Choice Hotels Named Association For Talent Development BEST Award Winner For Second Consecutive Year

Company recognition

"At Choice, people are our most important asset, and ensuring both associates and franchisees have the resources and growth opportunities needed to thrive is an essential component of the company's growth strategy," said Timothy Tobin, vice president, franchise onboarding and learning, Choice Hotels. "We're proud to offer our owners some of the industry's top training tools, such as the Choice University learning platform, and look forward to continually innovating and expanding our talent development resources to fuel overall franchisee and enterprise-wide success."

ATD is the talent development industry's leading international association, and to receive the organization's prestigious BEST Award, companies must demonstrate outstanding talent development practices that enable organizational success. Choice Hotels is the only hospitality company listed among this year's ATD BEST awardees.

Training programs

In addition to the company's award-winning property-level training platform, Choice University, Choice was recognized for its overall learning organization and supporting diverse learner and business needs, including for the following development programs and resources:

• Corporate Resource Groups intended to facilitate cultural engagement and learning opportunities among Choice associates. The company supports 11 different resource groups, including a newly formed group designed for working parents.

• Project Mobility, a program that enables associates to explore and gain hands-on experience in different career paths within the organization. Early in the pandemic, Choice leveraged this program to re-allocate resources across the company to directly connect with our franchisees and provide resources to support their businesses.

• A disaster education hub for franchisees, which provides frequently-updated videos, workshops and other resources hotel managers and property-level associates can use to prepare for and mitigate hotel concerns and challenges. During the pandemic, Choice complemented this hub with direct support from locally based, one-on-one support teams to conduct workshops and individual funding consultations with owners.

• Expanded franchisee learning, featuring streamlined video-production and on-demand content for topics pertaining most to hotel employees in the current travel environment.

• New corporate training resources, including enhanced tools for working and leading remotely, to help associates better navigate remote working environments.

"This award is a testament to our associates' ability to quickly adapt in any environment and most importantly our commitment to the success of our franchise owners," said Stephanie Lykins, vice president, talent management, Choice Hotels. "Our dedication to associate development enables us to attract new talent, retain top talent, and promote key contributors. Our people will continue to be at the center of our growth potential as a company."