to kind of formalise that process and that programme. So we created Jedi, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, Jedi spun to say, easy for the team to remember. So that's why we tagged it that, yeah, it's a multi step programme, the first piece that we did, which was really impactful, is we analyse the demographics of each of our properties. So it did a survey with the team looked at things like ethnicity, justice, involvement, education, you know, veteran status, really like every every data point we could get. And then we compare that to the demographics of the city, that hotel is in. So here's our makeup of the team, and here's the city. And then we identified gaps. And then that asked to the people and leadership teams, where to go find community based organisations, like within those groups that we saw the gaps, partner with them, tried to make, you know, cultivate those relationships, but also post our positions within the force. And the goal is to kind of organically but with, you know, with intent, improve those gaps and close those gaps. So that's been really great. We're coming upon a year of the programme. So we're going to, you know, now look back and see how successful we've been some other things within that programme, we've started Jedi committees. So each property has a committee that meets monthly, it can be individuals from any department, so housekeeping, engineering, front desk, people that care about this, and it's part of their, you know, a personal values as well. Yeah. And yeah, they're, they help us, you know, push these initiatives work with the community to based organisations, but also some other, you know, fun things. So, for example, one that comes to mind is Black History Month. So we bring that to the Jedi committee and say, What should we do? And it was really interesting, I remember in Chicago, and someone said, you know, it's really nice that for Black History Month, we celebrate and we recognise black leaders like Martin Luther King, and kind of like, celebrate those stories. But what about us? What about the black teammates? In the building? Yeah, and can we share our stories? So we did this really beautiful thing, we have an internal communication platform, and we, you know, it was obviously voluntary. People wanted to share their story. But you know, what is it like growing up black, in Chicago, and What experiences have they had, and some of the stories were super inspirational, some were awful and terrifying, like things that they've experienced. But it was just a beautiful kind of, you know, programme that we did that reached a lot further than what we've done in the past. And the Jedi committee was a big part of that.
Chris Rainey 9:43
Yeah, you want to kind of make sure you capture their hearts and their minds and their process and sometimes when you tell stories of people that aren't in the business, it's hard to connect with that with as much but when you're when it's actual, your colleagues and teammates that you're in directing we every day. That's really where I think the storytelling is special. Yeah, no, definitely close to home, again, within your communities to your point.
Sarah Brown 10:10
Right. And, you know, I've worked alongside these people for years. And, you know, I try to my, like, leadership style is, I think, hopefully very human, and I get to know them and their families, but I didn't know some of these stories, right. Um, it just was really eye opening and made it even more important to me that we continue, you know, on this mission to have a equitable workplace.
Chris Rainey 10:32
Yeah. You mentioned some of the community side, do you have any examples of particular communities or organisations that you've connected with? Could you share some more?
Sarah Brown 10:41
Yeah, I mean, one that we've just recently partnered with that's super exciting is called is as a programme called unlock potential. So that is connected to the responsible business initiative for justice. We got linked up to them through Virgin Unite, they, you know, we're like, Hey, this is a really amazing programme. Do you want to partner up with them? So we already do quite a bit of work in the post incarceration space meaning Second Chance hiring? Yeah, we, you know, want to give everyone an equal shot at a meaningful career. But what's really cool about unlock potential, which I'd love to, you know, dive super deep on, because it just it's such an inspiring programme. But they are one of the first programmes to have a more proactive approach. So you know, there's a lot out there again, for post incarceration, giving people job skills, training, etc. But this programme says, Hey, like, statistics show that certain groups of people with certain life experiences are more likely to experience incarceration in their life, what can we do? What can we do to prevent that and stop that. So they say they're, you know, trying to disrupt the prison pipeline. And so it's targeted for groups, I believe, 16 to 24. So, you know, essentially youth, older youth and individuals who have experienced the juvenile justice system themselves, their parents were incarcerated when they were children, victims of human or sexual trafficking and individuals or individuals who have been in foster care. So what we do is they, they help us really kind of guide finding wonderful community based organisations that target those youth. And then we provide, hopefully, meaningful job opportunities for them. So they find value, purpose, etc, career opportunities with us. And the hope is that then, you know, they don't go down that path. So
Chris Rainey 12:35
what does that really look like delay come and do, like a placement, try out and see, like, what does that look like? Practically?
