Seeking, assessing and taking advantage of opportunities to evolve and develop our working environment to make it more agile, connected and productive, and to acquire advanced predictive analytical skills, through clear policies and processes, keeping promises proactively, supporting, developing and implementing the NH Hotel Group operational model, and controlling staff costs and related budgetary items.

The main projects carried out in each strategic pillar are set out below:

QUALITY JOB CREATION AND TALENT RETENTION

NH Hotel Group’s commitment to job stability can be clearly seen in the high percentage of employees with indefinite contracts. The Company fosters job stability, especially for women and those under 40 years old. 2,936 new hires were made in 2021, of which 66% are employees under 35 years of age and 53% are women.

Accordingly, in 2021, 91% of average contracts of women are indefinite (+4% compared to 2020) and 90% of average contracts of employees between 25 and 40 years old have indefinite contracts (+5% compared to 2020).

The average for contracts has been calculated by dividing the total contract days per category of each employee by the total number of days in the year.

Annual average types of contracts by age

Annual average types of contracts by professional category

Number of contracts

CULTURE OF DIVERSITY, EQUALITY, AND INCLUSION

NH Hotel Group sees diversity as a key factor in building up a network of diverse talent, capable of understanding customers’ needs, innovating and reflecting society in the business world. For all these reasons, a fundamental pillar of NH Hotel Group’s corporate culture is also based on diversity, equality and inclusion.

Thus, the Company’s 10,071 employees in 2021 are of 133 different nationalities and 22% of them work in countries that are different to their country of origin. Furthermore, 51% of the total workforce are women, who hold 44 % of the total management posts.

Through its Code of Conduct, NH Hotel Group formalizes its commitment to promote non-discrimination on account of race, colour, nationality, social origin, age, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, ideology, political opinions, religion or any other personal, physical or social condition of its professionals, as well as to equality of opportunities among them.

The policies and actions relating to selection, hiring, training and internal promotion of employees are based on criteria of capacity, competence and professional merits.

Equality Plan

In July 2010, NH Hotel Group signed its Equality Plan with representatives of the workers. To draw up this plan, the Company carried out an exhaustive diagnosis of the situation and position of men and women, which confirmed that NH Hotel Group in Spain had a high presence of women, and a high number of female executives present in the organization.

After this positive first assessment, work was done on an action plan with specific measures in different areas of access to the company, hiring, promotion, training, remuneration, work-life balance, occupational health, communication and awareness-raising that would make it possible to eliminate or correct inequalities in these areas.

The document also included a series of measures to ensure the protection of women who have been victims of gender violence: giving them priority in hiring, monitoring any cases of gender violence that arise and the measures taken, and informing the workforce of the rights of women in this situation.

In order to guarantee compliance with the objectives set out and the execution of the actions established in the Plan, a Monitoring and Evaluation Committee was also created, made up, on a parity basis, of representatives of the company and of the signatory trade union organizations.

This Plan has enabled the Company to develop mechanisms that will facilitate greater female representation throughout the organization’s hierarchical structure. It was also the starting point for the development of the guidelines that define the Company in terms of its commitment to equality, focused not just on gender difference, but on different nationalities, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs, religion, disabilities…This is also recognized in the NH Hotel Group Code of Conduct.

The work carried out made it possible to replicate the diversity and equality diagnostic and assessment process in other countries, creating action plans on this matter in all Business Units.

In January 2020, the committee to conduct negotiations with the leading trade unions in Spain was created to work on the Company’s II Equality Plan. The COVID-19 crisis meant that the negotiations and development of the Plan had to be postponed. In 2021, we have made progress in negotiating the new Plan with the aim of completing an agreement in the first four months of 2022.

A team with the same opportunities

The salary of women in NH Hotel Group in 2021 represents 90% of the gross hourly salary for men; with the average gross hourly salary being €16.08 for men and €14.55 for women.

The pay gap has been calculated by comparing remuneration between equivalent professional categories, giving as a result the average salary of women compared to men. In other words, categories that carry out the same function or have the same position.

The overall figure for the pay gap is obtained by weighing the gaps obtained in the comparison between average remuneration (considering fixed and variable remuneration paid) received by the professionals in each category for the number of professionals in that category.

