IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access)in Tourism

More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of actively embracing diversity in the workplace. According to Los Angeles Times, 83% of organizations in the United States begin implementing inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) programs in 2021. That’s more than eight in 10 companies.

The challenge with these initiatives is that unless properly executed, they can feel superficial. This can prevent the program from realizing its full potential, keep talent of all backgrounds from applying for your open positions, and tarnish your reputation. To help travel agencies experience greater marketing success, AMNY Travel Marketing discusses why IDEA programs and policies matter and how to incorporate those efforts into your campaigns.

What Is IDEA?

Before exploring ways travel and tourism businesses can implement IDEA into their marketing, it’s essential to understand what each component entails. The acronym encompasses the following:

  • Inclusion: Promotes a society where all people can access the same or similar opportunities and resources, receive fair treatment, and maintain the same level of respect
  • Diversity: Recognizes and embraces the differences of people within a single society according to race, religion, socio-economic status, ability, gender identity, religious and political beliefs, and more
  • Equity: Values equality in outcomes in addition to opportunity, understanding that people of different backgrounds may require unique conditions or additional support to realize their goals
  • Access: Ensures that all people interested in certain resources (i.e., products and services) can access them, regardless of inhibiting factors like age or ability

The Relationship between IDEA and Travel and Tourism

In the travel and tourism industry, IDEA is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, travel jobs have always been more diverse than roles in other sectors. According to U.S. Travel Association, travel agencies employ more young people and individuals of different racial and ethnic backgrounds than businesses in many other industries.

However, on the customer side, travel and tourism have historically struggled to accommodate marginalized groups. Even today, tourism policies may contain language that discriminates against certain groups. Additionally, certain locations are less likely to be featured in travel and tourism advertising, particularly rural communities. This lack of representation can prevent these communities from the economic benefits of increased tourism, potentially widening disparities.

Thankfully, organizations like National Extension Tourism (NET) Network are hard at work researching IDEA and travel and providing education and leadership to help agencies improve their efforts. U.S. Travel Association also offers a strategic partnership called Tourism Diversity Matters (TDM) to support IDEA, as well as several destination organizations.

Tips for Including IDEA in Marketing Content

Given the circumstances around IDEA, agencies and destinations must reassure travelers that the industry is working diligently to make travel and tourism more inclusive, equitable, and accessible. You may also have your own IDEA policy to integrate into your campaigns. To make the most of your marketing capabilities, consider these helpful hints:

Start with an Inclusive Team

Unless your marketing team represents the diverse audience you wish to attract, it’ll be difficult to craft messaging that resonates with them. What’s more, a marketing team featuring diverse voices can help you avoid unintentionally offending the same people you most what to reach.

If your current team isn’t as diverse as you’d like it to be right now, you may look toward minority social media influencers for input or set up a survey to ask a focus group comprised of people from underrepresented populations. You can also consider how competitors who’ve been successful with their IDEA programs have approached the task for inspiration.

Monitor Tone of Voice

The balance between celebrating diversity and remaining inclusive can be tricky. While you certainly want to highlight diversity in imagery and customer stories, there should be a commonality that creates a sense of belonging for your entire target audience.

One of the best ways to manage these differing aspects is to remember your mission, values, and company culture. These are what unify your customer base. All content should incorporate these elements to ensure prospects understand your brand while feeling seen by your inclusive marketing.

Remember Your Local Community

Inherent in the travel and tourism industry is an international audience. Therefore, it may seem counterintuitive to focus on the local community, but this strategy can help prove to travelers your commitment to your IDEA policy. For instance, you can share in blogs and social posts about times your team volunteered at local non-profits and marched in solidarity with different groups in your community. It acts as evidence of your contributions to creating a more equitable world.

Embrace Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in Marketing

For further assistance implementing IDEA into your marketing content, turn to MassLive Media Group. Our award-winning team leverages vast knowledge of marketing and the travel and tourism industry to help each client tell a unique story of their organization that’s relevant to their diverse target audience and generates more leads. Contact us today to learn more about IDEA in marketing and our full-service agency.

