Category: News

The Company Linchpin 

With the global economy currently undergoing a significant transformation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the role of financial leaders in navigating businesses through these unprecedented times has been propelled into the spotlight.

The impact of the pandemic has been felt globally and by most industries, but perhaps none so severely as the travel and hospitality sector. Financial leaders are now in a position where they must not only address major setbacks but provide long-term confidence and strengthen recovery and growth prospects.

Financial chiefs have experienced downturns in the past, following the fallout of the 2008 global financial crash, the war in Iraq and the September 11th terrorist attacks, however, nothing compares to the wide-reaching impact of the pandemic. Hospitality Financial Directors had to move quickly to protect their businesses as much as possible; negotiate with partners to limit exposure, campaign for the government to support the industry through this crisis and make tough decisions regarding furlough and redundancy to ensure that the business survived. These financial crisis management strategies were activated quickly, to help support the recovery which is now underway.

Speed of response and flawless execution is critical in any crisis to reduce its impact and provide confidence to all stakeholders. Through effective financial planning, Chief Financial Officers have driven the timely execution of improvement initiatives to reduce costs, overhaul procurement, revisit pricing strategies, as well as spearheading process improvements and innovations that add value to the company.

“Working smarter, recognising and minimising risks and exploiting opportunities will mean having to be constantly creative”. Howard Field, founder of FM Recruitment commented as he shared his views on strategies for finance as the industry recovers from the pandemic

Maintaining Confidence in the Company

Financial Directors are required to instil confidence in all internal and external stakeholders.

Internally - With so many employees on furlough or made redundant during the pandemic, transparency and honesty were crucial to build trust in the long-term prospects of the company and to maintain integrity. Financial Directors who were able to highlight the challenges ahead with strategies to overcome them were able to help companies communicate and maintain engagement with employees, who could otherwise have chosen to move on. Many hospitality companies have been able to focus on retraining and cross-training employees, using the opportunity to develop employees to adapt to the challenges after re-opening. Businesses that have managed to retain key talent over the period of closure will be best placed to grow the business as we move forward.

Externally – For many customers, how businesses acted during the pandemic will live long in their memories. Financial leaders, under pressure to maximise revenues and reduce costs, needed to weigh up the short-term gains against the long-term prospects and introduce more flexibility. For the most part, customers were hugely understanding and opted for flexible vouchers rather than full refunds and now finance leaders have responded by offering more relaxed cancellation terms to remove barriers, offer flexibility and build confidence to encourage future bookings.

All of this activity is underpinned by increased investor scrutiny to cut costs, grow revenue, and ensure control, which means financial leaders have had to become adept at managing multiple stakeholder requirements to inspire confidence and lead the way with the recovery of the industry.

The Future of Finance – Nurturing the Pipeline of Emerging Talent

According to several UK universities offering courses relating to hospitality and related financial studies, the number of overall undergraduates in hospitality studies has dropped in the last year. With the true impact of Brexit also yet to be clear, it seems likely that hospitality will face some real challenges in recruiting and retaining top talent in the near future.

Undergraduates are reconsidering their options, often tempted into continuing their studies or shifting towards other industries with seemingly more secure prospects. Never has it been more important to guide and nurture those who are showing interest in the hospitality industry.

In a Forbes article from 2020, Robert Parsons, Chief Financial Officer of Exclusive Resorts made an important observation noting “Today’s finance undergraduates absolutely have the necessary hard skills and drive to be successful in the workforce of today and tomorrow. Besides, their ambitions are not curtailed by outdated notions of career trajectories. All they need is an opportunity and then some mentorship. My approach to recruiting and cultivating top talent is to look for the right attitude and core problem-solving skills over just the finance hard skills, and then create opportunities for career advancement.”

As active members of HOSPA, Chris and Andrea at FM Recruitment dedicate themselves to mentoring young talent as they progress through their careers. Our guiding hand can help businesses and candidates to optimise skills, showcase the opportunities to progress and help the hospitality industry recover and grow in the post-pandemic world.

For support with your next career move or to improve your recruitment strategy, please contact FM Recruitment now using any of the below details:

Office +44 20 8600 1160 I Email fm@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Chris Denison Smith +44 7775 711923 I Email chrisdenisonsmith@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Andrea Shaw +44 7714 236469 I Email andreashaw@fmrecruitment.co.uk

 

By definition, flexible working offers employees increased freedom –working from where they choose, flexible work schedules and fitting work around other responsibilities. Whilst flexible working has been increasingly adopted by companies over the years, it’s been accelerated since the start of the pandemic.

Research on the UK Government website shows that 9 out of 10 job seekers want increased flexibility, be it remote working (60%), flexitime (54%) or reduced hours (26%).

In March 2021, the Minister for Women and Equalities, called for flexible working to be “normalised” as part of the UK economy’s Covid-19 recovery, to capitalise on the shift in mindset triggered by the pandemic. Ministers are now preparing to make flexible working a permanent feature of British life post-pandemic, with plans to strengthen employees’ rights to work from home or ask for different hours.