This analysis of the pay gap has served to identify that the gap increases in Top Management, especially due to the lower presence of women in this category.

This situation offers a great opportunity to carry out an analysis in more depth of the different groups, not just women, and establish as a priority the continuation of a long-term project of real management of all aspects of employee diversity and support professional development within the Company. NH Hotel Group will continue working to adopt the most suitable measures to eliminate this gap.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT – TIME FOR YOU (TFY)

At NH Hotel Group the performance management process is a key and consolidated element of our leadership culture, carried out through Time for You.

The evaluation of the performance and skills of the NH Hotel Group professionals allows us to know our internal talent in order to guide their training and professional development more effectively. The evaluation serves to identify the strengths and the areas for development of professionals in the performance of their work, which form the basis on which the different development plans are defined. The results of these evaluations are linked to their professional development and the increase in their variable remuneration.

It is aimed at all permanent employees who have at least 3 months’ service in the Company.

Performance in qualitative terms, how goals are achieved, is assessed through skills that effectively guide employees’ training and professional development. Through TFY, employees’ strengths and areas for development in the performance of their work are identified, and based on the areas for improvement identified, the various development plans are defined. In addition, the overall evaluation obtained has an impact on other human resources processes such as internal selection or talent processes or in variable remuneration.

In 2021, the formal mid-year review was carried out again, as a clear sign of a return to normal. At this important time of year, employees were invited to make this conversation a genuine moment of connection with the manager/team, encouraging them to share openly their feelings, perceptions, lessons learned and areas of concern.

The internal communication campaign is based around making this moment a “verification of reality and an opportunity to reconnect”, reflecting on how reality has changed. But ever more important, how OUR reality has changed: personally, and professionally.

The Human Resources team designed specific training at corporate level through Webinars, which were deployed locally by the Human Resources teams, taking advantage of the opportunity to open a space for dialogue with all managers. In these webinars, specific guidelines were given and at the end, managers were given a “conversation card” with the keys so that the “Midyear” conversation could become a moment of reconnection with the team.

Once again, the importance of this process in our leadership culture was seen, with a similar percentage participation to before the pandemic (86%).

In December, the Annual Review process was launched, recovering the normal spirit of TFY based on feedback and development, as key tools to grow within the Company.

Although for another year, the pandemic had continued to condition our day-to-day professional and personal life, this year was also a year of extraordinary efforts, major challenges and adaptation to constant changes.

For all these reasons, the approach of this key process also had to be exceptional and was even more focused than ever on looking to the future and developing based on the experiences we have lived through during the year.

Consequently, TFY2021 was adapted to this approach and had the following characteristics:

• There were no gradings in terms of skills or a general rating and attention was focused exclusively on feedback, development and career.

• Training aimed at managers, explaining to them what had change in the process compared to the standard process and how to focus the conversation so that it would service as a tool for commitment, motivation and team development was drawn up at corporate level and rolled out locally by the Human Resources team.

• At the end of this training, a “conversation card” with the main messages explained in the webinar was also handed out.

The level of participation by target employees in 2021 was of 92%

 

TALENT MANAGEMENT

NH Hotel Group has implemented a process to help identify and develop talent by looking not just at sustained performance over time but also at the potential and ambition of the people who have key positions in the Company.

During the second half of 2021, the talent identification and development process resumed, looking not only at sustained performance over time, but also at the potential and ambition of the individuals who hold key positions in the Company.

In this way, NH Hotel Group assures adequate preparation of key roles for the future, even in such challenging times as the present. The overall objective is to create a mindset of talent in leaders at all levels, starting with the top 100 executives in the Company and continuing with Managers and Heads of Department in hotels and Directors and Managers in central services.

TRAINING: NH UNIVERSITY

NH Hotel Group is committed to the professional development and training of all its employees as a way to put into practice the philosophy that inspires its customer service vocation. All face-to-face and online training projects are managed through the corporate university, NH University.

Every year the training curriculum is adapted so that the people who work at NH Hotel Group can continue to refresh both their technical knowledge and their skills.

