Corporate Social Responsibility Assignment: Case Analysis of Hilton Hoteliers

Question

Task

You are supposed to prepare a corporate social responsibility assignment answering the following Research Questions:

• What are the CSR efforts and achievements made by Hilton hotel as a part of their sustainable effort?
• What is the role played by CSR in Hilton Hotel and its performance?
• What are the future suggestions for Hilton Hotel to become a better socially responsible business in hospitality sector?

Answer

Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also known as Corporate Citizenship makes the body corporate more responsible and accountable towards society. It includes activities that help the companies be more conscious of their impact on all aspects of society that include economic, social, and environmental aspects. It is regarded as a consensus nowadays that company showcase a more enhanced role in society and a corporation’s responsibility aims beyond only generating profits. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) aims at behavior and approach towards and obligations for the company. Many considered the scope limited to company stakeholders like customers and employees while others diversely encompass the sustainability and environment.

CSR in the Hospitality Industry
The notion about corporate social responsibility (CSR) nevertheless evolved as an understanding that the business should not only care for its customers and shareholders but also should care for its employees, community and a bigger society, and even also the environment. This will give rise to the triple-bottom-line tool of increasing profit, environment, and individuals. The hospitality industry regarding CSR provided a bigger footprint by employing a large number of workers, along with the utilization of natural resources such as water, food, and energy (Rhou, & Singal, 2020). These generally have been in the frontline for cultivating practices geared for eradicating the negative influence of the business on the society and environment. The involved consider enhancing the loyalty among the customers, decrease in waste food in restaurants, and energy and water-saving in hotels. Not only restricted to environmental issues, but the industry also welcomes many social concerns. The huge hotel companies incorporated the CSR initiatives for developing community, progressed employment practices, and stimulating diversity within the workforce.

A company can be called socially responsible when its ordinary course of action contributes positively to the environment. For Example, A Cookie Manufacturer replaced its old gas ovens with modern electric ovens so that it may bring down the company's carbon footprint can be termed as a part of being a Socially Responsible Company.

Question 1

Value Chain

Efforts
The Hilton Hoteliers claim they work to drive positive social and environmental change across their operations, their supply chain, and their communities—what they refer to as their value chain. They do this by:

a. Providing best in class service to the guests,

b. enacting the guests with team members,

c. using innovation to make a meaningful difference, and

d. by incorporating the social and environmental criteria into their procurement decision

Achievements
Hilton Hotel Worldwide has been so successful in following its CSR policy that it has become a benchmark in the hospitality sector when it comes to being socially responsible. This fact that "the shareholders of Hilton Hotel Worldwide request the Board's Compensation Committee to include corporate social action as one of the performance measures for senior executive's compensation" proves that not only the management but also the owners are concerned about the company's CSR footprint.

Hilton Hotel marked its presence several times as presented below:

• In 2017 it made the DOW Jones Sustainability Index for the first time – demonstrating industry leadership across economic, social, and environmental pillars
• It topped the list of America’s Most Just Companies as per Forbes and JUST Capitals.
• It also became an official UNWTO Partner in the 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism Development (Noonan, & Rankin, 2017).
• Hilton Hotels eliminated the use of plastic bottles at all meeting, events, gyms, and spas in all their hotels in China, preventing 13 million plastic bottles of waste annually.

Environmental and Social Impact
The hotel companies possess the capability to utilize the growth in the world as an engine to opportunity in the communities ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth for all. Companies are also working to decrease the impact across the value chain for conserving the planet and environment for future generation individuals.

The regional business functions at a global level and the success depends upon inclusive growth. The company encourages everyone to capitalize on the full potential for creating a resilient and powerful hospitality community across the value chain. It considers the regional talents operating the hotels and to the regional business by supporting the product's price and serving the guests. It includes connecting with various nations through youth career initiatives and employing them in hotels.

