Marriott’s Ty Breland on Workplace Flexibility

Marriott, a nearly 100-year-old company, has shown that even established organizations can modernize and adapt.

During the pandemic, the hospitality industry faced unprecedented challenges, including hotel closures and furloughs. Despite these hurdles, Marriott emerged stronger by prioritizing workplace flexibility and redefining leadership.

Ty Breland, EVP and CHRO, discussed the company's journey of resilience and reinvention, and the impact their culture has on business performance. Marriott has set hiring records and is ranked No. 8 among the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For 100 Best Companies to Work For.

On job sharing and creating workplace flexibility for workers:

We listened to our associates, and what they were looking for was intraday flexibility. Many have families and commitments outside of work, and we didn’t want them to miss out on activities that are important to them.

We started to think, why can't we share some of these jobs? Why can't this be a split job between two people who are performing what used to be one job? It doesn't work everywhere, but where it could, we took advantage.

On the non-management or hourly side of the business, it was about creating your own schedule. Like many companies, most of our workforce was full-time before the pandemic. We would fill the entire schedule with full-time associates and then where we had anomalies in the schedule, we may offer it up to part-time, which might not be the most desirable shift.

We flipped that logic and really looked at people creating their own schedules and having an influx of part-time mixed with full-time associates. This led us to rethink how we managed scheduling.

What that gets you is a more engaged and committed workforce, which we’ve seen in our numbers. It also builds community, where people can bring their whole selves to work and help each another, whether it's by picking up a shift or helping with a report. It makes us a better organization and community, increasing our impact.

[Learn how culture drives business success from Marriott and other leaders of companies on the 2025 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For List at the For All Summit? in Las Vegas April 8-10.]

On creating new jobs, called Integrated Jobs or iJobs:

All of us travel and stay at hotels. When you walk in, you really want one person to help you with what you need at that time. A guest experience expert is not only your front desk agent, but they also can serve as a concierge or other front-of-house role you might need before heading to your room.

In the past, those responsibilities would have been divided between three or four different jobs, but the consumer appreciates having one point of contact. The associate likes the variety in their job, and they feel like they're really caring for the guest in a more authentic and complete way.

We’ve seen improvements in the customer experience, cleanliness scores, guest engagement scores, and associate engagement scores. Turnover is lower at hotels that have fully adopted iJobs. All the metrics go up, including revenue, because the associate feels closer to their role and purpose, which benefits our associates, Marriott, and our customers. It’s a win-win-win.

On the new leadership mindset:

Having a leadership mindset is important, no matter what level you are. When you wake up each day thinking like a leader, you're curious, courageous, and connected. This mindset can go across the entire spectrum of associates in your organization.

We encourage our non-management associates to transition into management roles. They know our business extremely well. Oftentimes, it's giving them the courage and sponsorship to apply for those jobs. We've always done a great job of having individuals cross from non-management to management, but recently we've doubled down and launched a program, Elevate by Marriott International, which targets non-management associates becoming managers.

Since launching that program, we've seeing big changes in our first-level management jobs. Right now, one in every four hires for entry-level management positions come from our non-management population.

As part of this program, something that was unique was giving them all coaches. We've partnered with an external coaching firm to support these associates. Traditionally, coaching was reserved for executive levels, but we’ve turned that on its head and offer coaching to non-management associates pursuing management opportunities. This gives them the best chance to not only land one of these positions, but to thrive in them.

On advice for HR colleagues:

We have many leaders at Marriott who prioritize putting people first. But for the broader HR community, you have to have a seat at the table. Once you're there, you have to have a voice. And once you have a voice, you have to make sure you're heard.

The best way to do that is to really listen and understand the business. Once you have that firm understanding, you’re better able to apply the right HR solutions and strategies to propel the business forward.

And measure things. We're relentless in our analytics and connecting the dots.