Benefits of Flexible Working

Increase in Job Applications – UK Government-backed Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) and jobs website Indeed, shows offering flexible working explicitly in job adverts increases applications by up to 30%. The research, which analysed nearly 20 million applications and is the largest of its kind ever conducted in the UK, shows greater transparency in job adverts would create at least 174,000 flexible jobs to the UK economy per year.

Best of Both Worlds – Flexible working offers the freedom of working from home but access to the community of the office to drive increased collaboration. According to a recent survey of 2000 UK workers by Currys PC World and Canon, 37% identified a better work-life balance as one of the main benefits of remote working, with 54% citing not having to commute as their favourite part.

Increased Opportunities for Equality – According to the minister for women and equalities, “flexible working could help boost job opportunities for women (who are more likely to have to disrupt their careers as a result of caregiving duties) and reduce geographical inequality.”

Spreading the commuter coin – Whilst city-based businesses are reliant on the influx of commuters to city centres across the world, there has been a re-balancing of revenues, with more local businesses benefiting from the shift of working patterns. Over time, with a return to a combination of part office, part home working, it’s encouraging to see this wealth being spread across businesses both in city locations and in local communities.

Is flexible working here to stay?

It depends on many factors – there are many predictions that flexible working is here to stay but on the flip-side, the Centre for Cities think tank predicts the five-day office week will become the norm again within two years as featured in a BBC News article in June 2021.

Ultimately, it will be driven by individual businesses and employee’s wishes, and won’t be a one size fits all approach.

Sector Specific – A flexible working environment naturally suits some sectors more than others. For hospitality, the pandemic was a catalyst to introducing more flexible working practices which improved work-life balance. As the business of hospitality re-opens, naturally many roles are guest-facing so require employees to be present in their place of work

Hospitality, like many sectors, are aware of the importance of their employees’ wellbeing and its impact on performance and productivity, so have been adjusting their return to work policies to introduce a variety of measures to create a better work-life balance for their teams. Hybrid working for those working in non-customer facing roles and a four day week have been some of those policies being trialled currently.

Re-imagining of the Office – With changing working patterns evolving and a move to increased hybrid working, the office space will need to be used differently. More collaborative space, places where people can come together and create and innovate and a revised layout of desks are all some of the practical changes that businesses are adopting as they look to navigate the road back to the office.

At FM Recruitment, we work with clients across all areas of hospitality and associated industries to navigate flexible working. We work alongside our clients to showcase their company’s approach to work-life balance and its employee wellbeing focus to find the best candidate for the role.

We are specialists in financial recruitment at all levels in the UK and internationally. We belong to the Hospitality People Group who offer a wide variety of roles from c-suite level and everything in between.  For support with your next career move or to improve your recruitment strategy, please contact FM Recruitment now using any of the below details:

Office +44 20 8600 1160 I Email fm@fmrecruitment.co.uk

Chris Denison Smith +44 7775 711923 I Email chrisdenisonsmith@fmrecruitment.co.uk
Andrea Shaw +44 7714 236469 I Email andreashaw@fmrecruitment.co.uk 

Start now with your re-opening plan
by hospitality expert, Howard Field

An epidemic such as that we are now experiencing, requires that plans for re-opening build in assumptions that can be reviewed as the situation becomes clearer.

Unlike having set target dates for opening a new hotel, based on construction and fitting programmes that can be scheduled and tightly controlled, there are many external factors will govern the timing and outcomes of the re-opening plan

Whether the hotel is owner operated, or is subject to the involvement of external stakeholders, will also affect the complexity of re-opening planning and budgeting.

Decisions by Government and other external authorities will influence when various elements of any plan for re-opening can be activated.

Transport availability will determine when guests, suppliers and employees can gain access the property.

Whether all the businesses providing goods and services to the hotel remain able to supply as required will determine whether alternative sources must be found. Suppliers will be concerned with their own solvency and may demand pre-payment or fast settlement to ensure continuity.

Organising bringing back staff who were laid off or furloughed, and recruiting and inducting new staff will be major tasks. When government schemes to support the retention of employees expire, the total costs of their pay will fall on the operator. This could result in the enforced layoff of staff not required while business levels recover.

In addition, special care will need to be taken over the physical and mental health of returning staff. They may need considerably more personal support while they re-adapt to the working environment.

Ensuring all the assets are secure and in good order, and setting up the property, equipment and M&E systems to be ready for operation, are essential before operations can re-commence.

The many IT, communication, safety and security systems, have to be recommissioned . This requires also checking that externally provided software and support services remain available.

Sales, marketing and public relations activities are all essential parts of planning for re-opening. Re-connecting with all sources of business and re-establishing contacts with agents and clients, including checking whether past contacts are still in place, will be of prime importance.

