Top Employers 2022 has announced that it has awarded certification this year to Meliá Hotels International for its contribution to excellence in the work environment in Spain, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, countries that account for 46% of the company's total global workforce. 

The certification is in recognition of the commitment the company has shown to its people over recent years, coinciding with its management of the Covid-19 crisis. During the crisis, the company's ability to anticipate and respond to the challenges faced by the business led to efforts to preserve employment and talent, create secure employment, boost training and reskilling, and manage the cultural change required by the company's organizational and digital transformation. 

The Top Employers Institute programme certifies the HR practises of leading organisations in 123 countries based on the results of their HR Best Practices Survey, which analyses a number of different areas in Human Resources. Meliá has achieved the highest results in areas such as Training, Commitment, Ethics & Integrity, Values and Change Management. As the company CEO, Gabriel Escarrer, declared, “the Covid-19 crisis has been the greatest challenge in our company's history, and we would never have been able to get through it without the commitment and talent of our people. That's why this certificate reinforces our strategy to place our people at the heart of our business, since they really are the true soul of the company". 

In recent years, and in the wake of Covid-19, Meliá Hotels International has made great efforts to strengthen its people's commitment to the company, with new programmes to accompany employees through the complex processes of change the company has been going through becoming key factors in maintaining its internal reputation and the pride in belonging of its employees. At the same time, the company has consolidated new spaces for communication and exchanging information and know-how, among other things. eMeliá, the company's e-learning platform, has become a major driver of development for employees during the pandemic, with the number of online training hours increasing by more than 75% in 2020 compared to the previous year. 

The hotel company has also reinforced its employer brand strategy and strengthened relationships with the academic world through agreements with major universities and tourism and business schools around the world, designed to achieve excellence in training and enhance the skills of workers in the industry. The most recent example is a new partnership with Vatel Spain, which has led to the launch of a specialist Business Analytics & Hospitality Performance programme accompanied by internships to encourage job placement and excellence.​