Travel firms are starting to take on staff again following a recruitment slowdown but persuading the next generation to join the sector remains a challenge, say HR and recruitment experts.
C&M Recruitment director Barbara Kolosinska said the company was now working at 25% of its pre-pandemic capacity, adding that the market had improved each month since September 2020.
Speaking at C&M Travel Recruitment’s Get Set For Travel webinar, she said: “A year ago I would have said it was more difficult [from a recruitment perspective], now we are seeing green shoots every month. Companies are beginning to recruit again. The opportunities are there and growing.”
But there is still a surplus of people looking for jobs and not enough jobs in the current market, she said.
She added: “We have such talent in the industry. We want to hang on to it, but there are people looking for jobs who are already in jobs, people on furlough that fear being made redundant looking for employment, and people who have been made redundant looking for jobs. There are lots of people but not enough jobs at the moment to attract people back into the sector.”
HR and talent professional Claire Steiner said the challenge was to attract ‘emerging talent’ and reassure those training to work in travel and tourism that they had not ‘made a mistake’ by choosing to work in the sector.
She said: “For the next generation we do have a challenge. They’ve seen one in nine jobs decimated globally. We need to collaborate more to promote the sector. We need to get out there and remind people what a great sector it is.”
She said new jobs and skill sets had opened up in the travel industry as companies were forced to become more agile, with digital skills , for example, now more in demand.