Hotel Zazie, a two-star hotel located in central Paris (France), has decided to engage more than half of its staff through a social inclusion programme

The 20-room hotel has had the Green Key award since December 2017. This means that the hotel is complying with the Green Key requirements such as energy efficient lighting, reducing plastic at breakfast to a minimum, eco-labelled toilet paper, etc. The breakfast at the hotel is made of quality products that are mainly organic avoiding already processed and packaged products. The hotel focuses on waste sorting with individual bins of the rooms and in the common areas, and all waste that is recyclable is stored separately.

The hotel has however gone much further in its work with sustainability. Through a collaboration with the local authorities, the hotel is hiring staff from a social inclusion programme. Currently, five of nine staff members derive from the inclusion programme. The persons eligible for this programme have various challenges and have been out of the labour market for a long time. The recruited staff is especially working in housekeeping and at the front desk. The persons are employed a maximum of 24 months, and most employees stay a year or less and every few staff members stay longer if they have very challenging situation. The hotel has an ongoing training programme for the new staff in order to train them to be able to work in a hotel.

Anne-Sophie De Boulois, the General Manager of Zazie Hotel explains: “After the employees have worked in our hotel, around 1/3 find a job in another hotel and 1/3 find another solution such as another job, study, etc., and only the last third are not successful. We are very proud of helping challenged persons to get a new start.”

Nasser is refugee from Sudan. He is currently working in Hotel Zazie in the reception at night time.

Nasser explains: “In 2018, I had an internship with Zazie Hotel for a month, preparing breakfast and sometimes assisting in the reception. At Zazie Hotel, I felt at home, and I feel the spirit of respect and humanity, and it made me want to work there. After finishing my training and spending two months without work, I received a call from the hotel offering me a second period of professional internship. I accepted it without hesitation. For this internship I have been working at the reception. It has not been easy, but I am learning a lot of things that I did not know before, especially about environmental initiatives.”