Sarah Brown 12:41
Yeah, sure. So they're, it's a new programme, unlike potentials, new too, so they're in their pilot phase. But yes, they do a really deep intake with us as to what we're looking for what we need, what different jobs we have available, and then they provide, you know, like job training, skills, interview coaching to the individuals in the programme, then, you know, we do our normal interview process. So we talked to them, and then they touch, you know, point with them along the way, to make sure that they're, you know, settling in well, and and finding me, they're doing Yeah, so it's just really inspirational. And we're super excited to be partnering with them.
Chris Rainey 13:23
Yeah, I love that, like you mentioned a minute ago, the fact that we need to focus on being proactive, not reactive, you know, we're not fixing the problem. If we're only we're only focusing on people coming out of prison, or, you know, let's focus on actually soft, hopefully stopping you from getting to that point. Right, by connecting with them at a younger age, and locally in the communities with those organisations.
Sarah Brown 13:47
Yeah, and, you know, I always think about, you know, we're all born into whatever circumstances right, and it's not fair that some individuals just because of, you know, their life, their life scenario and circumstance, don't have the same opportunities as other people. So that's what we're trying to to rectify VR partnerships with some of these groups.
Chris Rainey 14:10
Yeah. You mentioned the Jedi sort of resource groups internally. What are some of the ideas that have come out of those groups that you've implemented that you're really
Sarah Brown 14:21
yeah sure. There's been quite a few like I said, you know, they help they're kind of our, our guiding you know, light for all social justice issues, and even kind of random things. So when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, like this is a group that I would go to and say not that isn't necessarily like, perfectly in that space, but these are people who care about these, you know, these issues, and like, Hey, guys, how do we address this with our tea? What do people need to hear? How can you help? So stuff like that just being kind of like a guiding committee, but also, one of the the Great things that they helped with is finding unconscious bias training for our entire team to take. So all employees go through that and a microaggression training, because again, we as hiring managers, and the people team or HR team, we do all these things, right. And we're passionate about it. And but we need every single employee to also be behind that, and just ask culture. So that was, you know, a big win for us.
Chris Rainey 15:28
Yeah, it also shows that you actually care and you're listening. You're not just going to them with a blanket statement that you've made up, you've gone to them, ask them out, you know, we don't have all the answers, how do we communicate this, we really appreciate your, your advice, and your guidance on this right. And they're gonna, they're gonna feel much more engaged, much more valued. And that's going to increase their enjoyment at work, probably retention, everything, all of those things, as well. So
Sarah Brown 16:00
right, yeah, it's really treating people like human beings. And everyone has, you know, thoughts and opinions. And, you know, if I made all the decisions and everything, gosh, it'd be terrible, because we have so many great ideas. And to your point, why not go to the team and get their input? And they'll feel that much more engaged?
Chris Rainey 16:21
Yeah. You mentioned earlier that you still I know you're new on this journey with the dead eye initiative. What do you refer to as?
Sarah Brown 16:29
Yeah, JEDI initiative? Yeah.
Chris Rainey 16:33
Obviously, you want to make sure that your company internally reflects the communities you serve, right, from a diversity inclusion perspective. How do you plan on measuring? That? What does that look like?
Sarah Brown 16:46
Yeah, so we, I mean, and the Virgin culture, and just kind of the people we attract are people who care about these things, too. So we do surveys, of course, like I said, they're voluntary, we're not going to be able to capture, you know, we just we need to look at the demographics and see, are we making headway? Are things moving in the right direction, and are irritating those people? So yeah, we'll just plan to do like, you know, statistical analysis to see if we've moved the needle. And then if not course, correct, and, and pivot and keep trying, we can't this type of programme, you can't roll it out and say, Yay, you know, we have a DNI programme. This is wonderful. Exactly. Yeah, that doesn't work. You're gonna die all the time. So one of the things that we haven't done yet, kind of like the the final, not final, because, again, it's ongoing. But the next phase of Jedi is, you know, we've done this analysis of the full team. But now what we need to do is look at supervisory and above positions. You know, I'm happy to report that we do have very diverse teams. I mean, of course, we can always do better. But is it the same case for leadership positions? And you know, not necessarily,
Chris Rainey 17:54
that's why you get, that's what you get, the more disparity right, the higher, you go up.