In 2021, projects that had to be put on hold because of the pandemic have been taken up again, such as the Internal Development programme. One of the department’s main goals is to continue offering employees the necessary training for their professional development using safe methods and increasing, therefore, the number of hours of training through platforms like Teams or online formats such as videos, infographics, etc. Due to the reactivation of the business, both the investment and the number of participants has increased compared to 2020.

Online training through the GoodHabitz platform has also become consolidated, promoting the courses it offers through the monthly launch of a calendar that marks important dates with related training. This international training platform is focused on making training fun, different and tailored personally to each participant, and makes it possible to learn in the way best adapted to each person. More than 800 employees have received training over more than 3.600 hours.

The total number of hours of training, both face-to-face and online, in 2021 was 74,759 through 990 training programmes. NH University has trained 8,733 employees, representing 75% of the total workforce.

Face-to-face training, which also includes training through webinars, represented 58% of the training hours, with 151 internal training providers leading the sessions.

* The total number of hours of training includes 424 hours through the “GHA – Discovery in a box” training platform in which the hotels of the Anantara, Avani and Tívoli brands received training on new features of the loyalty programme. The hours are included in the corporate perimeter, as many of these hotels have management contracts.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION

For NH Hotel Group, internal communication has in 2021 again become a key factor in generating and maintaining employees’ engagement with the Company, as well as a powerful lever of change management. The year 2021 has once again shown the importance of Internal Communication at times of great changes and continuous challenges. It has also become a fundamental tool for communicating difficult decisions for the Company, relevant and critical information for the business, and for maintaining employee engagement and motivation and helping to manage uncertainty.

Internal Communication always strives to be aligned with the reality of the Company and its employees. In order to develop its present channels and platforms and set out a clear roadmap for the future, the Internal Communication area organized a number of focus groups in 2021 to find out employees’ vision and have as complete feedback as possible.

A total of seven focus groups were set up in all the Group’s Business Units with the main employee profiles of both Central Services and hotels were represented.

EMPLOYER BRANDING – FURTHER TOGETHER

NH Hotel Group is proud that its employees are the key to the success of the business. Therefore, it has sought to consolidate the NH Hotel Group employer brand throughout the world, to attract and motivate the best talent among employees and external candidates.

The long-term goal of the Employer Branding (EB) plan is to establish a unique culture around our values as an employer brand, through uniform and consistent communication of the Company’s identity and essence: People, Passion and Challenge.

To do so, work has continued on the “Further Together” campaign on the Company’s various external communication channels, focusing mainly on Instagram and LinkedIn.

The campaign features employees from all Business Units who talk first-hand about what it is like to work at NH Hotel Group, joining the ranks of the Instagram Ambassadors and becoming role models for all workers.

The Further Together campaign includes other projects such as Feel Sate at NH, the Re-Start of the different Business Units, and the Together With Love Christmas Edition, all featuring the perspective of the Group’s employees.

Further Together continues to give employees a voice to share their experiences, creating a community united around the brand values.

MEMORABLE DATES

Memorable Dates continues to operate as the programme that celebrates the most important anniversaries (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years), as well as the retirement of hotel and central office employees in all Business Units. Unfortunately, health and safety distance recommendations forced us to postpone the celebrations of the events where the sole stars are our employees whose milestones are being recognized. However, in 2021 we resumed the acknowledgement of their career in NH by giving them credits which they can redeem at our hotels. The event as such has been postponed for another year, to safeguard the health and safety of all our employees.

FLEXIBILITY AND WORK-LIFE BALANCE: FROM THE ‘NEW WAY OF WORKING’ TO THE ‘HYBRID MODEL’

For NH Hotel Group, one of the fundamental pillars for attracting and retaining talent is the work-life balance, which is about striking a balance between the needs and interests of team members and the Company’s needs and interests.

The NH Hotel Group culture has been evolving in recent years towards a more flexible and balanced model, thanks to the “New Way of Working” project which started several years ago, although 2021 especially has been when a hybrid work model was designed. The Company has started to transit very quickly and efficiently towards this model.

Specifically, from September 2021 this hybrid work pilot project started in the different central offices of each Business Unit, ending in December 2021.

At Headquarters this pilot hybrid model has the following characteristics:

HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELLBEING AT WORK

These years will be marked by the pandemic, which has made health and safety an absolute priority in global terms at all levels. Its impact on the industry has been devastating, although the sector has managed to respond swiftly in terms of management of the health and safety of guests and employees.

NH Hotel Group understands that offering people a safe and healthy working environment is an absolutely necessary requisite. In Spain, NH Hotel Group has an Occupational Risk Prevention Plan which is the master document that governs the Occupational Health and Safety actions to be carried out at the Company’s workplaces in Spain. This Plan includes, among others, essential procedures such as:

• Risk Assessment
• Health and Safety Training and Information
• Health Monitoring
• Health Damage Management
• Emergency Management
• Maternity Protection
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Business Activity Coordination

The Plan is based on the integration of these processes throughout the Company’s hierarchical structure. Both Central Services heads of department and hotel personnel (from General Managers to staff) have been assigned functions and responsibilities in this area. Furthermore, in Spain there is a Joint Prevention Service which provides services to the NH Hotel Group hotels and workplaces in Spain.

In other countries, this Plan is not applicable and therefore technical advising on Occupational Risk Prevention is outsourced with external service providers. In some countries, NH Hotel Group employees are designated as responsible for coordinating the actions of these service providers and for implementing the established corrective measures and prevention procedures.

NH Hotel Group strives to promote a culture of occupational health as part of its commitment to health and safety. The integration of occupational health into the Company’s activities is reflected in the programmes and action plans in hotels and offices in different countries.

Due to the crisis caused by COVID-19 and as part of the Company’s recovery strategy, a range of health and safety measures, certified by experts, were designed and implemented in all hotels in order to assure health, safety and social distancing both for guests and employees.

All the measures included in the Feel Safe at NH project seek to ensure that our hotels guarantee safe and comfortable stays, and therefore the Company continues to review and redesign the entire operation of the hotels, contingency plan, SGS health inspection certificate, personal protective equipment and protocols, advanced digital services, water purification and air quality protocols, enhanced cleaning and disinfection protocols, food and beverages services adapted to the current situation, social distancing rules, health and safety protocol for employees and health and safety managers in the hotels.

All the Company’s hotels have a designated health and safety manager. This person is responsible for centralizing, distributing and administering all the health and safety information for each hotel, and in most hotels is the manager.

If, for functional or organizational reasons, the manager cannot take on these duties directly, they are delegated to another member of the team designated by the manager, with the approval of the Management Committee.

ACCIDENT RATES AND OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES

In 2021, 100% of the countries that have reported FTEs have reported the information corresponding to occupational accidents and diseases.

TURNOVER AND ABSENTEEISM

EMPLOYMENT TERMINATIONS IN 2021

In all countries where NH Hotel Group is present, measures have been taken to preserve jobs and talent. The Company continues working to support all team members, conveying peace of mind, and working with them on the recovery of the business.

To calculate employment terminations, all of them have been considered, both for objectives causes or disciplinary terminations.

SOCIAL DIALOGUE WITH EMPLOYEES

NH Hotel Group seeks to maintain a model of responsible and positive labour relations based on principles of dialogue, consultation with and participation of workers.

Accordingly, in October 2015 the European Works Council (EWC) of NH Hotel Group was set up as an initiative of the European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectors (EFFAT) and at the request of affiliates from Italy, Belgium and Spain.

This EWC affects all the Company’s workplaces in the European Economic Area and operates under directive 2009/38/EC, as well as its transposition into Spanish legislation. Its principal function is to achieve a level of communication and social dialogue that, in a climate of confidence, makes mutual understanding possible on cross-border matters that affect its employees.

On the other hand, a direct channel of dialogue was created between the Chief People & Sustainable Business Officer and the EWC, to answer any questions or concerns about the evolution of the pandemic in the business, being answered in any of the official languages of the Company.

Coverage of NH Hotel Group employees by Collective Bargaining Agreements, which generally include aspects related to employees’ health and safety, varies according to the different Business Units.