Sowon Kim is an Associate Professor and member of the EHL’s Women in Leadership (WIL), leading the Sexual Harassement Prevention (SHP) initiative at EHL(Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne). She shares here her feedback on this initiative started almost 3 years ago in collaboration with the Non Violence Project Foundation

What was the motivation to launch SHP at EHL in 2019? 

While sexual harassment is everywhere, studies show that the hospitality industry in particular has one of the worst records. Our aim was to educate our students on this topic as well as protect them and empower them to speak up if they live such an incident.  

SHP was launched almost 3 years ago reaching thousands of students and the management too . What kind of feedback do you  get from the attendees ?

The feedback we get is that this initiative is relevant, useful and the attendees are surprised to see what sexual harrasment is, because often they associate it only with rape. Rape is the worst level of sexual harassment of course, but not the only one.

Do you see a change of behaviors after 3 years  ?

Change behaviors is very difficult to measure, espeically in a short term, but what we do see is an increased awareness people who speak up.  

Do you envision to enlarge it to other campuses of your group with the support of NVP Trainers?

Absolutely, Our Passug (German sepaking part of Switzerland) and Singapore campuses will benefit from them. We love working with NVPF management and Trainers because of their professionalism, flexibility, and because they truly care.