Staff shortages continue to plague the UK’s travel sector, according to a report released on Friday by Barclays Corporate Banking – and confirmed by corporate travel industry professionals.
The report, based on surveys with 504 travel industry businesses (servicing both corporate and leisure travellers) conducted in March 2022, highlighted the talent crunch as the biggest hurdle to recovery in the last 12 months. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents said staffing and recruitment was the “greatest disruptor to business”, on a par with travel restrictions.
However, unlike international borders, which are swiftly opening up, staffing challenges cast a long shadow over recovery efforts.
Zeroing in on corporate travel, buyers remain concerned that TMC staff shortages are causing service delays, while suppliers continue to struggle to find the right talent. Caroline Wakil, director of specialist business travel recruitment company Urbanberry, said the corporate travel sector was decimated during the pandemic, leaving many to build entire teams from scratch.
“This is a real struggle for our clients because business is coming back, but many of the travel professionals who left the industry during the pandemic have left for good. While others simply aren’t ready to return to the ‘rollercoaster’ that is the travel industry,” she said.
Attracting ‘fresh talent’ is therefore critical, but many of Urbanberry’s TMC clients are looking for experienced staff. Demand is outweighing supplying, but finding the right mix of skills is “like finding a needle in a haystack,” Wakil said.
“Candidates are dictating terms, like salary and hybrid working arrangements, so there’s lots of negotiation and candidates receiving multiple offers,” she added.
As the war on talent rages on, companies remain understaffed and the people who have returned to the office (whether in-person or remote) are buckling under the pressure.
“We are seeing a return [of business travel] but our sector is definitely feeling the shortage,” said Business Travel Association (BTA) chief executive, Clive Wratten.
Despite staffing struggles, Wratten remains upbeat about the future.
“The people in the industry remain passionate about delivering top-class business travel and there are exciting opportunities around. We are seeing a growing return in traveller numbers which gives us all some security and confidence going into the latter part of 2022.”
Looking ahead, new skills for both managers and employees will be needed.
Lynne Griffiths, CEO of recruitment firm Sirius, said travel managers have needed to adjust to a number of new technology suppliers during the pandemic but, more importantly, “refocus on customer service skills at a time when business travellers are continuing to find travel challenging and frustrating is probably the most immediate skill needed”.
In new remote working environments she said “a new skill for managers is the need to manage teams remotely and [understand] how to effectively communicate with them to keep them motivated, in order to retain staff”.