Recruitment in the travel sector has become much less problematic than a year ago, according to two senior industry figures.
The industry haemorrhaged staff during and after Covid and many companies struggled to meet the post-pandemic surge in holiday demand because of resourcing and recruitment difficulties.
Speaking at the Travel Weekly People Summit 2023, Hays Travel owner Irene Hays said the situation had now improved but remained difficult in some areas of the country.
She said: “In some areas [of the country] we have a lot of shops in small towns; we still have challenges in those areas but we are in a much better position than last year.”
Jet2 human resources director Miriam D’souli (pictured) agreed, adding 1,000 employees had returned to the company since Covid. The company has 15,000 employees in total.
She noted: “There were lots of people that left because they didn’t want to get up [early] in the morning and wanted weekends back but we have already had a lot of ‘boomerang employees’ since Covid; we’ve had 1,000 people come back.
“We have been lucky with recruitment. It [the situation] is much better; we’ve had a phenomenal year.”
She cited challenges last year linked to staffing issues at third-party partners such as baggage handling and airport security companies.
“We have done a lot to take as much control as we can back in-house,” she said.
Hays said the Covid pandemic had caused by a “huge mindset change” when people reassessed what was important to them, resulting in the recruitment crisis.
A year ago at the same event, Hays Travel had been 18% down on its full complement of staff, she said.
“During Covid I think people fell in love with their dogs and their gardens and with having weekends off. The huge resignation; that’s what the whole of the travel industry has suffered from. It’s a lifestyle choice,” she said, but added the travel industry still suffered from “a reputation issue”.
“The rail strikes don’t help, sometimes we get tarred with the same brush,” she noted.