Fáilte Ireland launches new #BeThePulse campaign to address staff shortages in tourism industry
A new recruitment marketing and awareness campaign targeting both jobseekers and tourism businesses has been launched by Fáilte Ireland to help attract new staff to the tourism industry. With recent research from Fáilte Ireland indicating that 1 in 4 tourism staff this summer are new to the industry, the #BeThePulse campaign aims to help amplify the recruitment efforts of tourism and hospitality businesses by celebrating the range of exciting opportunities and transferrable skills on offer through a career in the sector.
The high reach, multi-channel campaign is currently running across national and local radio, print, social media and digital platforms allowing for specific targeting of regions and job roles that require the most support. #BeThePulse aims to jointly celebrate the tourism industry workers who provide such a vital service to the nation while also highlighting opportunities across the sector for skilled staff and passionate people to take the next step in their professional life or launch themselves into a new industry and learn skills that will stay with them throughout their career.
To help businesses leverage #BeThePulse and amplify their hiring efforts, Fáilte Ireland has developed a free Tourism Careers industry toolkit which includes a suite of downloadable social assets, a detailed guide on composing a job posting and top tips from recruitment experts. The toolkit is available at: https://covid19.failteireland.ie/business-supports/hr/tourism-careers-industry-toolkit/
Prior to COVID-19, the hospitality and tourism industry employed over 260,000 people in Ireland making it one of the largest employers and the industry with the greatest regional spread of economic activity. As tourism and hospitality was severely impacted by the pandemic, thousands of skilled workers have been forced to seek employment in other sectors creating a significant staffing challenge for businesses.
Paul Kelly, CEO of Fáilte Ireland said:
“After the incredibly difficult long closure period, tourism businesses were delighted to be able to reopen, however this reopening has been exceptionally challenging for many businesses as they have been unable to capitalise on the available demand for their service due to staff shortages.
Fáilte Ireland has been collaborating with industry to help address this issue, with many businesses identifying recruitment as an area of priority concern. By providing innovative tools to businesses to assist with recruitment efforts, and by encouraging potential employees to consider a career in tourism, this campaign supports those businesses that are so critical to the recovery of our tourism industry.”
Jenny De Saulles, Fáilte Ireland’s Director of Sector Development said:
During Covid-19 tourism businesses lost valued members of their teams many of whom have gone to other industries. With the reopening of society and return to normality, tourism businesses need to replace key people urgently which opens up excellent career opportunities for people who will thrive in an industry that is rebuilding and eager to come back bigger and better than before.
This campaign highlights the diverse career that tourism offers, and helps businesses to promote their vacancies to those who want to embrace opportunities for the development of skills and a rewarding career. It celebrates the staff who have provided the heartbeat to the reopening and reminds people that working in tourism and hospitality is a platform for learning that can open countless doors across the globe.”
Tim Fenn, Chief Executive of the Irish Hotels Federation said:
“The Irish Hotels Federation supports this campaign and toolkit by Fáilte Ireland to help tourism businesses promote the wonderful careers that exist in tourism and hospitality throughout the country.
Few sectors provide such a range of opportunities for people across a wide variety of skill levels, backgrounds and interests. It is a very welcome and timely initiative to help businesses attract great people to our industry.”
In the past year and a half, Fáilte Ireland has built up a number of supports on its online Business Supports Hub to help businesses with the training and upskilling of their staff, as many businesses now find themselves under increased pressure. The Tourism Careers division of Fáilte Ireland has been working together with industry to address the staffing issues, through the collaborative body the Tourism and Hospitality Careers Oversight Group.
