QUESTION: Community service is an integral part of Hilton Worldwide’s culture. How can other companies make it a part of their culture, too?

ANSWER: Get the team members involved at all levels  — the CEOs, GMs, VPs all need to jump in and participate in the community service. Find events and organizations the company can wrap their arms around and support. For instance, this year will be Hilton Hawaiian Village’s 20th year of serving meals at Institute of Human Services on Thanksgiving. We have to turn away employees who want to volunteer at this event. Make it fun.  

Q: What is Hilton Worldwide’s Global Week of service, and over the years how has Hilton Hawaii participated?

A: Global Week of Service is Hilton Worldwide’s largest annual volunteer service initiative. It brings together team members from across Hilton Worldwide’s offices and hotel properties, helping to strengthen the company’s connections with its local communities. It also brings team members closer together and really energizes them. Last year team members at more than 900 properties completed more than 2,400 volunteer projects in 700 cities across the globe. This is the third year that Hilton Worldwide has had this initiative, and our Hawaii hotels have participated every year.

Q: What kind of year-round planning goes into making the Global Week of Service successful, and what are some organizational pointers that you can give to other companies that want to form their own community service traditions?

A: The nerve center of Global Week of Service is our human resources department. They activate the team members, find what the local organizations’ needs are, organize groups of team members to participate in the different activities. It takes a lot of planning and coordination. And this is on top of all of the many other community service we do throughout the year. Have your leaders pick organizations that align with your corporate mission and values. Make sure that whatever goals you set — whether they are fundraising or the use of volunteers — are attainable so that the team members feel a sense of accomplishment. Traditions are great, and it gives team members something to look forward to.

Q: What projects did you tackle this year, and what were the results?

A: Waikiki Elementary School beautification project — our Hilton Hawaiian Village team took two days to dig ditches, haul dirt and finally plant foliage to beautify the campus. 

More than 400 team members and guests helped out at Hilton Waikoloa Village’s Ironman aid station, passing out water and snacks to the thousands of participants during the bike leg of the race.

Hilton Grand Vacations on Oahu spent the week at the Institute of Human Services painting, cleaning, planting and in general, beautifying the Women & Family Service Center. In addition, $10,000 was donated to IHS by Hilton Grand Vacations

Grand Wailea participated in a beach cleanup and also volunteered to clean, restore and beautify the Boys & Girls Club of Maui.

Hilton Grand Vacations team members on the Big Island spent a day sprucing up the Hawaii Island Humane Society’s Animal Community Center. More than 50 volunteers painted, landscaped and cleaned the new facility. They also planted the seedlings of the endangered uhiuhi and wiliwili trees at the Waikoloa Dry Forest Reserve.

DoubleTree by Hilton Alana Waikiki is going to be helping clean and beautify the Ronald McDonald House.

Q: Hilton Hawaii and other companies get lots of requests for donations and community service assistance. How do you recommend that companies narrow down their choices?

A: With more than 4,000 team members in Hawaii, we know that we can make a huge impact in our communities, and our hotels rally around some of Hawaii’s largest fundraisers. For instance, all of our hotels participate in the Food Bank Food Drive, Aloha United Way, Visitor Industry Charity Walk and other statewide initiatives. These types of fundraisers are turnkey and easy starting points for companies. Sometimes companies want to support charities because of a team member that had a need from or was somehow assisted by the charity. This emotional tie can help the leaders get the team members to rally around the events even more.

Q: What benefits does participating in community service projects bring to Hilton Hawaii, and how do you think other businesses would benefit if they launched similar initiatives?

A: Service projects really help strengthen Hilton’s ties to the community. We live, work and play in our communities, and it’s important to give back. Not only does it feel good to help out, it gives everyone a great feeling of accomplishment when we’ve finished a great project. Service projects are wonderful team-building activities, bringing together groups of people that might not normally interact with each other.