Investing in talent will help travel firms beat the recession

Tuesday, 06 Feb, 2009 0

Travelmole.com Guest Comment by Martin Clarke, director, general management programmes, Cranfield School of Management

Most industries are being affected by the recession, but there are conflicting views on how much the travel industry will suffer.

One body of opinion argues that people will cut back on holiday spend and choose to go somewhere nearer to home to avoid flights and taxes.

The other camp will argue that people will choose to take advantage of the cheap deals on offer, and focus their spending on escaping the doom and gloom.

Irrespective of how your business is being affected, you will be under severe pressure to do more with less, while at the same time trying to maintain employee motivation and focus.

At times of threat organisations can turn inwards. Costs are slashed, innovation strangled, headcount reduced. Understandably this leads to widespread staff de-motivation. And often results in the most talented leaving the organisation or at the very least, fundamentally eroding loyalty to that organisation to the extent that they leave once the upturn begins.

So, what should organisations do? Simple: invest in their talent to ensure their best people continue to be developed in order to better cope with current challenges and in readiness for the return of better times.

Perhaps it is not surprising then to find that in a recent online survey we have undertaken at Cranfield to explore attitudes to training and development in recession, of 1,003 business managers, 46% had either received no management development or felt that what they had received was insufficient.

Furthermore, when asked what their organisation could do to retain their most talented employees to ensure they remain with the business, the joint second highest response, after strong reward and recognition structure (66%) was personal development/training opportunities (52%).

The travel industry however bucks this trend with 75% of employees questioned stating that they had received management training. Perhaps an industry that relies on its customer service and developing and retaining their customer base, understands the validity of personal and not just technical training.

Aside from the obvious reasons for continued investment in training and development there are some more subtle, deeper reasons why those organisations that do continue to invest will be the ones to emerge stronger when economic conditions improve.

The temptation to take quick, decisive action is huge when pressures press upon you. This is why it is so critical to carve out a little time – even just a few days can make a huge difference – to consider the best course of action both for the short and the long term health of the organisation.

Just look at some of the well known paradigm busting business models such as Southwest Airlines, shaking and shaping organisations with ideas borrowed from outside of those industry’s standard recipes.

For those enlightened companies in the travel industrywilling to learn from other industries and continue to innovate, there will be rich rewards.

However, such fundamental shifts in thinking will not happen unless managers and leaders are provided with an external, safe environment in which they can open up their thinking.

*For more information about any of our 49 open enrolment programmes please visit http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/executive/index.asp

Phil Davies

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