Wintergreen Resort was named winner of the International Rescue Committee’s 2011 Employer of the Year Award at a Wednesday morning ceremony in Charlottesville.
The award, which was presented at the Omni Hotel before about 60 representatives of 30 local companies, honors an employer that has taken tangible strides to place, retain and promote refugee workers.
Mark Maynard, vice president of human resources for Wintergreen, joined two other Wintergreen employees on stage to accept the award. Maynard said the arrangement at Wintergreen, which has been in place since June 2009, helped the resort — especially the housekeeping department — overcome a difficult staffing situation.
“We could not staff the department reliably with people who had good attitudes,” he said.
But through IRC, Maynard said, Wintergreen has placed about 35 refugees in jobs since the programs inception. Maynard said the Nelson County resort’s overall staff can swell to 850 at the height of the winter season.
The IRC provides humanitarian aid in 40 countries and resettles refugees in 23 locations across the U.S. The Charlottesville program began in 1998.
Several other businesses, including the Doubletree Hotel and Chipotle, were also recognized Wednesday for their employee development, small business and national partnership programs that support refugees.
The awards have been presented for about a decade, but this was the first year the group organized a breakfast to honor the winners, according to Terri DiCintio, IRC’s community relations coordinator.
“Wintergreen has long been a valuable partner in helping refugees find dignity and self reliance through their jobs,” said IRC employment supervisor Courtney Cook in a statement. “They take extraordinary effort to invest in the development of their staff and foster a supportive and productive work environment.”
Wednesday’s accolades however, come on the heels of recent tough news for the resort, which last week announced plans to eliminate about a dozen full-time jobs as part of a financial restructuring plan.
The initiative is expected to reduce Wintergreen’s annual labor and benefits costs by $600,000. In a statement last week, Rob Sullivan, Wintergreen’s chief financial officer, declined to say specifically what type or how many jobs would be eliminated.
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