Employers Guide to Attracting the Event Industry’s Best Talent

For this month’s mustard XP blog, I have decided to write about what benefits and perks companies within the events sector can offer, when looking to attract prospective employees. Why? Because no one needs another blog about WFH or how to deliver a successful virtual event. But also…

Heading into 2021, lots of event professionals will be looking for a new role and I thought it might be useful to talk about a subject that often gets overlooked when people move companies. In my opinion, the businesses who put together the best all round benefit packages, to go alongside the ever-cryptic ‘competitive salary’ on offer, will be the ones who have the highest staff retention.

Annual Leave

Let’s start with the basics. Google reckons the average annual leave allowance in the UK is 33.5 days (inclusive of bank holidays). But who wants to be average?!

We have noticed a handful of event agencies starting to follow in the footsteps of tech start-ups and offering staff ‘unlimited holiday’. The idea behind this being that so long as the required work is being completed, companies trust their staff to be responsible with this kind of entitlement.

Perhaps a slightly more palatable annual leave scheme for the slightly more old-school businesses out there is to increase annual leave by a day with each year of service.

Development / Progression Opportunities

Not so much of a perk/benefit, but certainly something that everyone would expect when joining a new business. This will almost always be mentioned in an interview or listed on an offer letter / contract, but most of the time the actual development plan tends to be quite vague. Free language courses, access to an office library, software training or half-yearly reviews to discuss progression are just some of the schemes that we’ve seen implemented to provide a little more clarity on what is often quite an ambiguous promise.

Breakfast Club

This one is a mustard favourite! Whilst ‘free tea and coffee’ might be stretching the definition of what could be considered a benefit, last year we decided to up the ante and began our monthly breakfast clubs. At the start of each month, we will get together, celebrate the successes of last month, have a catch up with colleagues across the office and enjoy a themed breakfast. It is a nice way to take a step back at the start of each month and have an hour or two to set your focus for the month ahead.

If you are a business in the events World, looking to discuss any new hires to join your inaugural breakfast club in January, please do get in contact.

Likewise, if you are a professional in the events or exhibitions industry, looking for a new role in 2021, feel free to get in contact with Archie, Josh or I and we’ll be happy to have an intro chat.

This blog was written by Jamie, see above for contacts and regional coverage. As always, don't forget to keep an eye out on
www.mustardjobs.co.uk
for all live vacancies across our 5 divisions.