Sarah Brown 17:59
Right. So that's the next step. And then I'm here in New York right now actually talking to our, our senior leaders about succession planning, and what are we doing to develop our team? And this, this analysis will work into that. So, you know, we need to be developing all of our leaders books, specifically individuals from these underrepresented groups,
Chris Rainey 18:21
just across a do you connect the different groups from each hotel? together? And so? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean, like, obviously, they're in a different location. But yeah. Are you bringing that together on Zoom? Teams? Yeah.
Sarah Brown 18:38
That's so funny. Because just yesterday, as I was talking to the senior leaders about Jedi, we came up with that kind of like, brainstorm idea. And yeah, we probably should have been doing that. All right. We're going to Yeah, so we're thinking to do a quarterly kind of like, yeah. And share, share wins and share challenges. And, you know, the more minds the better, especially people that have this at the core of their heart, you know, wanting to have a more inclusive workplace. So yeah, I'm sure some great things will come from that. Because I
Chris Rainey 19:09
can imagine in the industry, it probably can come back can become very siloed. Definitely more almost, almost to the point where each hotel has its own culture, if that makes sense.
Sarah Brown 19:21
It does. Yeah, it does. And I think too, you know, we just would, you know, we're so busy, and everything is so fast paced, and we have to, you know, take the time to connect with other people. Yeah, 100% Yeah. And it has to be, you know, a non negotiable. I'm really excited about our success thus far. But there's so much more we can do. So, we'll see. Yeah,
Chris Rainey 19:48
how does people find the time in their day? Right? They're all working different types of shifts. Different roles. Yeah. Where do you create that opportunity? When they're not? They're not in an office sit in there. You know, like Like other companies that, you know, they're under the water in the kitchen, you know, at the Welcome Desk. How do you Yeah,
Sarah Brown 20:06
yeah, we, you know, it started, like, there's a few steps prior to watching this committee and that's getting buy in of all leaders in the building. So, you know, explaining the programme. And we, we did a lot of work on like, we presented quite a few statistics about why this is important. And just like the disparagement or non disclosure, and but the disparity between individuals within these groups, bah, bah, bah. So they had we had their bias. So when we put it out there and said, Hey, we're starting this Jedi committee, it's open to everyone, we really want it to be a cross section of the building, not just managers, or leaders who probably can more easily step away. Yeah, we told them, you know, we need you to make the time. So like, if your Front Desk Agent is on the Jedi committee, and we're meeting at 3pm, you're covering for them, because this is important. This is the most important thing. Yeah. And then we tried to move the time around so that you know, to your point, like an overnight teammate, you know, maybe we do the next month, we'll do it early in the morning, so they can come after shift, etc. We always have a zoom component too. So they can join that way. But yeah, it really is just like, it is part of our culture now. And it's, it's kind of like an honour and an exciting thing to be on the team. So it's like, Hey, I'm going to the Jedi meeting, can you cover for me, and everyone's happy to do so.
Chris Rainey 21:27
Right? You're gonna make it happen, right. But to your point yet to engage with those different leaders and department managers and say, This is why this is important. This is what it means that person, that person may need to step away at 3pm. For this, yeah, this is why it's important. Yeah.
