SUMMIT REPORT Travel Weekly People Summit 2023: Leaders say recruitment has eased this year but


Firms ‘must adapt’ to meet needs of younger recruits


T


wo of the industry’s largest employers have stressed the need for travel firms


to think differently to retain staff and keep them happy. Speaking at the Travel Weekly


People Summit, Hays Travel owner Dame Irene Hays and Jet2 human resources director Miriam D’souli said current recruits had different training needs and were much more interested in company culture, values, community and employee engagement than those taken on before Covid. Hays said company training had


to be more flexible, especially for younger recruits, who were aged 15 to 17 during Covid and whose social skills had been affected by the pandemic lockdowns. She said: “Most of them spent


their time in front of a big or little screen through no fault of their own in a challenging environment.


“We have invested a lot in what


I would consider to be basic skills – you need to acknowledge that in training programmes. People coming in are different and perhaps need some encouragement in how to interact with customers. You need to flex your training programme.” Hays Travel continues to invest


Dame Irene Hays


in an array of community, charity, fun and rewarding events from Dress Down Friday to the Big Hays Travel Thank You, said Hays. D’souli agreed, saying: “You


have got to be agile and keep changing in the market.” Similarly, she said Jet2 holds fun


events and competitions regularly to engage staff as well as an annual awards ceremony to reward its top employees. The company also ensures


staff have direct access to chief executive Steve Heapy at roadshows designed to show the human side of management and create a culture that “people want to be part of”. D’souli said staff retention was the


best indicator of a happy workforce. “Staff retention tells you if people


are engaged; retention is key. We have a refer-a-friend scheme; it’s the only area where we are over budget and it’s one I am happy about going over budget with,” she added.


Company culture ‘must come from the top’


Company culture is increasingly important to staff recruitment and retention and “has to come from the top” rather than be left to HR departments. That is according to Jane Sunley, co-founder of


consultancy Hendrik & Hyde and Best Workplaces in Travel. She told the summit: “Unless you are authentically a nice place to work, people aren’t going to want to work for you. It has to come from the top. The top people have to be seen to do the things they say they stand for. It should never be an HR thing. There is nothing worse than to think, ‘It’s HR, we don’t really need to do it.’” She explained that company culture has


Jane Sunley


to be at the “heart of everything”. “We see people trying to fix stuff [by] taking initiatives and training. But if the


12 12 OCTOBER 2023


culture is lousy or you have toxic leadership, you might as well not spend money on those things.” Sunley added that all levels of the company must be


involved. “You can have the greatest of everything, but if people in the middle layer are not being supportive and considerate, you’re on a hiding to nothing,” she said. Kuoni managing director Mark


Duguid, who formerly headed sister brand Carrier, agreed: “You can spend a lot of time doing what you think is right. At Carrier, we had an issue around employee engagement in a team. I could have gone down the pay and benefits routes. But when we asked people what mattered, it was flexible working because we had so many working mums and it was career development. It altered our approach.”


travelweekly.co.uk DATA SHOWS DIVERSE WORKFO


Travel Weekly’s Lucy Huxley (left) with speakers and sponsors of the People Summi


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