Human
resources
Martin Fullard talks to Robert
Kenward about the changing
face of recruitment, while Louisa
Daley meets a graduate looking
to make the break
obert Kenward has been
recruiting within the events
industry for a long time. As
co-founder of You Search and
Select, he has developed an intricate
knowledge of what businesses want
from their recruits, and on top of that,
how they respond to economic
changes.
Kenward has been proactive during
the Covid-19 crisis, providing free
services to eventprofs who have
recently been made redundant, as well
as hosting free webinars on CV writing
and interview skills. On top of that,
Kenward has selflessly opened his
diary for anyone who just wants a
30-minute chat, about anything, in the
hope that people will not feel alone at
what is a very testing time. Close to
100 have taken him up on the offer.
The Covid-19 crisis is going to
reshape the skillset requirements for
sure, particularly as far as agencies are
concerned. Chatting to Kenward over
video call, I ask how he thinks the
event landscape be different when we
emerge from the crisis, through the
prism of recruitment and students.
“Look at it in three stages: short,
medium and long term with the long
term being when we have a readily
available vaccine,” he says. “In the
short term, senior teams will need to
get back into the business by the end
of the year. In the context of new
recruitment, it will be strategists,
planners, client services, business
development, anybody who can bring
in revenue, or keep hold of revenue
they already have.
“The biggest problem we may see is
clients looking for agencies who are
still operating, and then who has got
the capacity. Clients will still have
needs and requirements in
2021, although budgets will be
smaller, and events will require
more creative content. They
need to make sure these
agencies are able to deliver.”
So, capacity is going to be a
key issue, but it would be
foolish to think nothing will
change among skillsets. With
the rise in demand for hybrid
events essentially a foregone
conclusion, agencies will need
to cater for this additional
revenue stream. “Online
production standards will move
to new levels and further skills
will be required there. I expect
you will see new digital event
divisions opening up,” says
Kenward.
“On the recruitment front,
as I have been saying in my CV
webinars, you must make sure
you record everything you are
learning at the moment. The
universities don’t traditionally
teach about online events, it is
live-focused. In the next role
you apply for, I guarantee one of
the questions will be
about what
experience you
have in hybrid and
digital events.”
There is a lot of
anxiety around the
industry from
23
Employment
Above: Robert Kenward,
co-founder of You Search
and Select
eventprofs who fear they may
end up losing their jobs. Should
that happen, and we hope it
doesn’t, then the market will be
flooded with experienced talent.
But where does that leave event
management graduates?
Kenward notes: “With
graduates, you are stuck in the
middle. What I think you will
see is more of a graduate mix
into the teams than before. A
graduate is going to be a lower
overhead cost than an
experienced event manager.
They won’t have the
experience, but whereas
before a company may have
three event managers, they
may now have two managers
and a graduate. The graduate
will learn on the job.
“Online
production
standards
will move to new
levels and further
skills will
be required there.
I expect you will
see new digital
event divisions
opening up.”
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