Crescent Hotels & Resorts

Janine Sedgwick

Workforce Evolution Authority

Could you give a brief overview of your experience in the HR industry and also talk about the role that you play with the current organization you work in?    

A hospitality professional by nature, I grew up through hotels, focusing on food and beverage operations. Then I moved to a sales position and later into talent training and development.

I’ve held HR manager roles in singular properties at corporate level before I moved into a luxury retail and worked for Louis Vuitton Canada during the pandemic. I also dabbled in consumer-packaged goods with ConAgra brands, where I was a corporate senior manager for the Canadian office.

I found my passion when the hotel industry called me back with a wonderful opportunity at Crescent Hotels & Resorts, where I currently hold the position of regional director of people and culture.

My role is to manage a portfolio of 16 properties in corporate oversight for our Canadian-managed properties with different brands, flags, training, and cultures meant to be abided by. My wheelhouse being employee relations, I am the keeper of culture and a liaison for all things, including compensation, profiles, benefits, coverage, and renewals. I also manage all of our union negotiations, in sections of properties that are unionized.

“Recognizing that employment is not  'one size fits all', we can look at jobs and roles differently in order to be organizationally effective and reach those goals”

I negotiate new contracts as well as address any labor disputes or grievances that arise. I'm more of a consultant, so each of the hotels runs their own business, but they come to me to consult on implementing policies and practices and make sure that we're truly looking at things through an equitable lens. We work towards elevating the space that is driving our diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What are the challenges that are really impacting the industry right now?

Hospitality schedules demand 365-day, 24/7 operations. Post-pandemic work schedules pose a different challenge as candidates and employees are looking for more flexibility in how they deliver results.
Becoming a hotelier and having hospitality as a career path doesn't offer the same flexibility. The ability to work from home or have hybrid arrangements is far-fetched. We are really struggling to cultivate a culture and an experience for candidates and new employees where they can see a career path and have an opportunity to learn, grow, and develop while we're still delivering the service excellence that our clients and our guests require and also continue to generate the revenue that our owners require.

What are the strategies and practices that really help you streamline workforce?

A key component of our strategy and workforce will be having a thorough understanding of the employee life cycle from its beginning to end. Being very progressive and transparent through our recruitment process is essential for bringing in the right people with the right skills, along with the right attitude, and the right behaviors for the right role, as well as full knowledge and understanding of the expectations that they're going to have in the job.

From a recruitment standpoint, our interview practices are constantly being reviewed and revised through a technology lens. We know that candidates are moving faster. They're expecting more ease and efficiency in their application process.

We used to have a process where, in order to apply, you needed to build a profile on our career site, and we knew we were losing the interest of applicants because the TikTok generation is looking for a quick, easy, and non-time-consuming application.

So we removed that and created what LinkedIn has: an easy click-through button application. Only candidates for whom we're actually making an offer will need to build a profile. Additionally, from an internal landscape, we are looking at building more concise and inclusive succession planning and management. That looks like applying for mentorship.

Our impact team provides an opportunity for individuals who want to grow in their career to apply for and work in a task force method in another property, perhaps in an elevated role, so that they're helping the business by filling a gap. Meanwhile they're also witnessing personal growth in terms of projects or learning new processes in new positions.

Could you give an overview of your successful project with regards to contingent workforce with the current organization you work?

I'm fairly new to this role, and one of the projects that we did recently was the evaluation of paid time off. Individuals are increasingly looking for a work-life balance, and upon reviewing and doing an analysis of the workforce, we realized that our paid time off policies were lagging. We did a full analysis of the cost impact and how we could bring ourselves into a more modern time. This analysis resulted in finalizing a three-week paid vacation that provides the work-life balance that candidates are looking for in a way that still works to ensure that our operations are successful.

Financially, there's also an impact whenever we’re assessing or increasing any overall compensation. We had a lot of great responses from existing staff, and we found that upon giving offers specifically in management and executive roles, we're having fewer negotiations at the offer stage because we're already coming to the table with something that's very competitive, and it's standing out for us as a company because now we're a leader in that space.

What advice would you like to share with your peers or your budding industry leaders?

Human resources has always been seen as a very black-and-white industry. We have policies that are old, but the world is progressing. We need to find the areas of gray that are still equitable, fair, and inclusive across our organization. Recognizing that employment is not  'one size fits all', we can look at jobs and roles differently in order to be organizationally effective and reach those goals. But in order to capture a different type of employee, one that wants to have a say in how they contribute to the organization, we are successful when we have built-in plans and built-in roles and responsibilities where an individual can feel their impact.

People want to know that what they do on a day-to-day basis matters. They want to feel a sense of belonging. So, whenever there's an opportunity to build that, right from our janitorial services and general maintenance, the sense of pride and accomplishment should be developed to work with that collaborative team spirit to celebrate the success of higher retention and engagement.

Work can be hard. As long as you are true to your heart and your organization and lead with good intentions and kindness, it makes work easier. And when we can find joy in the little things in each other, we are able to build a more successful organization.