Sarah Brown 21:42
Yeah. And, you know, I think a lot about that. And because I'm, you know, to your point, sharing it and getting the buy in with these leaders. And it's important for so many reasons, obviously, it's the right thing to do. I mean, first and foremost, we should be creating an inclusive environment for all and presenting fair opportunities, etc. But also, you can speak to the business leaders like this makes sense for us on so many levels, retention, right. We all know, retention is a huge challenge across industries, but for sure, in the hospitality industry, post COVID. There's so many vacancies, etc. We need to retain our great team. And I just saw a couple of days ago, an article on LinkedIn that has some updated stats about employees and their perceptions of DNI programmes. And it was something like 85, per se of teammates said that they will leave a job if they don't feel their employer cares about DNI. And another. Yeah, and another kind of super eye opening line. I think it was like, almost 40%, um, you know, don't quote me on this. Would we are not, they would take a pay cut. If that meant that their employer would put more like resources and time into DNI, so half of people. So I mean, people care about this, the statistics, you know, are there. And we do, I think I'm super proud that, you know, we do engagement surveys twice a year. And we ask a lot of questions around this, like, do you feel that you are treated, you know, with fairness and respect, regardless of any characteristics? And that's usually our highest question across the hotels, on those surveys. So I think we're doing some things right now. But, again, yeah, we have to continue to continue to push it forward.
Chris Rainey 23:29
Well, immediately, one of the main things you're doing is you're involving him in the entire process. Right, a lot of times just like I, I speak to many chief diversity officers on the show, and sometimes it's like we create all these initiatives, and then just throw it on them, as opposed to involving them in the process and being part of it, right, valued, listened. And that's really where people become really engaged.
Sarah Brown 23:51
Yeah, yeah. And that's kind of another virgin guiding principle in general. We say we love what we do, and what we do is important. But when we speak to that, we're saying everyone's important, right? And I say all the time, like, if I don't show up to work for a couple of days, like I know what I do is important. However, things will be okay. If housekeepers don't show up to work, if our dishwashers don't show up to work, that's a much bigger problem, really. So what you do is important, you're providing you know, things. Yeah. And so, you know, that kind of ties into this, like, these are human beings with purpose and value, let's incorporate them into everything that we do. And then these programmes are more successful because people are authentically passionate about it.
Chris Rainey 24:34
Well, that's flowing straight down to the customer experience. Yeah, it is. So it's not just the right thing to do. It's good business. As well, right? Because if those if those people in the restaurant or in those people on the front line is to say that all those people on the front line you are directly interacting with your customers every day if they feel value if they feel like their voices heard, and that they're tied into the mission, and the purpose data and the data is going to lose Write on the experience
Sarah Brown 25:02
100%. Yeah, we talked about that yesterday, if you have, you know, 10 employees and nine of 10 are engaged via whatever the way we treat them the way we talk to them the way we involve them in all those kinds of human connection pieces, how much better will we be when we have everyone working towards their own personal maximum potential? I mean, to your point, it's just smart business. So yeah, we're just constantly working towards being the best at that. Yeah. And having fun along the way.
Chris Rainey 25:32
What's what's next for you? Obviously, this is ongoing, of course, and it should be. Yeah. What else do you got planned that you're excited about?
Sarah Brown 25:39
Yeah. So I mean, I think there's a lot of other partnerships that we want to incorporate into our agenda programme. And some of them you know, not just talking about hiring, just being a truly 100% inclusive workplace. So another programme that we've just started partnering with is called Autism checked. It was actually founded by David Tay and Allendale, David Tate founded Virgin Atlantic with Richard Branson. So that was kind of the initial connection. But it's an awesome programme, both of them have children with autism. And they discover that when you're, you know, we do a lot in hotels to train our team how to, you know, help individuals with just like physical disabilities, like we're accessible, and all those things. But what about individuals with like, you know, neurodivergent, hidden disabilities. So we just heard of them, there's a full training for all of our team, you become like certified autism checks, they actually come out to your property, they are meeting David and Alan, and do a full tour and put together a guide. So say, if you have a child with autism, and you're thinking of travelling to Virgin hotels, yeah, you can see an ad, you know, they say, we're not going to tell you, hey, the music's too loud in the bar, but they'll say in the guide, like, the noise level is about this, if your child has a sensitivity to noise, you might want to avoid the space. So we're really excited about that to just really, we're interested in any partner that again, makes us a super well rounded, super inclusive place where everyone is welcome no matter what period. Yeah, so and then, yeah, this online potential programme, we've piloted that in two of our properties, so in Dallas and and Nashville, they're still kind of, you know, getting into different cities. So I want to, you know, again, here in New York, and like, we want to do it, too. So it's great to see that our property teams are excited about this stuff. We'll just keep adding it in and gauging our success as we go.
