Over the past year, employees of Corinthia, the small collection of luxury, five-star hotels around the world, have been finding time to do more than just their everyday jobs.
As part of the learning, development and wellbeing aspects of their roles, they have been immersing themselves in the local community by volunteering and fundraising for good causes. This augments the corporate charity Corinthia Hotels supports, Just a Drop, and has been instigated by Rachel Begbie, the company’s first Director of Learning, Development & Wellbeing, appointed in December 2017.
“Each of our hotels has adopted a local charity that they work with on an annual basis and they stage at least two fundraising activities during that time,” says Rachel Begbie. “It’s part of our Corporate Social Responsibility as an employer and, more than that, helps engage our employees in their local community.
“The chosen charity is selected by employees and the hotel so it may be directly linked to one of the employees or something important to the destination. In today’s world everyone wants an opportunity to give back so through ‘Your Community’, Corinthia makes this personal to each hotel.”
Your Community is one of eight elements that make up the Corinthia Colleague Experience, an employee programme launched by Rachel Begbie this summer across Corinthia Hotels. The other elements are: Fun & Connectivity, Communication, Health & Wellbeing, Your Development, Recognition, Your Environment and Live N Synch.
Below is a selection of charitable activities that seven Corinthia Hotels have been inspired to instigate since the launch:
Corinthia Hotel Khartoum: The hotel sponsored a day of feeding 1,000 pupils across Khartoum including homeless children. Some 13 Corinthia staff prepared and served traditional sandwiches at breakfast time in association with Mojaddidon Charity Organisation.
Corinthia Palace Hotel & Spa, Malta: The hotel staged a Mother’s Day Gift Fair to raise funds for the Beyond the Moon charity and raised £5,228.00. The hotel will be staging a Christmas Gift Fair in November and Charity Gala Dinner & Auction in October for the same cause.
Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg: Alongside SOS Children’s Village – which supports abandoned, destitute and orphaned children – the hotel staged a fundraising traditional Christmas event for children to create their own festive balls and toys which then decorated the hotel’s Christmas tree in the lobby. Guests bought them as gifts.
Corinthia Hotel St George’s Bay, Malta: The hotel has trained employability skills including interviewing techniques, to a small group of boys who are institutionalised locally.
Corinthia Hotel Prague: The hotel co-operates with local charity NF Sance Onkolackum to support children with cancer, with various fundraising activities, including an annual Christmas gift-giving event.
Corinthia Hotel Lisbon: The hotel supports multiple causes, including Acreditar charity which helps children with cancer, sends surplus food to Refood which provides meals to those in need, and supports the victims of last year’s fires in Portugal. Much of the fire took hold in rural areas so the hotel raised money to re-plant trees and re-build a goat production unit, for example.
The scheme extends to those hotels managed by Corinthia, including:
Radisson Blu Golden Sands, Malta: The hotel ran a bake sale and olive oil sale – from olive trees in the resort – to raise funds for two boys suffering from cerebral palsy.