While your hotel exists to provide comfortable stays for your customers, working in the hospitality industry can be challenging. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that hospitality has one of the highest quits rates as of the end of 2024 at 3.5%. This isn’t a new trend, either—hospitality consistently has a higher quits rate than other industries:
High turnover rates impact more than your current bottom line—they also can reflect poorly on your brand, reduce client loyalty, and impact long-term profitability.
But what if there was a way to mitigate turnover and improve your brand’s reputation, all while promoting a healthy and engaging work environment?
Look no further than corporate social responsibility (CSR)! In this business strategy, for-profit organizations contribute to charitable causes or overall community well-being. In this guide, we’ll explore the various benefits of CSR and how to launch your own efforts.
Ways to Prioritize CSR and Improve Hotel Reputation, Community Impact, and Staff Safety
A whopping 96% of companies take part in some form of CSR, including many Fortune 500 companies. Here are some key advantages of CSR hospitality professionals should keep in mind:
- Enhance brand reputation: As CSR has become a standard across various industries, it’s been shown to strengthen participating brands’ reputations. Participation in charitable work demonstrates a company’s commitment to the entire community’s well-being, which attracts talented potential employees, loyal customers, and prospective strategic partners to its brand.
- Attract and retain talent: CSR programs are increasingly becoming a key motivator for talented employees to choose—or stay with—their companies. In fact, according to Double the Donation, 93% of employees believe companies should lead with a purpose, and 55% of employees say they would take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company. When employees know their employer cares about the community and shares their values, they’re less likely to experience burnout.
- Better align with labor commitments: Many hotels pledge to uphold fair labor practices as part of their CSR efforts. Staff safety and communication solutions like React Mobile, helps fulfill these pledges by providing tools that protect frontline workers, reduce vulnerability, and meet union or brand safety mandates.
- Increase customer loyalty: Customers increasingly want to support companies with a greater purpose than simply turning a profit. Studies show that some consumers are willing to pay up to 50% more for sustainably made products, making CSR a draw for both new and existing customers.
- Strengthen community relationships: Many businesses develop in-depth partnerships with nonprofits that operate in similar industries or that share similar values and goals. Some companies also disburse grants to nonprofits in their communities or set aside time for their employees to volunteer with local organizations. Regardless of how businesses support nonprofits, these partnerships provide a great opportunity for hospitality professionals to expand their networks.
- Adapt to your business’s needs: While some programs are more popular than others, there is no one “correct” way to implement a CSR program. Each business can choose the combination of activities that works best for their goals and their employees’ preferences. For instance, a boutique hotel with a tight budget might intentionally focus on employee volunteering, whereas a larger chain may be able to donate funds and in-kind resources.
When launching a CSR program, a genuine commitment to social good is the first step. However, your program’s success depends on choosing the right activities for your organization. Ask your employees and research what has been effective for other companies in your industry to start.
Leading CSR Ideas
Inspired to learn more about different CSR programs? Let’s review some effective ideas for companies in the hospitality industry to consider:
- Matching gifts: In these programs, a business pledges to match employee donations to nonprofits at a certain ratio (usually 1:1). These programs make it easy for companies to support their employees’ philanthropic passions.
- Volunteer programs: One-third of nonprofit labor comes from volunteers. Organize employees to lend a helping hand through coordinated volunteer outings. Take volunteerism a step further by offering volunteer time off so employees can go outside of work.
- Employee Resource Groups (ERG): Your employees want to be actively involved in your company past their daily contributions through work. ERGs are employee-led groups where people with shared interests and identities can connect, providing a robust support network.
- Workplace safety provisions: To keep employees engaged and satisfied, hotels must ensure their workers are healthy and safe. The hospitality industry has a particularly important role to play, as 99% of nonfatal assaults at work occur in the service industry. Establish policies for keeping your employees safe, such as using a workplace safety platform.
- Sponsorships: These programs are great for companies that want to collaborate closely with a nonprofit. In most cases, the company will provide financial or in-kind support to a nonprofit in exchange for cross-marketing opportunities.
- Sustainability initiatives: Not all CSR initiatives have to support a nonprofit directly! For instance, your business might choose to reduce its environmental impact by investing in automatic lights and only washing or changing the linens in guest rooms every few days.
- Corporate gifting: Corporate gifting is an effective way to show appreciation for employees and to incentivize hard work. Unwrapit suggests gifting high performers a donation to a nonprofit of their choice as a reward. Not only does this gift directly support a great cause, but it’s disbursed digitally, cutting down on physical waste and carbon emissions in the process.
These ideas are by no means the only CSR opportunities available for your business to pursue. Use your unique strengths, resources, and connections to come up with your own ideas for charitable impact. Again, be sure to ask your employees what they prefer—they might have more ideas from their past experiences.
CSR in the Hospitality Industry
Now that you understand why CSR is important and how to incorporate it into your business, take a look at these real examples of CSR in the hospitality industry:
- IHG Resorts’ Responsible Business Initiative. In its most recent impact report, IHG reviews its CSR initiatives for the year across three categories: people, communities, and planet. The company contributed to more than 200 community projects, mitigated food waste on their properties, invested in training for more than 10,000 employees on sustainability practices, and more.
- Hilton Worldwide’s Travel with Purpose Program. Hilton breaks down their CSR activities into three common categories: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). Some highlights from their annual report include reducing landfilled waste intensity in its operations by 50% and contributing 10 million volunteer hours through its employee volunteerism program.
- Accor’s Annual Report. Accor starts its report by highlighting its various CSR goals, such as eliminating single-use plastics from their properties and reducing food waste by 60% by 2030. Some highlights from the year include reducing its carbon footprint by a whopping 79.2%.
Gain more insights about CSR in the hospitality space by looking at these and other brands’ annual reports. Once you start your program, ensure you comprehensively track and share data in your own report to spread awareness of your efforts.
From gifting donations to nonprofits to matching employee contributions to charitable causes, your hospitality business has many opportunities to make its mark in the community. Once you’ve launched your efforts and collected data, post it on a page dedicated to CSR so customers and employees can see your commitment. Remember to train your employees in the importance of CSR and fully explain how they can participate and positively impact their community.