Comfort Living is a bed and breakfast accommodation located in Wodonga-Albury (the border between Victoria and New South Wales). Comfort living offers premium accommodation options to the travellers of all sorts, including business travellers, families, and backpackers. The facility offers a conference room, gym, swimming pool and guest rooms to accommodate various needs of travellers. The place and all its facilities are disability accessible and provide an opportunity for disabled travellers to enjoy their stay. The workforce at Comfort Living is predominantly composed of white Australians and although they welcome diversity in their travellers, it is not practiced by the business itself. On a few instances, travellers have felt the absence of diversity in the business and have expressed their concern in the feedback survey as well. The workers at the facility have also mentioned the instances where they were unable to understand the guest’s language and hence were unable to satisfy the requests/demands.

The owner of the facility, Jack Smith, has initiated a recruitment drive with the aim of bringing diverse workforce at Comfort Living and hence, utilise the benefits of diversity. He has to present his case in front of the board of directors to persuade them for his initiative. As a result of the recruitment drive, four candidates have been finalised and offered a position at Comfort Living. Luckily, all four of the candidates have accepted the offer and joined Comfort Living. The new recruits include Jenny, Tim, Angelina, and Rob and will be working under the supervision of their manager, Steph. Steph is an Australian female, in her mid-20s and follow Christianity. Jenny is a Vietnamese female with experience of working in the accommodation industry back in Vietnam. She has recently moved to Australia and has worked at a local café in a customer facing role. Although not very fluent, she is good at speaking English and has the ability to engage in a conversation with customers/clients. She is in her early 30s and is a Buddhist. Overall, she has a pleasant personality. Tim is a Chinese male who has worked in the accommodation industry in China at a managerial position, hence he has extensive knowledge of working in the industry. He moved to Australia six months ago and struggles with English and hence avoid discussions. This makes him look like a loner.

Tim is in his early 40s, follows Confucianism and is homosexual. Angelina is a female of African descent. She has been living in Australia for the last ten years and is fluent in English. She has worked in customer facing roles in a café and a multinational hotel. She has good knowledge of the accommodation industry. Angelina has recently finished her study and is in her early 20s. She loves interacting and meeting new people and has a very friendly and warm personality. She also loves food and is on a healthier side. Angelina is Catholic. Rob is a European male who came from France. He has been living in Australia for the past two years. Although he has the ability to communicate in English, many people struggle to understand his accent. He has worked in a multinational hotel as a porter and housekeeper and does not have extensive experience of working in a customer facing role. He is friendly and loves to have discussions on various topics. Rob is in his late 20s and does not follow any religion. None of the team members have any disability. After the initial training, Jack has assigned roles to the four new recruits. Jenny is assigned to work as a room attendant. Tim is recruited in the house keeping team which does not require him to have frequent interaction with guests. Rob has been assigned to work as the front desk receptionist. Angelina has been asked to assist Rob and only take over the reception in extreme emergency situations when Rob is not around. Basically, Angelina’s role includes taking calls and manage the backend paperwork. The new recruits are also advised to assist others if their language skills are required to interact with the guests. During the meetings, Steph has observed that Jenny hardly speaks up and never puts her ideas out despite having good knowledge of the accommodation industry. Jenny always agrees to the ideas presented by the group and never questions Steph, even if she does not agree to the ideas personally. Steph is unsure of the reason behind Jenny’s attitude.

1. To diversify the workforce of Comfort Living, Jack Smith has to present a justification in front of the board of directors. Develop a business case for diversifying workforce at Comfort Living to help Jack Smith?

2. Based on the information provided in the last paragraph, can you justify Jenny’s attitude as observed by Steph?

3. What steps would you recommend Comfort Living should adopt to facilitate the working relations between employees?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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