 

 

References

https://extensiontourism.net/wp-content/uploads/NET-DEAI-case-statement-2023.pdf

https://www.latimes.com/b2b/diversity/story/2021-12-15/majority-of-u-s-employers-have-implemented-dei-initiatives-in-2021

https://www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/dei-core-value-follow-through/

https://www.ustravel.org/issues/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

Worker shortages in manufacturing industry is real. Highly skilled positions remain open as a significant portion of the manufacturing workforce is nearing retirement age. For manufacturers, building and maintaining a robust and skilled talent pool is key for both short-term and long-term hiring success.

Recruitment Marketing as a Relationship Builder, Not Just Candidate Sourcing

Don’t wait to be present until a position is open – consistently position your brand in front of both passive and active job seekers. Consistent branding creates a talent pool who is familiar with your company, benefits, culture and therefore more likely to consider you when looking to make a career change. Top of the funnel marketing tactics such as video and display make your brand presence known.

Build A Connection By Understanding Your Best Potential Candidates 

Develop personas, marketing strategies and campaigns specific to your common open positions. Different positions attract different types of candidates. Understanding the nuances allows you to more directly content with job seekers, to communicate your company story and to welcome them into your culture with a personalized approach. Seek out a recruitment marketing partner with a deep data bench, capable of developing audience segments, media placements and creative to speak directly to specific candidate audiences.

Enhance Your Job Board Presence with Display & Video

Placements on job boards are effective in reaching those actively seeking a position. However, other traditional marketing methods like targeted display and video allow companies to share their full story. More visual formats let prospective candidates see your benefits and experience your culture. Both elements that can cause them to choose you as their next employer – over your competition.

SUCCESS STORIES

Healthcare Recruitment Strategy

A growing aging population, pandemic burnout and a ramp up of traveling nurse opportunities have put a strain on healthcare recruitment. Nurses are in high demand – with an abundance of employment options to choose from. How does your healthcare facility standout in this mad dash for employment?

Invest in the Community You Serve

Healthcare is essential to the community. Consider supporting the community you serve by sponsoring local events, job fairs and awards to keep your organization top-of-mind. Not only will these positive associations bring your organization front and center, it will also generate positive word of mouth among the community – reaching friends and families connected to potential candidates.

Showcase Company Culture

Give a glimpse of what its like to work at your organization on any given day. Show the people who work there, the halls to be walked and the benefits to be had. Video succinctly communicates positive culture through virtual tours, testimonials and more. Written testimonials and other content featuring current employees lend authenticity to your showcase.

Replenish Talent Pools with New Grads

New graduates are critical in helping to fill staffing gaps and to replenish talent pools. Utilize highly targeted strategies to reach new graduates, while still on campus, where they are spending their time. Hyper local mobile targeting puts your organization front and center among soon-to-be-graduating adding you to their consideration set for post-graduation employment.

SUCCESS STORIES

Education Recruitment Strategy

Like most categories of business, education providers are facing faculty and staff shortages. Finding experienced and passionate educators and faculty continues to be a challenge. Education institutions should look beyond salary and benefits to larger strategies to drive interest and applications for the upcoming school year ahead.

Build Your Talent Pool with Year-Round Strategy

Primary education recruitment season begins at the end of the previous school year, with many schools starting from scratch every year. Establishing a year-round recruitment marketing strategy, allows you
to reach faculty and staff considering a change throughout the school year, adding them to your talent pool as the year progresses. Having a year-round plan also puts your institution front and center, outside of the more cluttered traditional recruitment period.

Utilize Your Community As A Recruitment Tool

Your community has the potential to be a unique selling point for your institution. Consider highlighting the quality of life – showing prospective employees the community you serve. Community events, local activities, cost of living and more can have pull over prospective employees looking to make a move or to enjoy a way of life your community offers. Partner with local events, local organizations and even your convention and visitors bureau to generate content about your community.

