A new survey from Robert Kenward’s The Hub, has revealed that a third of event agencies have already started to recruit again. However, salary levels have not stayed the same and have actually gone down.
The results of the Agency Recruitment Research Study has also revealed other interesting facts. For instance, “Nearly three quarters of industry employers (73%) will be offering flexible working arrangements whilst nearly a quarter (22%) are expecting staff to work fully remotely. Only 5% are expecting their staff to be totally office based.“
As to the return of jobs, the figures reveal that under half of the agencies who took part plan to take back previous employees and more than half will look for new ‘new blood’, “For agencies who have made redundancies this year, roughly half (48%) will look to recruit the same people back, whilst 52% will look to recruit new blood. When asked when they thought the industry would return to pre-Covid levels, the majority (63%) were cautious and thought 2023, whilst a third (37%) predicted a speedier return in 2022“
The report makes interesting reading. While it does give a somewhat positive outlook, overall it reflects how the event industry is staying rather cautious.
Full press release from The Hub is below.
Announcing the launch of The Hub ‘What Happens Now?’ Agency Recruitment Research
The Hub, the only people and jobs recruitment platform dedicated to the MICE, events and experiential sectors can today reveal the results of their ‘What Happens Now?’ research revealing recruitment plans and employment insights from over 1000* agency owners, corporate stakeholders, industry influencers, commentators and senior event professionals.
When asked when they will start recruiting again, almost a third (32%) of respondents said that they already have started, with 40% planning to start in September, 16% planning to recruit later in 2021 and 12% waiting until 2022.
Nearly three quarters of industry employers (73%) will be offering flexible working arrangements whilst nearly a quarter (22%) are expecting staff to work fully remotely. Only 5% are expecting their staff to be totally office based. For those offering flexible working, the most popular ratio will be three days in the office and two at home.
Robert Kenward, chief cheerleader for The Hub said: “It’s very positive to see that a third of agencies have already started to recruit again and that three quarters are offering flexible working arrangements as standard, but it will be interesting to see how the remaining 25% of agencies fair without that flexibility.
“Since our launch in May we’ve seen a huge number of roles come on to the site; over 100 live vacancies have been posted from key industry employers and recruiters from all areas of the MICE, events and experiential sectors. This is a truly amazing indicator that our industry is already building back up again, but there is still caution ahead.”
A third (35%) of employers expect salaries to go down, but over half (55%) think they will stay the same, whilst 10% are expecting them to go up this year.
“As we rebuild, it is interesting to see how salaries are changing; we are already seeing that pre-Covid level salaries are something to attain, rather than being the norm. A third of agencies expect salaries to go down, but that’s simply because they don’t have the funds to pay the salaries that they used to. Six figure salaries are simply not as common as they used to be.” comments Kenward.
For agencies who have made redundancies this year, roughly half (48%) will look to recruit the same people back, whilst 52% will look to recruit new blood. When asked when they thought the industry would return to pre-Covid levels, the majority (63%) were cautious and thought 2023, whilst a third (37%) predicted a speedier return in 2022.
“The jobs that were lost first were positions focused on sales and delivery; the industry had nothing to sell and nothing to deliver. The senior teams were the last to go. As we rebuild, the jobs that are coming back first are business development, marketing, client services and account management because businesses will want to get the clients back that they had before (account management), they will want to grow those accounts (client services) and they will want to find new clients (business development). Roles and job titles have changed too; event managers are now event producers because so much has gone online, and content or communications is now broadcast.” continues Kenward.
During the last eighteen months 250,000 event profs were made redundant; 100,000 have already been re-employed but 10% of those who left the industry will not be returning.
To help support the industry as it builds back, The Hub is offering a three-month FREE trial enabling companies and recruiters to post unlimited job vacancies to an active audience whilst also having the option to search and download CVs to contact candidates directly. 10% of all CV revenue is going to the charities chosen by The Hub’s Community Partners.
The Hub is supported by 20 Community Partners, including leading industry associations AEO, AEV and ESSA (working together as the EIA), EVCOM, HBAA, NOEA, AFO, ILEA (UK & Ireland Chapter), mia, MPI (UK & Ireland Chapter), ICCA (UK & Ireland Chapter), and industry groups and charities including the Alliance of Independent Event Agencies (AIEA), Diversity Ally, Eventprofslive, Meeting Needs, Stress Matters, Fast Forward 15, IMEX Group, You Search & Select and EventWell.
Candidates will never be charged for using The Hub and can search for jobs, upload their CV and create a job seeker profile here.
Employers can post vacancies or search for CVs here. Recruiters can post vacancies or search for CVs here.
*411 senior stakeholders, 120 agency owners, 86 C-suite board level personnel and 388 pro bono one to ones were held with senior industry professionals
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