Kiwi travel industry risks being left behind in Kiwi employment stakes
Releasing recruitment and executive search specialist TMS Asia-Pacific’s inaugural New Zealand Travel and Hospitality Industry Salary Survey, TMS General Manager New Zealand Sarah King CEO says that with New Zealand full time employment figures at an all time low and wages* across the board increasing over the last six months, particularly in the financial services sector, the travel industry risks being left behind if it doesn’t implement the appropriate attraction and retention strategies required to stay competitive, in what she says at times can be a cut throat New Zealand employment market.
Completed in February by Australian-based research specialist Navigator Consulting, the TMS survey involved more than 300 travel industry personnel ranging from senior management to front-line retail consultants in a wide variety of industry sectors, with one of the key findings emanating from the survey indicating that while 80% of all respondents specified career progression as being ‘very important’, only a low 38% of those polled actually rating career progression and opportunity as being ‘good’.
Ms King said that this result underlined the need for organisations, irrespective of size to ensure that they implement the appropriate human resources policies required to both attract and retain talented personnel.
Ms King added that it was important to remember that while the offer of attractive remuneration packages to potential candidates played a major role in luring key staff, employee retention levels were not driven through salary alone, adding though, “Almost 90% of the respondents canvassed indicated they had received an increase in salary in the last twelve months, a trend we can expect to see continued in 2007”.
“But with a continued scarcity of qualified and experienced candidates continuing to have an impact on the industry, companies need to remember that staff retention levels are not driven by salary alone, adding, “Well thought out staff retention strategies will be key to attracting and retaining talent in an ever intensifying competitive market in the immediate future.”
TMS Asia Pacific says that they intend conducting the survey on an annual basis in order to provide the industry with the ongoing ability to track employment and remuneration trends.
Copies of the TMS New Zealand Travel and Hospitality Industry Salary Survey can be obtained from Sarah King, on +64 9 363 2975 or via email on [email protected].
*Figures released by Statistics New Zealand for the December quarter 2006 show full time employment increased overall by 2.8% while salaries increased by 3.2%.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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