Hilton Hotel is committed to water stewardship in the value chain to preserve such a precious resource and has reduced the consumption of water by 20 % per square foot of water use (Font, & Lynes, 2018). Since 2008 Hilton Hotel is functioning sustainably and decreasing, controlling and managing water, energy, and water by LightStay.

Tourism and sustainable travel are based on thriving and resilient communities, that initiate with a younger generation. The company explores and raises opportunities and invests in skills for preparing, connecting, and deploying the next generation cultures in the communities.

Sustainable Development Objectives
Hilton Hotel is considered as one of the biggest global industries, tourism and travel designate a significant character by supporting the international community. This helps to attain the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) purposed in 2015 by the United Nations. Hilton possesses many properties in 105 nations and territories and is regarded as burgeoning tourism and ravel organization contributing 1 out of every 10 jobs in the whole worldwide and contributing higher to the economy. The company fuels the mission of global hospitality to support drive the regional solutions in the communities in which it operates. The company aligns the business actions about sustainable development goals and guides the operations of hotel business considering the brands, regions, as well as properties.

The company also cultivates informing and engaging stakeholders as a commitment to resources for addressing the growing community and global issues (Aldehayyat, 2020). The company also heightens awareness nevertheless, the organization chief issue is to preserve a continual global approach and enabling sound global human relations, development and training campaigns, and programs, environmental and sustainable programs. The company also procures service in connection to standards in the industry with a restrictive and mandating control developed in the franchise-management operating approach. In the last 25 years of the company, the chief CSR focus in the hospitality organization has been mainly on the environmental issues and the optimized utilization of energy. The company thoroughly encompasses a content evaluation of hospitality websites of the company, online CSR reports, and annual reports to monitors services and hotels as committing to CSR. Observing all the companies Hilton hotels possess the most detailed analysis of their CSR activities. The company's yearly report of Corporate Responsibility and code of conduct forms rules beyond environmental and conservationist approaches by involving efforts on equal diversity and opportunity, safety, health, human rights alongside environmental sustainability.

Question 2

Engaging In CSR
The initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are important, discretionary, and voluntary. The advantages of conducting good sustainable policy accounts even if the company is not considering a particular return on investments on its operations. The features and nature of the hotel service provided by the Hilton hotels provide social initiatives salient to many desirable results. The involvement of the organization in CSR practices supports improving customer loyalty and brand awareness. The services are intangible and analyzed in terms of quality perception, rather than segments of tangible attributes. The goodwill generated by social initiatives considered by the organization, generating differentiation, transferring to brand image (Zaragoza-Sáez, et al. 2020). This has in turn helped to generate a competitive advantage in the competitive world by providing sustainable products and services such as substitutable hotel rooms. The advantages of reputation arising from the social initiatives result in the willingness of the consumer to pay premium prices that generally enables the hotel company to thrive in unfavourable economic cycles and industry demand. Several demographic segments such as social and sustainable conscious customers, millennial, along with the tree huggers generate and create demand for green and sustainable hotels. Sustainability is a growing niche that is accounted for by many companies and the Hilton hotel considers accounting sustainability for making choices related to hotel decisions. The demand for green and sustainable hotels is growing big and the customers are willing to pay a more price for green and sustainable hotels that use organic resources or regional or non-genetically modified resources (Su, & Swanson, 2019). The customers are also aware of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Therefore this is the reason Hilton hotels have accounted for accounting more and more green policy procedure in the hotels and thus helps in allowing en enhanced service ensuring sustainability.

Going Green
Hilton Hotels have been heavily indulged in every management and performance that has helped in capitalizing the energy management systems. Hilton Hotels have already achieved the ISO 9001 quality management and ISO 4001, environmental management. The purposive benefits of ISO standards are well known and the company utilizes the benefits to such extent. The triple ISO certification has made the company grow greener, and energy management is the vital focus of their leadership. This has helped them to seek opportunities for driving performance on the next stage. Hilton hotels have been proudly the initial major hotel brand for setting targets for greenhouse gas that has been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This will fuel the organization in a competitive advantage in shifting to a lesser carbon economy.

Analysis
The success of the Hilton hotel in the market is influenced by negative and positive reactions. Hilton Hotel also has successfully established a robust corporate code of conduct, the program for environmental reporting, and integrating communication bases for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). These initiatives generated opportunities and encouraged changes by general practices to restrict public grievances and the organization as a CSR leader in the hospitality industry. With an effort to hospitality CSR and the prospect, the CSR the factors of Fiduciary, legal, ethical, and global/community responsibilities have provided the hotel with a competitive advantage over its competitors.

The fiduciary obligation is the maximization of profits and informing ownership of attaining profits. Additionally, relationship from central to towner- management relationship is the duty of management’s to line up ownership priorities, choosing the owner of principal over own interest shifting from an owner-management to a franchiser-management approach. The commitment of Hilton Hotels is on focusing on consumers and generating customer loyalty for attaining a competitive advantage is by procurement of Hilton’s proprietary customer data process. The state of the art guest recognition provided allowed guest convenience and effectiveness by web-based check. The function also includes providing the choice of utilizing time-saving kiosks for check-in and check out in the hotel

The legal responsibilities contain franchise agreements, anti-trust issues meeting and sleeping room contracts, and labour disputes. The Annual Corporate Responsibility Report regards to Corporate Governance segment depicts that Hilton eyes legal compliance as a chance for strengthening the communities where everyone work, lives and travel. Illustrating the commitment of the company further, the detailed standards of the company generate a healthy and safe environment for guests and team individuals, compliance board, and provisions for majority board voting and particular legalese concerning the majority owner representation.

Additionally, the Hilton’s Corporate Responsibility Report provides investigation and discussion on the process for promoting ethical behaviour and legal compliance worldwide verified by a free audit committee for ensuring authentic legal compliance.

An ethical business culture encourages the appreciation of an appreciation of ethics and promoting the idea influences peers of one’s actions, individual organizations, and the company. In the same manner, Hilton Hotels have established an internal code of conduct deliberate for providing moral and ethical support. The company has also identified by solving the issues of moral perceptions, greed, job protection, and opinion to execute organizational pressure depicting the significance of ethical behaviour by the initiative of the company's CSR initiative.

Hilton Hotels incorporated a hotel with a purpose as a commitment to global corporate responsibility focusing on generating shared value as well as providing a cohesive, but flexible.

The framework of the Hilton Hotel is guiding the operations of the business beyond realms, properties, and brands. The company aims for Commitment towards resources and engaging stakeholders for addressing community issues and global growth, and heightening awareness. However, the organization is intended to enhance a regular global perspective and establishing nice global human relations, and sustainability campaigns and programs. Hilton Hotel has also developed LightStay, a proprietary monitoring process to evaluate and assess the environmental influence.

Question 3

Setting Bars
In today's time, the hotel business is playing a significant role in creating sustainability and eco-friendly environment within the hospitality sector. The concept of incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR), is not just to benefits the stakeholders and the customers but also for its office employees, the society along with the environment as well (Rhou & Singal, 2020).

One of the major initiatives that may help increase the productivity of Hilton hotel in future is an investment in eco-friendly environmental programs. This program will promote going green in operation system, valued supply chain management and energy conservation which will further aim rationalizing consumption of water and environment (Kim et al., 2018). It will again level up higher efficiency in lightings, lower flow in showerheads, creating water efficiency in fixation of bathrooms and also encouraging and advising guests to make reuse of towels and linen sheets. The hotel may invest more in new innovations and high-end technologies that will enormously change the way energy is consumed in a future scenario. Moreover, this initiative will promote the hotel management in building sustainability and as well as seek to certify it as going green with LEED, Green Key, Green seal, thereby attracting more of a green customer base (Ertuna, Karatas-Ozkan and Yamak, 2019).

Another initiative that will promote the hotel industry to become a more socially responsible business is building a reputational capital by making charity and more philanthropic activities. The activities may include giving a helping hand in rescuing people from natural calamities like earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados that create havoc all around. It may also involve collaboration with renowned fast food or patisseries services that may deliver choice foods to sick children (Rhou et al.2020). This will not only help in gaining productivity and credibility and give healthy media attention but also make their brand image more powerful and long-lasting in the highly competitive market.

Hilton hotel may take into consideration the health of the guests in their hotel. For improving and delivering better service towards them, they can incorporate more organic-based food products in their menu. Organic food products will help to attract more customers especially those who are very much conscious about their health. This initiative will boost up the health of older people, obese people too. They can further serve their dishes on organic plates and bowls as they are purely made of plants, thereby avoiding usage of plastics and promoting more green economy.

To improve sustainability management and make it successful, the hotel industry may also seek for more guest's involvement which further involves time, energy and even efforts of the guests by making them work as co-designers, co-marketers, co-producers for the green eco-friendly practices (Shah, Arjoon & Rambocas, 2016). Hilton hotel can encourage its customers to even produce electricity energy by using more of an exercise bike, at their gym centre. They can further introduce schemes like the guest who will help in generating more watt of electricity will get free meal vouchers. This will help the hotel to grow more responsible and become consistent and eco-friendly hotel management in the future.

Recommendations
The recommendations that can be suggested to become a more corporate socially responsible business in the highly competitive market can be listed below:

Firstly, I would suggest that Hilton Hotel management should invest more in eco-friendly environmental building schemes. Improving their infrastructure and making it more greenery by planting trees and decorating with mini plants will help to attract more people. Eco- friendly buildings will help in having more energy and electricity, conserve water, reduce the usage of plastics and emits harmful particles in the air thereby improving the standards of air quality. This will seek to certify it going green with Green Key, the Green seal.

Secondly, I would like to recommend is by including more inclusive and as well as exclusive growth which will enable every guest to participate and benefit form their stay in the hotel. They can make their hospitality service more sustainable by offering organic beverages and foods to the guest. This will make the guest feel more valued and help in gaining their trust. This will even benefit older people and people with a high rate of health risk.

Thirdly, I recommend understanding the financial implications of the different class of people. All people may not be able to enjoy all the privileges offered by the hotel industry. This is because of financial status. The hotel industry may offer coupons and discounts to people with less financial capabilities. This will help the customers in making commitments towards the hotel and also gain good feedbacks to the business. This will help to sustain the industry in the long run.

Again, I would suggest that the hotel may involve more of customer participation in their hotel activity. They should make strategies and plans on how to make the guests involve and inform them beforehand. They offer people to become elite members in their hotel and each member will be given lucrative schemes like free meal vouchers, free stay etc varying on the different kind of packages. This will help the hotel to increase more productivity and sustainability and promote their brand image.

Conclusion
Hilton hotel business is playing a significant role in creating sustainability and eco-friendly environment within the hospitality sector for improving CSR. It will level up higher efficiency in lightings, lower flow in showerheads, creating water efficiency in fixation of bathrooms and also encouraging and advising guests to make reuse of towels and linen sheets. The hotel may likewise invest more in new innovations and high-end technologies that will enormously change the way energy is consumed in a future scenario. Again, for improving and delivering better service towards their guests, they can incorporate more organic-based food products. Organic food products will help to attract more customers especially those who are very much conscious about their health. Further, to increase sustainability management and make it successful, the hotel industry may also seek for more guest's involvement in their green activities This will make them feel more valued and increase brand value.

Reference List
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Kim, H. L., Woo, E., Uysal, M., & Kwon, N. (2018). The effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee well-being in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Retrieved on 10 November 2020 from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2016-0166/full/html

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