Anysha Kumar and Rishi Shrimal, MBA candidates at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, highlight Lemon Tree, a hotel chain, and how a serendipitous hire of an employee with disabilities led to not only a fully-fledged diversity & inclusion policy but a vision and a business case.

Anysha Kumar and Rishi Shrimal are IIM Bangalore Winners of the CoBS 2026 Case Development Challenge, part of the Advanced International Certificate in Responsible Business Practices. With kind acknowledgements to Lemon Tree, Aradhana Lal, SVP Sustainability.

To better understand Lemon Tree Hotel’s hiring practices, we sat down for a conversation with Aradhana Lal, SVP of Sustainability and the head of their diversity campaign since 2012. When Lemon Tree Hotels was founded in 2002, it entered Indian hospitality with a proposition of quality service without the luxury pricing. Under founder Patu Keswani, Lemon Tree developed a service culture centered around efficiency, but also dignity and opportunity¹.

In 2007, a hearing-impaired employee was recruited into housekeeping as a practical staffing decision rather than a deliberate diversity intervention² . There was no blueprint of ESG practices to be followed, yet this incident challenged assumptions inside the company. Managers observed that the employee brought discipline, consistency and ownership to the role. Instead of seeing disability as “can’t do” they began seeing it as “can do or can do later”.

Patu Keswani became a strong advocate for pursuing this vision. But the initiative was shaped as much by leadership conviction as it was by frontline managers willing to experiment. They moved from accidental inclusion to diverse by design. Since this initiative emerged from an operational need rather than philanthropy, it was treated as talent strategy, not charity and that distinction gave the move credibility. It fostered the idea that inclusion could create competitive advantage while expanding opportunity.

From a Small Experiment to an Industry Trendsetter

Turning one successful experiment into a scalable model required more than the right intent. They partnered with NGOs and vocational organizations to source candidates, while internal teams studied hotel roles in granular ways. They broke jobs into tasks, understanding where accommodation was needed and redesigning processes accordingly.

Today, Lemon Tree partners with over 100 NGOs across the country like Action for Autism and Noida Deaf Society³. Staff are rigorously trained, put through an internship program and then finally placed into roles aligned to their skillset.

As a group they have witnessed lower attrition, better efficiency and positive guest responses and a myriad of awards from government ministries and corporate platforms alike⁴. What started in just a few roles has now expanded into a workforce-wide hiring initiative.

Importantly, the initiative was never labeled as a peripheral program under CSR. The move made business sense by having more efficient and loyal staff that garner great customer reviews for their meticulous work. Although the staff underwent rigorous training and immersion programs, people with disabilities are not treated differently on the job.

Aradhana Lal, SVP of Sustainability mentions, “if you go over and beyond to make provisions for them and give them special treatment, that is not true inclusion”.

Over the years, the initiative has evolved from focused disability hiring into a broader program for inclusion by providing equitable employment opportunities to Opportunity Deprived Individuals (ODIs), including Employees with Disability (EwDs) and individuals from economically and socially marginalized backgrounds (EcoSocs) such as acid attack survivors, orphans and trans people to name a few. ODIs today make up about 17% of the staff across their properties⁵.

The conversation has surely matured. Earlier, the question was whether such hiring could even work in a service-intensive industry. That debate has been settled, and the focus has shifted to career progression, managerial representation and long-term scalability. As per reports, Lemon Tree Hotels have also had many EwD staff being promoted to Guest Service Supervisors (GSAs) and are all equally eligible to be nominated for further jumps up the managerial ladder.

Managers and peers are also trained to communicate inclusively, support accommodation and lead diverse teams effectively⁶. As of today, every single one of the ten thousand employees at Lemon Tree Hotels from the board of directors to ground staff, know how to communicate In India Sign Language⁷. Staff are also given special tags that enable guests to engage easily with them⁸.

This goes to show that inclusion depends as much on workplace readiness as employee capability.

Instead of approaching disability through limitations, Lemon Tree has approached it through role alignment. Jobs are broken down into tasks, and placements are made by considering where capabilities and job requirements intersect the best. Certain disabilities are mapped to certain types of roles. For example, a hearing-impaired person performs better in noisy environments and can focus more than a person with no disabilities. Staff are patiently trained for each sub task and assigned to a relevant department. This serves as a good entry point, and employees are not confined to predefined roles. Constant feedback is taken from the ODI staff and roles are mapped as an iterative process.

Lemon Tree Inclusion: The Business Case

The real experiment was not hiring differently but testing whether inclusion could survive the unforgiving economics and service expectations of hospitality. But collective effort made it happen and there were advantages that emerged. 

Operationally, Lemon Tree has often associated the model with lower attrition of 47%⁹ as compared to a 75% industry average and stronger process adherence with EwD staff showcasing 25%¹⁰ better efficiency. When asked by employees why they chose to continue working with them, two key themes emerged. Firstly, it’s a fast-growing chain of hotels which offers them fast growth. Secondly, and more importantly, they enjoyed the diverse environment where they learnt something new every day.

Managers describe how communication became more deliberate and inclusion changed those already inside the system too.

There was also strategic value. In a crowded hospitality market, this model created differentiation. Guests noticed it and investors increasingly viewed it through ESG lenses.

Inclusion: Looking Ahead

One challenge to the model is scale. Practices that work well in committed pockets can become harder to replicate in larger systems, especially in fast-growing businesses. 

There is a heavy dependence on finding the right NGOs in every city and getting well trained staff for each location. The training period is also slightly longer than usual for these employees and thus pushes the 20% target of ODI workers. Additionally, it is hard to promote them to oversee holistic operations since they have only ever worked in one department.

While these are operational challenges, overcoming them would be crucial to sustaining this model.

The next chapter for Lemon Tree is more about deepening the model. Their next target is to reach and sustain 20% ODI staff by 2030¹¹. They are also working on a new program to onboard people with Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) with Orkids Foundation¹².

They have been a huge influence on the industry and continue to do so. They advocate for diversity hiring, not as philanthropy but because it is genuinely good for business. 

Being a leader in this space for the last 19 years, Lemon Tree Hotels have led by example and in doing so, they suggest inclusion may not be the cost of competitive business, but one source of it.

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Useful links:

• Link up with Anysha Kumar and Rishi Shrimal on LinkedIn
• Read a related article: Rethinking Inclusion: How to unlock the power of neurodiverse talent
• Read and download the IIMB Research Journal
• Discover Indian Institute of Management Bangalore | IIMB
• Apply for an MBA at IIMB.

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