Job Fairs Help Build Awareness of Your Institution

Passive and Active job seekers join job fairs to learn more about prospective districts and institutions. By merely being present, among your competition, you can ensure that your district or institution is in the consideration set for educators looking to make a career move. Both in-person and virtual career fairs provide additional visibility and awareness for your institution.

SUCCESS STORIES

Warehouse Recruitment Strategy

Warehouses are experiencing unprecedented growth thanks to a shift towards online shopping. As growth continues and timely shipping remains critical, warehouses face a continual shortage of workers.

Tout the Benefits That Make You Stand Out

Warehousing jobs are not historically known for good benefits and upward mobility. With changing demand and increased competition, more warehouse companies are adding long-term benefits and job training to their offerings. As an employer, tout benefits like 401Ks, employer matching and paid training as part of new hire packages. Talk about your openings more as long-term careers vs. short- term or holiday employment for additional appeal.

Get Connected In the Community

Grassroots community efforts and word of mouth tactics still hold strong in warehousing recruitment. Sponsoring local community events and job fairs raises brand awareness in the community, spreads positive sentiment about your organization and jump starts word of mouth. This simple activation makes your organization more likely to be noticed by potential job seekers and considered as a stable, future local employer in a future job search.

Local Jobs, Local Placements

Warehousing recruitment pulls most applicants and new hires locally. Very rarely to companies hire outside of their immediate market. Tap into the local job seeker scene through local job boards, job fairs and other local job posting opportunities. Local job seekers continually use these outlets to find new employment opportunities.

SUCCESS STORIES

Trucking Recruitment Strategy

Facing an aging workforce and increased competition for new talent, the trucking industry struggles to keep recruitment pipelines full and trucking routes staffed. Trucking industries should look to implement full-funnel marketing strategies to not only attract active job seekers but it keep talent pools fresh with new prospects.

Address Trucking Industry Myths

Increase top-of-the-funnel prospects by introducing the benefits of a trucking industry careers to passive job seekers. Address potential concerns head-on, including hours, mileage goals and living conditions while highlighting employment benefits such as 401K matching, healthcare and time off. Video and written content are both great vehicles to communicate this information.

Stay in Touch with Prospects

Deciding to change careers can be a lengthy process for passive job seekers. Keep your talent pool active with periodic communication about your business, job openings and career benefits. Set up an email calendar, reaching out to a list of emails from those who you met at job fairs, submitted an inquiry or sent a full resume. Frequently post about your culture, the trucking industry and openings to keep your followers engaged.

Job Boards Are Important

Trucking applicants remain tapped in to local and regional job boards. A presence on local job boards and job aggregator sites provide you business with bottom of the funnel presence – reaching those interested in the truck industry and actively applying now.

SUCCESS STORIES

Professional Recruitment Strategy

Finding outstanding talent that fits your culture is a concern for any business. Make the most of your time and resources by attracting qualified candidates that can hit the ground running and succeed within your organization. Identify quality talent and cultivate your talent pool with leading recruitment marketing strategies perfect for professional businesses.

Showcase Your Company Culture

Tell the story of your business, your history, your employees and more. The more a prospective employee knows about your operations and culture the more they are able to determine whether they are a match for your organization. Office tour videos, employee testimonials and other visuals can help to show daily life within your company.

Tailor Communications to Open Positions

Instead of deploying blanket recruitment ads for all positions in your company, consider developing custom creative and campaigns for each position. Messaging should focus on key benefits and operations of that role, showcase photos and videos of that segment of your business and speak directly to those candidates. Specific communication, drives more qualified applications – increasing your odds of finding a match while building up your talent pool - than general recruitment ads.

Use Job Boards to Reach Active Job Seekers

Job Fairs, local job boards and job board aggregators remain critical bottom-of-the-funnel tactics in securing applications for open positions. While other flashier tactics will fill the top of your funnel, these more nitty-gritty media elements provide a place for active job seekers to seamlessly apply for the positions they want – now.

SUCCESS STORIES