Tea Colaianni
Founder and Chair Diversity in Retail, Founder and Chair of WiHTL (Diversity in Hospitality, Travel & Leisure)
Tea has developed a portfolio of Non-executive Director roles and is currently Senior Independent Non-executive Director on the board of luxury retailer Watches of Switzerland plc, and NED at multinational law firm DWF Group plc, as well as global payroll and HR service provider, SD Worx.
Tea’s executive career spans different industries and countries. Her most recent executive role was Group HR Director at the FTSE 100 Merlin Entertainments. Alongside her non-executive roles, Tea is Chair and Founder of the WiHTL campaign.
A keen advocate of gender diversity she rallied support to conduct the first ever research into female leadership across the Hospitality, Travel and Leisure sector in 2018. She has since created an influential collaboration platform of leaders across the HTL sector with the objective of increasing gender representation and diversity at leadership level across hospitality, travel and leisure.
Session 2: The impact of COVID on women’s learning and employment
Thursday 16 June, 10-12pm
WiHTL is a collaboration community of companies focussing on gender, race and ethnicity and promoting inclusive cultures across the hospitality, travel and leisure sector. I was pleased to be able to share our expertise with the Forum on the impact of the pandemic on women across the sector.
It is very well documented that the pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women. The hospitality, travel and leisure industries have arguably been impacted more than any others and continue to be following recent announcements that some restrictions are to continue. 60-to-70 per cent of the workforce is made up of women. A large proportion of them work part-time, and it is this part of the workforce that has experienced the severest impact. More women than men have been furloughed. Many women had little choice and had to request to be placed on furlough. We know that most of the burden of caring responsibilities has fallen onto women. Sadly, we also know that women have volunteered for redundancy when there was an opportunity. The sector has seen a drain of incredible talent and senior level female role models. The loss of role models could have serious consequences for future generations of women working their way up in the industry. There have also been consequences for learning and development opportunities. In hospitality, probably more than in any other industry, people have been put on furlough for long periods of time; some have been out of the workplace for almost a year and a half, and this clearly has implications for progression and earning potential.
We need a response that recognises the disproportionate impact. If we don’t act these effects will be debilitating for many years to come. Funds need to be directed to those most effected. The disparities created by the pandemic need to be addressed. And we need to all act to change a culture which does not always support women in the workplace. Hybrid working, flexible working, and parental leave need to be normalised, and accessible and affordable childcare is needed. We all have a responsibility to continuously challenge the stereotypes we see day in and day out. There are no quick fixes.