According to the International Labor Organization, “More than 40% of young individuals are unemployed or living in poverty.” “In the United States alone, we have 4.9 million opportunity youth.” Opportunity youth represent young people who are ages 16-24 and neither in school nor working and therefore, are disconnected from our economy.
Hyatt’s Purpose
True to Hyatt’s purpose – we care for people so they can be their best – Hyatt is passionate about people and building an inclusive and diverse global Hyatt family. To bring the company’s purpose to life, Hyatt has recently launched RiseHy.
What is RiseHY?
RiseHY is a brand-new universal program created to match career opportunities in the hospitality industry with young people who need them. Hyatt is dedicated to being part of the solution for youth unemployment and they are using their platform in the hospitality industry to make it happen. Hyatt’s main concentration is ensuring that candidates are given the resources needed to achieve from the very beginning.
The Vision
By 2025, Hyatt hotels, globally, pledge to hire 10,000 Opportunity Youth. Not only does this give the youth the opportunity to build meaningful, life-long careers, but it also ensures that Hyatt builds a diversified family of talent for the forthcoming.
“The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.”
-Nelson Mandela
Making the Commitment a Reality
Virtual Reality – Taking advantage of today’s advanced technology, Hyatt hotels have found a way to help the youth around the globe experience what working in specific areas of a hotel feels like before they even consider applying for the position. Personally, seeing how much attention to detail Hyatt has put into this aspect of their program makes me excited to know that this may be the way that the youth around the world are introduced to the world of hospitality. The virtual reality aspect of this program shows such real-life scenarios, an educational tool that may even be more beneficial than learning out of a textbook in the near future.
Digital Technology – This piece of the RiseHy program is tied very closely to human resources principles, focusing on eliminating the “guessing” portion from the hiring process. Candidates will be evaluated by their inherent soft-skills and matched with entry-level positions that the system believes suits them best individually. This information is stored and sent to HR teams from a variety of hotels to ensure that each individual is being set up for success from the start of their hospitality career.
Growing the Global Network – As part of Hyatt’s continuing effort to educate and introduce the youth to the hospitality industry, the company has partnered with two longstanding community organizations – Grads of Life and Youth Career Initiative. Grads of Life is a company who believes that the opportunity youth have untapped potential and talent. They also believe that, given the correct platform, these youth can go on to become an integral part in any company or organization they may come to work for. Youth Career Initiative is very similar to Grads of Life in that they also work to ensure an equal opportunity for all youth. However, the Youth Career Initiative is focused on connecting those specific opportunity youth to potential hospitality employers, something that makes them a perfect partner for the RiseHy program.
Don’t Wait for the Opportunity. Create It.
RiseHY is a program that aims to expand the market of potential candidates for entry-level positions by using new technologies and community-based programs to reach out to opportunity youth. This program truly benefits the human resources department because it not only expands the pool of potential candidates but does so in a way that gives the department detailed information about each individual. It also gives HR assurance knowing that each one of the opportunity youth that participated in this program has been introduced to each department and its responsibilities and in a sense, knows what they are expected to achieve. Most importantly, RiseHY gives Opportunity Youth the resources necessary to succeed with Hyatt.
What do you think of Hyatt’s commitment to spreading awareness and knowledge of the hospitality industry to the opportunity youth?
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of attracting specifically the opportunity youth for potential employment?
About the Author
Brianna Adams is currently a student at Cal Poly Pomona, pursuing her degree in Hospitality Management. Brianna has gained valuable work experience in numerous positions at The Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa. She has excelled in the Food and Beverage division, as well as the Rooms division of the hotel. During her spare time, she enjoys traveling and going to Disneyland. After graduation, Brianna plans to continue her hospitality career with Hyatt Hotels Corporation as a corporate management trainee. In the future, Brianna’s goal is to become a general manager of a luxury, resort-style hotel.
I found this Article very interesting because it has great useful information for young people to get opportunities in the hospitality industry. The Hyatt is a wonderful luxury hotel. They stand out by creating opportunities when no one else does. A lot of young people struggle to find jobs after they received their degrees. Companies ask for experience but do not have experience because no one hires them. The Hyatt is changing that lost of opportunity by giving them a path to start their careers. They create these programs with technology to help them succeed. A company like the Hyatt show that they care a lot about their employees and future employees. After reading this article, I would highly consider working for this company.
ReplyDeleteErandy Bibian Lopez HRT 2030-03