Chris Rainey 27:36
Yeah. Have you? I'm assuming you're Are you sharing these type of stories on like LinkedIn and other platforms shared a great work? Just accuracy?
Sarah Brown 27:45
Yeah, I mean, a little bit, we probably could do a little bit better with that. It's one of those things where, you know, it's good to share, and it gives, it really gives the highlight and the respect to these organisations that are doing such great things. You know, it's not so much about virgin hotels, it's about unlock potential.
Chris Rainey 28:00
Okay. All right. Yeah.
Sarah Brown 28:02
But we should I mean, just to bring light to the great work that these organisations are doing. So noted, I'm going to connect with our PR team.
Chris Rainey 28:12
I think we just say is this, you know, I suppose I should also you rather than assuming, have you seen any increase in employees recommending friends and family for roles and stuff like that?
Sarah Brown 28:24
Yeah, definitely. Again, I mean, we see the increase in referrals. We see, again, the engagement survey, it's just such an awesome data point to see that, you know, gosh, like 98% of our team responded favourably to like, I feel like I'm included in welcome and all those things. But, yeah, so for sure. And even just like the conversations that you have throughout the properties, where people just say, I've never, I've never been able to be my full self at work. And I feel like I can do that at Virgin. Like, that's all I needed to hear that makes my day that makes my life. If you can't be your full self at work, I mean, imagine what that looks like coming in every day and trying to hide who you are. So yeah, I mean, other things we're doing, ruling out non binary uniform. So Virgin Atlantic, just did that a little while ago. And we're like, of course, we'll do it too. You know, like, why should we
Chris Rainey 29:21
have to wear high heeled dress, etc.
Sarah Brown 29:25
Why how does that affect the guest experience? If anything, it'll negatively affected if someone is uncomfortable in what they're wearing. So, yeah, nice to see.
Chris Rainey 29:34
Plenty of exciting things coming out. So so how long have you How long have you been in the leisure industry then? long you've been working in the space
Sarah Brown 29:44
in hotels? Yeah. Yeah. What? 1213 years something like that.
Chris Rainey 29:50
Yeah. Have you ever considered leaving that and just just random just you turn around a conversation, but like, not saying lead this company? I mean, have you ever thought about trying a different interest straight.
Sarah Brown 30:01
So I only had a Yeah, I had one moment. And it was during COVID, which I think probably a lot of people. Same old story. Yeah, self reflective. So I was not a virgin at the time, I was at a different property, and it was a resort property. I mean, you know, we all have the same stories, but laid off 300 People then switched over to Virgin hotels, laying off more people. And I'm just like, gosh, you know, I know, it's a part of HR. But my concern at the time was, is the hospitality industry able to, you know, overcome this, maybe I'll get something else. So we'll really I guess that was before I joined virgin, but I started to look at other industries. And I'm just like, there's so many great ones, but I'm just so passionate about hotels, I love the business. I love what we do. I love the creativity that we have, you know, food and beverage, like, we can play with food and have fun, and I love the connections with the team. So no, I think I'm here forever.
Chris Rainey 30:58
Today, the day that the industry is retained you this long, clearly it's aligned, we've kind of established from the very beginning of this conversation is clearly aligned with your values, and your why right and your mission, kind of where you can not only have impact in both internally, but into those communities, right. Now, you're in a role that you literally do that.
Sarah Brown 31:21
I really do that. And I'm I'm supported so fully by Virgin, and you know, it's cool to me that it's really the expectation, you know, that I care about these things and create programming around it. And you know, what are some ways it's, it's a nice to have, but here is like,
Chris Rainey 31:38
books, you can tell us how you can tell in your case, it's not the sort of a tick the box, kind of like the core, how are you? Yeah, your values is like, that's why it's so important, though, to have those values, right? And to leave those values that kind of filters down to everything you do. And
Sarah Brown 31:58
yeah, it's really, really cool. So I'm happy I found my home in the hospitality industry. And now more specifically in version.
