News Feature
At the beginning of the
summer ESP Recruitment, in
association with EN and sister
publication Conference News,
conducted extensive, industrywide
research to understand
how both employees and
employers have responded to
the pandemic
What do
employees
think?
The employee survey has revealed
that 59% of exhibition organiser
employees would rather split their work
time between home and the office when
businesses start to reopen.
When asked if employees feel they
are being paid what they think they
are worth, around half agreed. When
employers were asked the same
question, over 70% said they were
paying their staff the appropriate wage.
The survey has also revealed that 67%
of organiser employees would like more
flexible working hours, compared to
32% when the same survey was carried
out in 2015. Results also show that 53%
of venue and 41% of supplier employees
would also prefer flexible working
conditions.
Of the 929 respondents 11% of staff
working for exhibition organisers
reported that they have been
furloughed, compared to 48% of
supplier and 24% of venue employees.
Almost half of those working for
organisers have reported a salary drop
of up to 20% compared to just 28% of
venue employees.
70% of employees are worried about
their jobs in the exhibition industry
while only 17% of staff feel secure in
their current roles.
85% of businesses organising events
“59% of employees want
flexible working conditions”
Sector
Corporate Inhouse
Venues
Exhibition Organisers
Event Management Agencies
Charity/Public Sector
Not-For-Profit
Event/Exhibition Services
Commercial Conferences
Production Companies
Experiential
Outdoor
Hotels
C & I
overseas intend to run their events
again over the next 12 months.
A large number of industry employees
have been furloughed following the
outbreak, going from 85% in full-time
employment to 50%.
Liz Sinclair, ESP Recruitment’s
director who collated the results, noted
the shift in attitudes to work since
lockdown. She said: “From experience,
the majority of staff didn’t enjoy
working from home as they missed
the office culture and social aspect of
work, and not everyone can motivate
themselves at home. This seems to have
changed since having this situation
Furloughed
21.54%
34.69%
10.92%
38.04%
27.45%
8.22%
48.44%
38.64%
57.89%
28.00%
30.00%
61.11%
58.33%
Unemployed
8.46%
6.12%
8.4%
9.78%
1.96%
6.85%
6.25%
11.36%
5.26%
12%
3.33%
5.56%
0%
forced on us by Covid-19.
“Now, people have found a way to
efficiently work from home and with
the use of technology, you can still have
the social- and team-focused aspects
of your day. As staff aren’t spending
time travelling to work, employers
might even get more hours out of their
staff from home as they don’t have to
rush off to catch a train or deal with
childcare.
“It seems that staff will want this
flexibility to continue after lockdown,
which employers should consider,
as happy staff are generally more
productive.”
08 — August