Setting up reservation and revenue management systems, and populating them with pre-existing data to enable preliminary forecasts to be made. Reinstating point of sale, front and back office and all financial accounting and control systems needs to be planned, allowing for staged practice and full operation.

Planning and practising to re-start all operational activities need to be phased depending on the availability of safe access and readiness of the property and systems.

Careful financial planning will be necessary to ensure that adequate working capital is available to support gearing up operations. Determining and costing staffing levels and planning purchasing of supplies and services for the period before revenues are generated and cash is received, are vital to ensure funds are available when required.

Reviewing all policies regarding deposits and prepayments during the initial period will be important. Credit checking and history will no longer be reliable. This includes payment terms with corporate clients, third parties, agents and others.

Equally, vendors to the hotel will also be concerned with their own solvency and may demand pre-payment or fast settlement to ensure continuity of supply.

There will be challenges handling all of these elements, and as well unique opportunities for management teams to re-think and implement creative and productive improvements.

Hotels will need to demonstrate to guests and staff even more than in the past that they provide physical comfort, security, clean and healthy environments, and they tick all of the sustainability boxes in their styles of operation. These will be far more important success factors in the future.

Re-Opening Plan Checklist

Key Questions to Answer:

• Under whose control is the decision when to start re-opening ?

• Who will authorise the programme and the key action steps ?

• Who will have responsibility to coordinate and report on progress ?

• How often will the plan be reviewed and updated?

• Who will budget and control the costs ?

• How will the re-opening budget be funded ?

Task List Content

• Set a best outcome target date for the re-opening phases and base the planning on this, subject to a regular update

• Establish policies that will apply during the re-opening period, including credit terms, purchasing and payment term, employee pay and benefits

• Plan property preparation; re-commissioning of all building management systems; restart contracts; reinstate security and CCTV systems; carry out health and vermin checks

• Check all physical assets; FF&E placement for re-starting operations

• Programme systems re-start for all property management, HR, guest and POS, hotel accounting, marketing and reporting systems

• Plan re-opening staffing; re-commence recruitment; organise on-boarding of furloughed and new employees

• Schedule restarting of F&B purchasing and supply network

• Programme all consumable supplies, utilities etc

• Staged plan for operational re-opening for each department and outlet

• Programme Marketing and P&R throughout and including the re-launch

• Ensure external authorities advised as necessary; check licences, permits

• Prepare a cash forecast for the period and a plan for provision of the required working capital

Against each of the above, allocate responsibilities, and the minimum timing required. There are many tools to aid project planning, most of which are based on the Gantt model.

The manner in which a person makes a presentation is important both in face-to-face meetings and video conference meetings. Listed on this page are some guidelines and presentation tips that will be helpful for your next video conference.

What to Wear

Solid shades of blue or grey are usually best. These colours (depending on the background) bring out healthy skin tones and do not create a visual distraction. On a television monitor, black and white clothing colours can also enhance the skin tones; however, if they contrast sharply with your skin tone, it is usually best to wear a less contrasting colour. Similarly, try not to dress in colours that match your skin and hair tones. These will tend to wash out your natural coloration. Avoid wearing red, green and orange, especially in bright or bold shades. These colours can cause an unfriendly hue that is distracting to the viewer.

Sounds and Movements

Noises that you may not notice in a personal meeting can become distracting in a video conference. Avoid tapping on a desk, whispering to others or shuffling papers. Modern high quality microphones are designed pick up even the softest voice and so while whispering may seem harmless, the parties on the other end of your video conference may hear every word you speak.

Avoid unnecessary movements such as rocking in a chair or moving side to side. Video systems are sensitive to motion and movements you make that may seem slight can be magnified depending on the framing of your position in the video window. Allow the viewer to concentrate on what you have to say and not on the movements that you make. If you do move substantially, do so when trying to emphasize a statement or key phrase as you speak. In this way, you can use the cameras to your advantage by allowing a key word or phrase to create a picture as well as a statement.

Speaking and Eye Contact

Eye to eye contact is important and video conferencing systems are quite good at transmitting facial expressions including the line of your eyes. When speaking, look towards the monitors and gesture as you would if the other parties were sitting right in front of you. The camera is usually located above the monitor and this makes it unnecessary to look directly at the camera in order to look natural as you speak. Instead, look at the monitors that will be showing you the images of the other meeting participants. If you are using Skype you will need to look at the web camera and not at the computer screen or it will seem as though you are looking down.

Managing Motion and Sound Delay

Meeting through a video conference is very similar to a face-to-face meeting except some participants may be half-way around the world. This can cause some important differences in the way we interact. Most people tend to interrupt one another in meetings and we do this without even thinking about it. Video conference meetings highlight interruptions especially when there is a slight delay between speakers due to the network connection. This usually happens when network connections are of slow speed and over long distances. Do your best to be patient while waiting to speak. Wait until a speaker is finished talking before you begin to speak.