Chris Rainey 32:07
I mean, yeah. What advice would you give to like your peers? In the industry? It's been a tough couple of years, obviously.
Sarah Brown 32:16
It has been a tough couple years. I mean, I think that I think that we're coming out of it, for the most part, I mean, obviously, the pandemic is, is over and knock on wood. But I think we all need to just take a deep breath, deep breath, and like recenter ourselves and get back to you know, what we're truly here to do to be a strategic partner to, you know, affect people's lives in hopefully a positive and meaningful way. And, yeah, that has to be the core of what we do. And I think not that I got off track, but just the past few years have been so chaotic. And yeah, priorities have shifted. And I think, again, most industries are now kind of getting back on track. And we need to say, that's done. Let's kind of reorganise and prioritise and have some fun, too. Because, again, it's been nuts.
Chris Rainey 33:04
Yeah. What would you say? Like, during those times, what would you say? Having reflecting on it now? What have you learned about yourself?
Sarah Brown 33:13
Yeah, I think I learned that I can, you know, persevere through challenging times, as we all did. You know, we all have have our stories of of difficult things, and so much worse than others, you know, people lost family members and all of those things. But yeah, I just think I learned that I'm stronger, maybe than I give myself credit for sometimes. And I was really proud of the way, you know, again, it was awful, I collectively laid off over 400 people, which again, there's much larger organisations, but within the span of, you know, a couple of months telling 400 people that, you know, their lives are now changed for the worse. But I tried to be as empathetic and human as I could go into like some really kind of funny, not funny, but lengths. Like I found a guy I tried to present job opportunities. I'm like, I know a guy who builds fences, like, here's his number two, you know, and just random things to try to help people land on their feet. You know, I was essentially a therapist for a lot of people at that time. But I was proud you know, as hard as it is to share that news with people a lot of people said like, Thank you for at least like being human
Chris Rainey 34:27
there are some people just got an email. Literally, there was company to the sea like they Oh, they found out on a all hands. Yeah. Yeah. 10,000 people. Hey, everyone, you ain't got a job. Yeah, you know, for
Sarah Brown 34:40
sure. Yeah, we call we call everybody and again, like just tried to say, I will help you in any way that I can. You know, this is the worst news and you know, to lose health insurance and all those things during a pandemic was just awful. But either way, I learned that I can I can be strong and that, you know, again, just my natural connection to people or can help in those situations.
Chris Rainey 35:01
Yeah. Amazing. Well, listen, anything we missed before I let you go, I thought we covered quite a lot. We don't well, right?
Sarah Brown 35:10
No, I don't think so. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I, I've really enjoyed chatting and sharing about some of these programmes.
Chris Rainey 35:16
So yeah, yeah. Where can people connect with you online? If they want to reach out and say hi,
Sarah Brown 35:20
yeah. So on LinkedIn, for sure. I mean, I am Sarah Brown, which is about the most common name in the world. I was
Chris Rainey 35:27
about to say, if you search for Sarah Brown, LinkedIn, there might be a few.
Sarah Brown 35:31
But yeah, if you do, Sarah Brown.
Chris Rainey 35:34
Yeah, yeah. And as always, wherever listening, there'll be a link in the description to make it easier for you to have to go search it and I but honestly, I love what you're doing. And I really appreciate it. And I love speaking to people that are truly living their, you know, their purpose and their way right every day. I can. And that comes across in everything. The way you've spoken today, the energy you bring to your smile right now, you clearly in the workplace, and that gives me that makes me happy as well, when I see people like that, and it means that you're you're actually genuinely trying to make a difference. And you are.
Sarah Brown 36:10
Yeah, and thanks. Again, thanks for the opportunity to share my story and what I'm passionate about. I really appreciate
Chris Rainey 36:15
it. That's it. I'm gonna see you soon. All right, I'm gonna find some final excuse to come out. So wherever you are.
Sarah Brown 36:22
You just shoot me a note and we'll hook it up.
Chris Rainey 36:25
All right, I'll see you soon. Bye.
Sarah Brown 36:27
Thank you. Alright, bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai