Free Paper Sample: Report on Sustainability Practice of Metro Hotels

Sustainability practice in business is a strategy that is proactively undertaken to ensure that a business minimizes negative implications on the community, society, economy, and global or local environment. The nature of business has various factors that affect the operations. For instance, the tourism industry is dependent on some factor that helps it keep afloat. Sustainability practice in Australia's hotel and tourism industry is evaluated based on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria. The GSTC criteria serve the purpose of the provision of a common understanding on sustainable tourism. Another tool for evaluation is the ECO and ROC criteria, which too advocates for sustainable practices in business within the hotel and tourism sector. Therefore, using the GSTC criteria and the ECO and ROC certification criteria, this paper will provide a report on the sustainability practice of Metro Hotels.

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Effective Sustainable Management

Reporting and Communication

According to Read (2013), one of Metro Hotel's practices that demonstrates effective sustainable management is reporting and communication. The fact is manifested in its requirement for board member attributes where it states that they should be an effective communicator with the executive in writing and verbally. Another communication practice is that the company engages in an efficient communication mechanism with its shareholders by encouraging reception and the provision of correspondents. It does so by scheduling interactions with shareholders at least once in a year through annual general meetings where it shares its performance while shareholders communicate their expectations.

Integrity

According to Read (2013), another component of sustainable management for the company is exercising integrity. Majorly, the hotel practices integrity through corporate reporting. Despite the fact that an audit committee for the hotel is not compulsory, the board often takes steps to review its accounting policies. It also periodically assesses the independence of effectiveness of external audit it undertakes as well as the details recorded in its financial statements. Additionally, the company requires that its board members should be able to conduct their activities while being independent of conflict, upholding the highest standards of confidentiality and respect in different aspects of delegating their duties. The board also ensures that different levels of audit controls are instituted in the organization.

Risk Management

According to Veisten, Dybedal, and Grue (2012), one of Metro Hotel's principles is to recognize and manage risks. The board of the company requires that its management should approach risk sensibly. The board also requires that the managing director should inform and advise the board on matters that pertain risk. The company policy requires that the board together with high-level executives should take actions that proactively prevent risks by prudent decision-making. To the company actions that constitute risk include those that inhibit compliance with regulations, those that may negatively affect the company's reputation and those that may result in personal liability to any of its employees.

Legal

Veisten, Dybedal, and Grue (2012) further state that the hotel also ensures legal compliance as a way of effective sustainable maintenance. For instance, when observing appropriate levels of risk and ensuring compliance with regulatory mechanisms, the company's governance protocol requires that managers should have knowledge of legal and regulatory requirements. It is also a requirement as stated in the board member attributes which state that a member of the company's board must be aware of his or her legal responsibilities as an individual. A board member should also exercise the legality of being independent of conflicts such as not engaging in secret trading or espionage. Lastly, board members in the company are required to exercise sound judgment and ensure that all their decisions are as per the confines of the law (Osti, Disegna & Brida, 2010).

Maximize Social and Economic benefit to the Local Community

Equal Opportunity and Diversity

Metro Hotel is known to embrace diversity is all is operations. The company recognizes and acknowledges the significance of diversity that brings about blending of skills ideas and experiences from different cultures age and gender. The company regularly assesses its policies to ensure that it is in accordance to ethically and morally approved practices. It, therefore, has a diversity program which ensures that equal opportunities are provided to almost all societal groups particularly in recruitment and hiring. The cause has seen the board establish measurable objectives for achieving diversity in its operations (Kausar & Nishikawa, 2010).

The policy framework on diversity that the company utilizes is instrumental in ensuring that work climate is created where people have equal access to opportunities in the pursuit of career and professional development, training and access to employee benefits. The policy framework also has the objective of ensuring that all associates employees and subordinates are accorded with respect and are treated fairly. It also seeks to ensure that employees are not judged unfairly or outside of the confines of the law and that there exists no irrelevant or insensitive reference to gender, race, ethnic origin, tribes, physical and mental disability and religion. Such a position of equal opportunity has positioned the company at a status that enables it to attract and retain talent (Lyons et al., 2015).

One of Metro Hotel's objectives is to ensure that its progress on achieving diversity and equal opportunity surpasses or matches its previous year based on measurable statistics. The company acknowledges that there exists a lot of concern for workplaces being unequal and that men are given more employment opportunities than women are. It is for this reason that Metro Hotel has focused on closing the gap. As of 2017, the company had employed more ladies than men working for it. The company has 327 people working for it. Out for these 327 persons, 52% were female and 48% were male. The company has also ensured that women are also featured in executive positions in the hotel. For instance, for every 10 positions in both the board and management, two positions are occupied by women (Hill, Loomis, Thilmany, & Sullins, 2014).

In support of its equal gendered workforce, the hotel is committed to creating a flexible work schedule for its employees. It also focuses on placing employees with appropriate skills to work positions that are suitable. Thereby, there will not be a case where one is overqualified or underqualified for a position. Creating flexible working environments will be particularly instrumental to women for they will be provided time to cater the responsibilities of motherhood.

Business Ethics

Policies on Fair Remuneration

Another sustainability practice that Metro Hotel engages in constitutes fair and responsible remuneration (Walter, 2013). However, the board of the hotel does not keep up a formal Compensation Council. The Compensation Board of trustees includes the full board and their participation at gatherings of the advisory group is point by point in the Executives' Report of the organization's yearly report. Most of the Council individuals are not-autonomous. The Board thinks about that a formal compensation panel would not give enhanced efficiencies (Gijsbers and Gonzalez Gutierrez de Leon, 2018). Instead, the board manages compensation policies and screens compensation results to advance the interests of investors by fulfilling, rousing and holding workers. At the point when thought to be vital, the board may get outer guidance from free advisors in deciding the organization's compensation works on including compensation levels. The hotel's board manages compensation policies and screens compensation results to advance the interests of investors by fulfilling, rousing and holding workers. At the point when thought to be vital, the Board may get outer guidance from free advisors in deciding the Organization's compensation works on including compensation levels (Gijsbers and Gonzalez Gutierrez de Leon, 2018).

In the company, directors at the non-executive level are compensated by a method for money charges, superannuation commitments, and non-money benefits in lieu of charges. The level of compensation mirrors the foreseen time duties and obligations of the position. Monetary based motivators are not accessible to non-official executives as it could be seen to debilitate their freedom in basic leadership. Senior officials are compensated utilizing blends of settled and execution based compensation. Charges and pay rates and set at levels reflecting business sector rates having respect to the person's execution and obligations. Execution-based compensation is connected straightforwardly to particular execution focuses on that are adjusted to both short and long-haul destinations. Offer choices and rights are issued in order to adjust chief and official targets with investor and the business destinations. Dividend installments are definite in singular contracts and payable on early end with the prohibition of the end in case of wrongdoing (Fong and Law, 2016).

Frent (2016) states that the utilization of subsidiaries or other supporting courses of action for unvested securities of the Organization or vested securities of the Organization which are liable to escrow game plans is disallowed. Where a chief or other senior official uses subsidiaries or other supporting courses of action over vested securities of the Organization, this will be uncovered. Using these policies, Metro Hotel is able to minimize discrepancies between pays of its high-level directors and junior workers. The pay policies also prevent high levels executives from unfairly increasing their salaries.

Management and Oversight

The organization perceives that corporate administration is essential to the efficiency of activity of the organization. According to Frechtling (2010), the board is the crucial component of corporate administration, and the organization wants its board to be compelling, autonomous, illustrative of partners and significant to the association. The board's part is to give the administration of the organization to the greatest advantage of investors, having respect for the interests of all partners of the organization. The particular duties of the board incorporate and a number of aspects. They include the general corporate administration of the organization including its vital bearing, budgetary destinations, and administering of control and responsibility frameworks. The responsibilities also encompass contribution to an endorsement of key designs and objective and execution goals, key operational and money related matters, and additionally real speculation and divestment recommendations and are responsible for the execution of objectives of the organization.

According to Bond, Packer, and Ballantyne (2014), other management roles of the board include delegating, and when necessary supplanting, the overseeing chief and other senior administrators counting the organization secretary, evaluating the execution of the managing director and managing progression anticipates senior officials, endorsing the designations of chiefs to the board, regulating administration's execution of the organization's key destinations.