THE LABOUR FORCE OF THE FUTURE - DISCUSSION WITH TIA CHAUHAN
One of Beyond Bamboo's stand out wins for October was facilitating a panel discussing the topic of 'The Labour Force of the Future' at the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance Summit in London. We were thrilled to be able to host the panel in which young voices were invited to be heard in the conversation for creating a beyond sustainable positive future for the hospitality industry.
Tia Chauhan, Client Services Manager for Beyond Bamboo was one of those young voices on the panel, University of Birmingham student in the third year of her studies in International Development Politics. Beyond Bamboo has been Tia's part-time role throughout, assisting the team with procurement, sourcing products, talking to suppliers, and building relationships. In her current role she is supporting on some of the projects working directly with clients.
“It's been really great to have this as a part time role where I'm able to actually apply my studies practically in the real world, and really bring some of that knowledge with me to the team”.
Tia has also been involved for the past few years with The Global Youth Awards, run by RoundTable Global, sister company to Beyond Bamboo.
“My first involvement was back when the awards were still quite small. Maybe less than 100 people at the Greenwich Peninsula. I did a spoken word piece on labels, and from that point onwards, every year has been involved in different ways”.
“I've also been part of the judging panel - all judges are young people. I've hosted it a couple of times and was fortunate enough to do it both in person and during lock down when we were virtual. This year I'm doing stage management and running behind the scenes. It's really exciting to give so many other young people the platform to perform, to host, to judge, and really just be there to support such an incredible event”.
Tia says that she has made some really great friends and met some really inspirational people since becoming a Global Youth Ambassador. It's an amazing platform to celebrate young people, to bring them together and build connections and allow for collaboration.
Tia joined three other Global Youth Ambassadors, Ishaan Shah, Amy Meek and Kit Murphy at the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance Summit.
“I felt really honoured to have been asked to speak on the panel and to be given that platform. It's and important event where you've got many big hospitality players sat at the table. I was really excited to have our voices heard.
Ishaan Shah, a fellow Global Youth Ambassador, and a Global Youth Award winner focuses on modern day slavery and human trafficking. He bought the perspective of how the hospitality industry can help support people who are coming out of these situations. Amy Meek, also a Youth Ambassador and award winner is founder of Kids Against Plastic bought insight into the use of plastics and the impact on the environment. The passion for these subjects from the young people involved was clear to see and inspired many of the delegates at the summit.
"Purpose driven companies are able to attract graduates, retain them and really support them in their roles".
The hospitality industry as a whole and hotel chains that are spread far and wide across the globe, are often within parts of the world that are going to be more affected by climate change, potentially more human trafficking, and more affected by pollution, like plastic waste in our oceans. Highlighting what's important to young people to Leaders within these organisations and starting to get them involved with the conversation around sustainability can really help to create change. Allowing everybody within the organisation to step forward to have their say.
“I think a lot of the time as a young person you can feel undermined because of your age. Within Beyond Bamboo, I feel like my opinion is valued regardless of whether I'm sat at the table with the CEO. It's a very open and safe space of everyone brings something to the table, and everyone has something to offer”.