Travel recruitment experts Barbara Kolosinska, director of C&M Recruitment, HR and talent professional Claire Steiner and Travlaw partner Ami Naru debated the factors most important to candidates at this time during C&M’s Fit To Employ webinar on Wednesday (30 March).

“There’s the working environment, how staff are going to be developed, wellbeing, sustainability, diversity and inclusion policies," said Kolosinska. "That’s what a lot of candidates are looking for, especially the younger ones.”

Referring to what the trio branded the impending "great resignation" in travel, Kolosinska said as the levels of travel vacancies rise, employers needed to work out how they were going to compete – adding transparency was key.

Naru said firms couldn’t just pay lip service to candidates. "If you say you’re an equal opportunities employer and then when you pull up the team website every team member is the same age and ethnicity, it’s no good," she said. "Candidates do their due diligence behind the scenes."

Steiner, who is also UK director of the Global Travel and Tourism Partnership, said that when the team went to career fairs, she made sure speakers reflected the audience so they could see people who looked like them.

Naru added making these changes and improvements needn’t be expensive. “If you’re trying to get back on your feet as a business, just deal with it one policy at a time," she said.

"Take menopause policies. If you don’t have women of that age. it means you don’t have them yet. You may still do in future. It’s little things like that set you apart from your competitors.”