Hospitality Management, Business and Human Rights
An Introduction to Business and Human Rights in the Hospitality Industry
Understanding human rights is essential for anyone entering today’s global hospitality industry. Hotels and hospitality businesses employ millions of workers worldwide and rely on complex supply chains for goods and services. Decisions made by managers, operators and suppliers can have real consequences for workers, guests and communities.
This short course provides a clear, practical introduction to business and human rights in a hospitality context. Through real-world examples and accessible explanations, students learn how to identify risks, make responsible decisions, and understand their role within hospitality operations and supply chains.
Ideal for future hotel managers, hospitality professionals and business leaders, the course helps students stand out as individuals who understand how to run successful hospitality businesses while respecting people’s rights.
Course Overview
Format: Three-part beginner-level course (flexible)
The course is delivered through a series of Insight Sessions, each led by Neill Wilkins. Sessions build from foundational concepts to practical application, helping students connect human rights principles to real business decisions across the hospitality industry.
Each Insight Session includes:
A clear, engaging presentation
A moderated Q&A
Group discussion to explore how issues apply to students’ own areas of study.
Key terms and frameworks are explained in accessible language. Follow-up materials and suggested readings are provided to support further learning and reflection.
While the course is designed as a three-part series, sessions can be tailored to meet institutional requirements. Modules can be added, extended, combined, adapted, or delivered as stand‑alone sessions on related topics
Insight Sessions
1. Introduction to Business and Human Rights
This session sets the foundation by exploring how hospitality operations intersect with people’s rights across the world, and why hospitality professionals have a crucial role to play.
Topics include:
What human rights are and how they apply to business
Key risks in the hospitality industry, including labour and supply chains
What “doing the right thing” looks like in a hospitality context
The links between reputation, risk and responsible business practice
Context and examples:
Hospitality businesses operate globally, often across countries with very different labour standards and protections
Workers in hospitality are frequently young, migrant or in insecure roles, increasing vulnerability to poor treatment
Day-to-day decisions — scheduling, pay, outsourcing — can have direct impacts on workers’ rights
Reputational damage linked to labour issues can have significant commercial consequences for hospitality brands
Outcome:
Students understand the core language and concepts of business and human rights, and how the hospitality industry can both impact and uphold the rights of workers, guests and communities.
2. Human Rights Risks in Hospitality Supply Chains
This session explores where and how human rights risks arise within hospitality operations and supply chains, with a particular focus on modern slavery, migrant workers and women workers.
Topics include:
How hotel supply chains operate, including food, cleaning, laundry and outsourced services
Modern slavery risks in hospitality, including forced labour, trafficking and debt bondage
The role of recruitment practices in creating vulnerability for migrant workers
How subcontracting and labour agencies can obscure responsibility and increase risk
The specific risks faced by women workers, including harassment, low pay and insecure work
Context and examples:
Hospitality is highly reliant on migrant labour, often recruited through complex agency networks, increasing vulnerability to exploitation
Workers may be charged large recruitment fees, leading to debt bondage and dependence on employers
Hotels can also be sites of exploitation linked to trafficking and sexual exploitation, particularly affecting women
Outcome:
Students understand where human rights risks arise in hospitality supply chains, why migrant and women workers are particularly vulnerable, and how business practices can contribute to or prevent exploitation.
3. Managing Risk: Responsible Business in Practice
This session focuses on what hospitality businesses should do in practice to identify, prevent and address human rights risks across their operations and supply chains.
Topics include:
What a strong human rights policy looks like in a hospitality business
Human rights due diligence: identifying, preventing and addressing risk
Responsible recruitment and the protection of migrant workers
Gender sensitive policies and practice
The role of grievance mechanisms and access to remedy
How businesses can work with suppliers to improve standards
The challenges of implementing responsible practices in a cost-driven industry
Context and examples
Many hospitality businesses have policies in place, but implementation across sites and suppliers can be inconsistent
Responsible recruitment practices, such as the Employer Pays Principle, are increasingly expected but not yet universal
Grievance mechanisms often exist, but workers may not trust or use them in practice
Cost pressures and high staff turnover can make it difficult to embed responsible practices consistently
Outcome:
Students understand what responsible business looks like in practice, and how hospitality professionals can take action to manage risk and uphold human rights in real-world settings.
Enquiries
We welcome informal, no‑obligation enquiries—please get in touch to discuss your needs and how we can make this course fit your requirements.
For further information, course tailoring, or booking enquiries:
Email: neill.wilkins@ethical-impact.com
Phone: +44 (0)7411 798031
Website: www.ethical-impact.com