The travel industry has a job ahead of it

The worldwide economic slowdown has taken its toll across the business divide and travel has not been spared. As David Carroll writes, a career in the industry is still well and truly viable, but there are challenges ahead to ensure young recruits are enticed into the fold.

A good travel agent is hard to find. At least they have been for the past few years, which is why employers have been pulling out all stops to find and retain the retail sector's best and brightest.

But with the global economy in turmoil, the share market crashing, consumer confidence sinking and the Australian dollar plummeting, are employers still looking?
Has the retail sector flipped from a candidate-short market to one in which good jobs will be hard to find?
Should agents forget about wage increases, incentive programs or flexible working conditions as employers batten down the hatches?
The answer is a firm ‘no', according to Australia's recruitment experts.

I think the urgency of recruitment has minimised somewhat and competition has reduced a little bit, but we definitely haven't seen any major changes," TMS Asia Pacific General Manager Australia and New Zealand, Ainslie Hunt, said. And I don't think we will because I believe this current situation won't last long enough for the market to do an upside-down shift.
"People are still going to travel - whether it be cheaper holidays, smaller holidays or domestic travel. Also we are a positive industry and we will pull out of it very quickly."
Inplace Recruitment Managing Director Sandra Chiles said she had also observed some "hesitancy" in the market, but nothing to compare to previous downturns.
"There is a fear factor, being driven by the media, that this might be a big depression," Chiles said. "But people like me have been through the 'recession we had to have', two Iraq wars, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), September 11 and the Ansett collapse, and I know we always come up again.
"After September 11 it was absolutely flat for six months before we saw any signs of recovery. It was just dead," she said.
"I don't see this as anything like that. This is what financial people would call a correction."

NO NEED TO PANIC

Chiles said there were other reasons she did not foresee a dramatic shift in the supply and demand
dynamic for travel industry recruitment.
For a start, there had been a shortage of experienced people for so long that recruitment
companies had a major backlog of jobs on their books that needed filling.
Secondly, thanks to a combination of factors, including the growing number of baby boomers
retiring and departing the travel industry - and indeed, other industries - would create a struggle
with staff shortages. This factor operates regardless of any relatively short-term softening
of the market.

Nevertheless, she suggested now might not be the most sensitive time to ask the boss for a raise.
"I wouldn’t encourage people today to be leveraging their position," Chiles said. “If someone is paid well, within the market range, I wouldn’t be trying to squeeze an employer at this stage."
She also advised consultants to be cautious about jumping ship for a financial gain their current
employer might struggle to match.
"Agents have got to ask themselves: 'Do I like where I work, do I feel I’m making a difference, does
the employer value me?'
"If you are happy where you are then you may have to share some of the pain. It’s better than going to another company that may pay you more in the short-term, but where you may not like the job."
By the same token, she advised employers to take a long-term view and not run the risk of losing good quality people who would be difficult and costly to replace when the market inevitably bounced back.
"For a lower level consultant with maybe one or two years' experience, it can cost up to $40,000 to replace them, including re-education costs and the time required to adapt to a new environment or culture. So they may save $5000, or even $20,000 by retrenching someone, but it will cost much more to replace them in six months."
As always, said Hunt, the most important thing was for both employers and employees to communicate.

"An agency owner in particular has to communicate what the company is going through in order to get staff members’ buy-in and make sure they are prepared for what’s coming," she said. "They need to educate people on the business and what each person can do as an individual to help through any
quiet period. It’s also important to explain what it means to the business if people don’t meet targets."

PLAYING IT SMART

According to Sean Johns, a partner in travel industry benchmarking company Resurg, one of the implications for employees who miss targets had to be the loss of bonus or incentive payments.
"Staff might not be happy with it, but if business isn't being written then a bonus shouldn’t apply,"Johns said.
In such cases, he said it was up to employers to find non-financial ways to retain and motivate staff.
Hunt suggested employers explore simple "feelgood" activities.
"Even if it’s a picnic out in the sun in spring; they don’t have to be expensive things, just something to keep to morale high." She also suggested employers view any slowdown as an opportunity to focus on staff training and development.
"If a business is facing budget constraints, then take on a lower-level staff member because you’ll have more time to train them," she said. Hunt also advised companies to "hedge" their staffing requirements in anticipation of a market upturn in 2009 by recruiting short-term and temporary staff.
"The benefits go both ways," she said. "Temping offers an excellent option for those candidates looking for a more flexible approach to their professional life, be that for travel, study or taking time out after reaching a career crossroad.
"Temping also helps build experience and in many cases can lead to a permanent position."
The only problem, claimed Chiles, was that at this stage there was still a shortage of good quality temps because employers had grabbed such candidates for full-time jobs.
"I think it will take a while before we balance out the lack of supply," she said. "Maybe our backlog
might start to get filled a bit, but we are still searching for good people."