Guiding Principles
• ITC Hotels Limited (‘ITCHL’) believes that a diverse workforce contributes to rich discourse, promotes holistic perspectives, fosters creative solutions, and is integral to serving its customers better while creating value for its stakeholders.
• Progressing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at ITCHL is a systemic and ongoing endeavour. Through its policies, systems, and actions, ITCHL promotes diversity and enables an inclusive climate. Employees and business associates are encouraged to be authentic, share views freely, value differences, and treat each other with humanness and dignity.
• Merit and competence are fundamental to the dynamism and vitality of the enterprise. ITCHL offers equal opportunity based on performance and ability, in selection, progression, rewards, benefits, development, and employment.
• ITCHL is dedicated to maintaining a workplace free from harassment or discrimination based on caste, religion, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, colour, ancestry, marital status or affiliation with a political, religious or union organisation or majority / minority group. ITCHL recognizes that certain groups may face social or cultural hurdles in achieving their full potential. Where needed, ITCHL will undertake supportive actions to offset such difficulties in the spirit of equity at the workplace.
Scope
• These guiding principles apply to all employees and teams and reflect in engagements with business associates, communities and other stakeholders.
Systems, Policies and Practices
• Employees are encouraged to contribute views and perspectives and these are considered on the strength and power of the ideas alone. Forums such as Task Forces, Town Halls by Leaders, structured small group interactions, ideation contests and reviews by leaders are some amongst many opportunities available for contributing ideas and engaging in dialogue.
• Performance and ability are the foundation for reward decisions. This is reflected through objective and outcome-based assessment systems. Talent decisions such as selection, progression, development and positioning are founded on competencies, and their expression in the conduct of business. This ensures that there is no discrimination on the basis of gender while taking any remuneration or advancement decisions.
• Systems to record and assess employee voice and feedback are vital to fostering and reinforcing an inclusive workplace. Periodic engagement surveys, skip-level career and performance conversations, 360-degree feedback, grievance redressal systems and exit interviews provide insights that enable continuous improvement and redressal measures, where needed.
• Apart from an inclusive workplace, Company managed residential communities for employees at several locations, supported by social and recreational opportunities, provide a powerful means of workforce integration, reinforcing a culture of inclusion and fellowship.
• The work from home policy, applicable to roles where such arrangements are feasible, helps employees balance their professional and personal commitments.
• ITCHL is committed to a workplace free of harassment, including sexual harassment at the workplace, and has zero tolerance for such unacceptable conduct. ITCHL encourages reporting of any harassment concerns and is responsive to complaints about harassment or other unwelcome or offensive conduct. Committees have been constituted across locations to enquire into complaints of sexual harassment and to recommend appropriate action, wherever required. Necessary disclosures in relation to the sexual harassment complaints received and redressal thereof are provided in the Report and Accounts of the Company.
As part of its commitment to enhancing diversity, ITCHL places particular emphasis on representation and inclusion of women and the differently abled persons. This is sought to be accomplished systematically, through concerted actions, some of which are summarised below:
Representation
• ITCHL’s talent sourcing strategies are configured to enhance its diversity quotient. The Company assesses sources continuously, scrutinizes the available talent pool and consistently deploys inclusive hiring principles and practices to meet its diversity goals. This includes initiatives and efforts to enhance representation of women in the selection pool, collaborating with external partners to recruit differently abled persons, and where feasible, encouraging their deployment with business associates across the value chain.
• ITCHL invests in bespoke and ready to deploy capability programmes that support women achieve their full potential. Such interventions provide the thrust, as ITCHL strives to meet representation milestones across responsibility levels.
Inclusion & Enablement
• To enhance women participation in the workforce and realisation of their full potential, ITCHL offers comprehensive institutional support. This includes policies which enable greater flexibility such as off-site or alternate location working, extended child care leave and return to work programme, and child and caregiver travel support. Infrastructure provisions include special accommodation arrangements for women, secure transport and access to child care facilities at or near the workplace. ITCHL undertakes periodic infrastructure reviews, and audits and differently abled persons are supported with the necessary infrastructure to help them discharge their responsibilities. ITCHL undertakes various wellbeing programmes focussed on the unique needs of women.
• ITCHL deploys various interventions and refreshes them periodically to reinforce the tenets of inclusive practices and behaviours in work teams. The Company endeavours to tackle implicit biases, if any, through a combination of persuasive campaigns and training programs which sensitize employees on such biases, and effective means to counter them.
Commitment and Assurance
• Promotion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion receives continuous focus and sponsorship from leadership committed to making progress. Diversity & Inclusion goals and initiatives, particularly those pertaining to women and differently abled persons, are integrated with Human Resource Plans.
• As a means of continuous listening and initiating proactive actions, Diversity Councils are in place. These councils are empowered to periodically review Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, gather feedback and share suggestions with leadership teams.
• As a testimony to ITCHL’s commitment, and to ensure that the Company keeps making progress, various measures relating to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, including feedback from employees, are tracked and remedial actions taken, where required.
• As a means of positive reinforcement, ITCHL celebrates success stories, promotes thematic events and recognizes organizational units making progress.
Accountability
Compliance with this Policy is overseen by the Head of Corporate Human Resources, who reports to the Managing Director of the Company.
Governance and Implementation
(a) ITCHL has appropriate systems and processes in place to ensure compliance with the Policy and with statutory provisions, as applicable, including processing of grievances for redressal. ITCHL through Strategic and Executive Management Committee (‘SEMC’), will ensure progressive implementation of the Policy, and also communication of the Policy to the employees.
(b) Compliance with the Policy will be regularly monitored and evaluated by the CSR & Sustainability Compliance Review Committee (‘CSR & SCRC’) of the SEMC. The report of the CSR & SCRC will be reviewed by the SEMC.
(c) The CSR and Sustainability Committee of the Board will supervise the implementation of this Policy and will annually review the progress of its implementation.
Download the Policy on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in pdf