M&IT NOV 11 - 21 People first | Meetings & Incentive Travel

Navigating a path out of Covid may turn out to be as difficult as managing one during it.

Financial, strategic, and operational issues are looming as event agencies, hotels, venues, and suppliers move from a reactive hand-to-mouth situation to a proactive, planned and, dare I say it, more normal world.

However, the most difficult transition and biggest threat is to our most precious asset, our people. We must get this right over the next few months to maximise the opportunities of 2022.

How to keep your company culture and existing staff engaged plus onboard new recruits is a managerial juggling act.

1. Retention, retention, retention

Retaining staff who have worked through the pandemic while salaries and benefits have been decimated, as well as those who have been furloughed but are still vital for our business, is proving difficult given the large number of vacancies. Raising salaries amid continued financial pressure may be hard to justify, but recruiting and training replacements in a rapidly growing market will be more costly.

Recognition of the temptation from competitors by reinstating benefits demonstrates commitment; deferred salary rises, profit shares or bonuses may help dealing with current workload issues, while improving engagement is important in making staff feel valued. Staff surveys are a good way to measure individual and shared opinions and can then drive decisions and priorities.

2. Scaling up by scaling down

Many sales directors in the hotel industry and event directors in agencies feel as if they’ve gone back 10 years in their careers, with the loss of junior staff through furlough, redundancy, and the opportunity of other jobs. There is a huge shortage of experienced staff needed to fill assistant, coordinator and event manager roles to enable senior staff to take on their more strategic responsibilities.

Implementing intense training programmes for new staff and refreshers for rehires are some of the ways companies are successfully allowing managers to move back to their own jobs and regrow their business. We need to scale up our business by recruiting junior roles.

3. Investment versus income

Managing the finances of a business or hotel during the pandemic was extremely difficult, with the twists and turns of lockdowns, opening and closing, furlough changes and travel bans. As we emerge from the other side, many companies want to take on more staff to meet the influx of business while the income for this business may not be realised for several months.

For hotels, the resurgence of the domestic leisure market and short lead demand has helped but many other business leaders must take the leap of faith in recruiting staff ahead of confirmed income, which is particularly difficult for venue finding companies and other relying on income at the point of delivery. Repaying loans will continue to be a burden and must not restrict growth.

For the first time in what seems an eternity, there is a growing sense of optimism, particularly for 2022 and beyond.

4. Retaining company culture and engagement

Working from home will be part of our lives forever, even if it’s only one or two days a week. Some people have opted to move out of cities and are no longer in commuting distance of their offices, while others do not have suitable places to work at home. How to keep your company culture and existing staff engaged plus onboard new recruits is a managerial juggling act and perhaps easier in an office environment.

The use of Microsoft Teams has really helped maintain communication, but it's not a full‐time replacement for face-to-face interaction. Senior staff play a vital role in creating culture, atmosphere and helping train more junior colleagues. Having flexible working with part‐office, part‐home seems to be the way forward.

5. Wellbeing is an essential part of working life

There are a few positive outcomes from the last year and the new emphasis on mental health, wellbeing and work life balance has been one of these. A career in our industry offers the reward of creating amazing events and the opportunity to travel the world but brings with it long hours, high pressure and some big challenges.

Employers need to develop and maintain a holistic approach to their people and there are some great initiatives out there including wellbeing champions and mental health first aiders. I hope the growing emphasis on E (Environment) S (Society) and G (Governance) will mean these initiatives are here to stay.

6. Invest in efficiency

Client expectations on response times over the last month show that Covid sympathy has all but evaporated while event agencies, hotels and other suppliers are still gearing up. The booking of travel takes much longer to check current regulations for the relevant countries, recalling procedures for returning staff takes time, many processes may be out of date and remembering the questions and checklists can still be a bit rusty for most staff.

On top of the many other people challenges we face, investment in new technology and training in existing technology such as CRM, Smartsheets, event registration, virtual platforms, apps, and their integration will help make our industry more efficient in the medium term.

For the first time in what seems an eternity, there is a growing sense of optimism, particularly for 2022 and beyond. Corporate confidence is returning and the whole of events industry needs to gear up to maximise the opportunity. As a service industry our staff are what makes us and we need to resource correctly, with engaged, experienced, trained and proactive people to re‐grow and re‐establish our sector.