At Servigroup Hotels we commemorate Women's Day and the right to equality
Every year, on the 8th of March, numerous buildings are draped in purple and millions of people around the world take to the streets to make it visible how gender equality is sometimes not as established as it should be.
Our society has come a long way since women began more than 100 years ago to claim the same rights as men in the workplace. These protests later served for the United Nations Organization (UN) to declare this date as International Women's Day and thus act throughout the world so that equality becomes a reality.
The UN slogan for this year is "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow" and at Servigroup Hotels, once again, we wanted to join its campaign in the defense of women's rights and their equal future. From our company, we believe that the best contribution we can make to this cause is to give a real example and that the equality that exists within Servigroup Hotels is greater, more visible and thus helps to extend these practices as far as possible.
Despite this, according to the United Nations calculations, achieving total gender equality in the workplace will take more than 200 years. Shortening that distance is in our hands and it is a challenge that Servigroup joins, by launching different actions among our employees so that there is no discrimination due to the fact of being a woman.
52% of Servigroup Hotels management positions are held by women
Ángeles Martín arrived at Servigroup Hotels in 2006 after having studied Business Administration and Management, specializing in Marketing and working in the banking sector. At that time, Marketing did not occupy the dimension that it currently occupies and online purchases were just beginning to become widespread: "customers visited our website, registered their requests and then, manually, we had to download all that information and enter the reservations one by one in the system.
Today, Ángeles directs the Servigroup Hotels Online Business Department and manages everything related to the chain's web pages, which record several thousand visits every day and hundreds of transactions. In addition, she is also in charge of the integration of Servigroup Hotels in portals such as Booking.com or Expedia.
“When I started, my field was quite unknown in Benidorm, we were in the middle of the Internet revolution and I had to explore a path that had often been reserved for men in technical terms. In this climate, I put my knowledge first so as not to let anyone discriminate against me and, at the same time, so as not to feel discriminated against.” Ángeles acknowledges that on many occasions she has been the only woman in forums, meetings and training sessions related to this area, hers, in which computing plays a very important role: “the stereotype dictates that the typical computer scientist be a man, but I think this is also changing. I have always found a climate of equality in the way i have been treated”. And she adds: “I think that society is evolving faster and faster and is already understanding that issues such as motherhood should not be an obstacle in the working life of women”.
When there are no obstacles for women, equality emerges naturally
Andrea Miralles is head of Reception at the Hotel Servigroup Nereo and she has no doubts in stating that motherhood is perfectly compatible with a woman's professional development: “I have had two children and have shown that I am just as productive in my work. The company has reciprocated by giving me the necessary facilities and, in my case, I have been able to reconcile my personal, family and professional life. It should always be this way."
Since finishing her degree in Tourism, Andrea has been part of Servigroup and worked in various receptions over ten years until in 2016 she assumed the responsibility of directing the department at the Hotel Servigroup Nereo. For her, her team is like a second family and she affirms that, despite being the youngest, she has always felt the respect and affection of her colleagues: “I believe that women bring something special to the position. We are more intuitive personally and apply that emotional intelligence when leading our teams seeking to build something similar to a family. We spend a lot of time together and as a boss I think it's my duty to care about my colleagues as well as the results.”
Andrea Miralles heads the Reception Department at the Hotel Servigroup Nereo// Andrea Miralles at her work station
“Although I have never felt discriminated against, sometimes I have detected misgivings when it comes to trusting a woman for certain tasks.” Andrea refers particularly to the night shifts in the Reception department: “they think you are weaker, but on occasions I have had a security guard who, when the time came, would have been better for me to save him than to put my fate in his hands.” For her, they are stereotypes of those who are not in contact with reality and do not know the capacity of a woman; and she thinks that in all those jobs that were previously considered men's, the barriers for women have been broken because at some point someone has had the opportunity to arrive and has shown that she could do it, effectively, just like her predecessor. “Or even better -adds Andrea- because women have a special sense for details.”
The challenge for any woman is to reconcile her professional life with her personal life, and at Servigroup Hotels we are committed to a real work-life balance
And if we talking about details, Lola García could not be missing from this list. Her clinical eye capable of detecting even the smallest detail is a guarantee of success so that everything is perfect. She is the director of the Hotel Servigroup Venus and her appointment in 2002 marked a before and after in Servigroup Hotels. “I was the first female director. That day, all the women in the company congratulated me, and to a large extent they shared with me what was a source of pride for me. It was a step forward for women that seems very obvious now, but twenty years ago it wasn't," explains Lola, recalling her first years in the group's management team when she was the only woman in many meetings: "but, I was always very well treated and welcomed by all my colleagues and, although criticism arose, it came from outside the company, I was very clear about what had gotten me there: hard work and, even if it is ugly that I say, well done. I finished my degree in 1989, I worked in reception for years and my superiors considered that I was ready to go one step further”.
Lola remembers that sometimes, at least, she has had to show more because she is a woman when dealing with certain suppliers or with some clients, but the general tone of her experience has always been based on respect and she smiles: “but to be fair, I have a very strong personality and I would never have consented to any type of discrimination, neither towards myself nor towards any of my workers. I think that's something we all need to work on."
Once again, Lola highlights the sensitivity of women, the attention to detail and also the organizational capacity raised to a broader vision that is gained over time by reconciling the management of the hotel with that of a house or a family. “Women have a great ability to organize. Neither better nor worse than that of men, but different”, concludes Lola, who considers that all this evolution in the role of women in the world of work has been possible thanks to a generational change and the education that is received today. “We must continue along this line until no woman feels discriminated against next to a man”
Internal promotion, in a climate of equality, allows women to develop their full potential
For Natalia Caballé, education is also one of the key factors in ensuring equality. Natalia has learnt from her home the example of what hard work and leadership of a great human team is and since university she has always been very clear that the fact of being a woman should never condition her to occupy a job: “ On one occasion, working in a group, I had to assess the effort of the rest of my classmates and although it was usual to score equally so as not to generate conflict, I decided to be fair and give a lower score to a boy who had not been involved like the rest. He felt terrible that a woman like me would give him that answer. And that in the university there are more female students than male students. I only hope that it served to improve his relationship and expectations if he has later tended to a woman as his boss”.
Natalia studied Economics and Business Sciences at the University of Alicante and an MBA at ESADE (Barcelona), but her artistic streak is so strong that she completed her training with a degree in Fine Arts. Her training and her experience together with that great sensitivity, a characteristic that has been highlighted so many times in these conversations, have led her to be the Director of Advertising, Communication and Corporate Image of Servigroup Hotels.
From her position, she coordinates multidisciplinary teams with very varied profiles, always displaying her good nature: “authority should never be confused with authoritarianism, and I think that women are further from the latter. We know how to find more communicative, rational and persuasive tools than the typical "order and command" which, fortunately, has also gone down in history in the case of men. There are new forms of leadership that are equally valid for men and women, they depend on personality and not on gender, but perhaps with our qualities we have contributed to it”.
Natalia highlights the importance of breaking down all obstacles and barriers so that women can simply be who they are. Just like men. For this reason, at Servigroup great importance is attached to internal promotion when reaching managerial positions. She adds: “when there is a climate of equality and everyone can demonstrate their way of being and their worth, there can be no discrimination. We must continue working on that. I believe that our sector is one of the best positioned on this issue, but greater attention should always be paid to ensuring a good family balance and avoiding any type of salary gap. It is in our hands to achieve changes and make them permeate society” .
