‘We must keep on increasing our wages to secure talent’
Basia KolosinskaWhat to say about travel recruitment in 2023? Unrelentingly busy or somewhat subdued? Talent shortage or a rich wealth of candidates? Huge salary jumps or below-inflation pay rises? All were true.
The previous year, 2022, was a truly record-breaking period for recruitment in the travel industry, with everyone desperately seeking new talent after the pandemic – we knew this couldn’t continue for ever.
Nevertheless, 2023 got off to a flying start, with lots of vacancies coming up across all sectors and disciplines before returning to some kind of normality. It was roughly what we expected and predicted. We were obviously hoping the volumes we saw in 2022 would continue, but we didn’t want to get too excited. We knew it would slow down and, inevitably, it did.
Demand for talent in the business travel sector was particularly high at the start of last year, but became less so by the end of Q2 moving into Q3. This was mainly due to many TMCs setting big financial targets they weren’t able to hit, which saw them cut their hiring budgets in turn. Additionally, some companies in other sectors reduced recruitment and just focused on filling essential roles or backfilling existing positions.
As for 2024? We’re aware that anything can happen, but we’re very optimistic. Firstly, December 2023 was nowhere near as quiet as we traditionally see, which bodes well for the year ahead and has left us all upbeat and motivated for the forthcoming months.
One caveat is that the business travel recruitment market seems cautious right now. There are some companies still recruiting, but demand just isn’t at the levels we saw pre-pandemic. Ultimately, we’re only as busy as the clients we recruit for, so if they have a slow period, so do we.
Candidates are getting more confident, aided by the double-digit increases in salaries last year. However, wages need to continue rising, and they simply aren’t climbing anywhere near fast enough for lower-level roles. This urgently needs to change if we’re to create any kind of talent pipeline for our industry for future years.
Also, many clients are still being too selective in their hiring process – they’re being too regimented when considering CVs and need to broaden their requirements. There are fantastic candidates out there, but because they’re from different backgrounds or don’t have the optimum level of experience, some travel companies refuse to even consider them.
Simply put, they’re missing out on great talent.
This will be a truly interesting year, with many things we can’t yet predict. With the volatility in interest rates, inflation, the cost of living, the global economy, and the UK and US elections, there are many events in 2024 that could potentially impact travel and recruitment in the months ahead.
No one knows exactly where this year is headed, but things have started strongly, with both travel vacancies and new candidates keeping pace with the extremely busy period at the start of last year.
Let’s make the most of 2024 – and please, please, please, let’s keep increasing those salaries.
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Basia Kolosinska
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