Considering the tangible benefits to sector businesses, the cost of hiring an apprentice seems to quickly pay for itself with a third (33%) of respondents recouping their costs within a year and a further 20% within 18 months.

This year, one in four of the sector’s employers took on an apprentice and 37% of those currently offering the scheme said they were considering increasing their intake in the next financial year. A staggering 60% of employers who had not previously offered apprenticeships confirmed they were seriously considering this option.

However, despite their interest, almost half (46%) do not understand the apprenticeship scheme process and how to go about taking on an apprentice.

The survey also revealed 53% of businesses have found that, on average, apprentices stay for up to two years within their organisation while 27% stay for up to three years.

Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, said:  ”Apprenticeships are the lifeblood of the hospitality and travel and tourism sectors and give employers access to a rich and cost-effective source of raw and enthusiastic talent within a very short period of time that they can mould and shape into tomorrow’s future leaders.

“Without doubt, Apprenticeship programmes encourage more talented young people into the business, which ultimately should improve the quality of the travel and tourism workforce.”

Charles Prew, chief executive of Barcelo Hotels, added: “Apprenticeships are a solution to so many of our sector’s recruitment and retention problems.  At Barceló, we place huge importance on not just selecting the right people, but on looking after them and developing them as an integral part of our business. Apprenticeships are a key building block in creating a new generation of talent.

“Barceló UK has recently invested £500,000 in its Barceló Apprentice Chef Academy (BACA). We believe the BACA has enabled us to recruit young people with the most potential who are keen to pursue a career as chefs but until now have never had a chance.  Our chefs currently taking part in the scheme are proving to be a real success. They are all motivated and ambitious with a passion to succeed.  Following the training programme, we hope they will stay within Barceló UK and be our head chefs of tomorrow. We will shortly be offering our apprentices a UK Skills Passport that will assist in identifying gaps in the apprentices’ knowledge to ensure they keep moving up the career ladder.”

TUI UK and Ireland’s accredited programmes manager, Andy Smyth, confirmed that their own internal research chimed with People 1st’s findings. “TUI UK and Ireland continue to be committed to offering a range of apprenticeship programmes that have seen over 3,500 apprentices trained in the past five years.”

Source : HR Magazine

Debating what is needed from HR directors to succeed in 2010, Proctor was joined on stage by Harvey Francis, executive vice-president of HR at Skanska, and Paul Kennedy, HR director at shoe manufacturer New Balance.

Procter added: “As an HR director, you have to innovate for anything that might happen. You can never afford to stop innovating. We have new ideas the business can’t afford, but as an HRD you can’t afford not to keep pushing boundaries – even when it doesn’t always make sense.”

Moving to the idea of reward in the recession, she added: “Reward is only one element of work. Employees feel good about doing things for each other and the community, they want a manager who can help them, trust, respect and a job that is interesting.”

Francis agreed. “Reward is both motivational and a hygiene factor. We had a pay freeze in 2009 but gave our staff Christmas Eve off – and I received so many letters of gratitude about the extra holiday.”

And as HR budgets are cut across the board, the panel agreed training should not take the brunt of these cuts in 2010.

Kennedy explained at New Balance financial resources had been moved into training and the company had saved money from using more online training initiatives.

Procter said: “We are committed to not cut training budgets and our chief executive, Terry Leahy, is supportive of training, but if you have an MD who does not understand training, it will be under attack. You have to prove the value and return on investment – then you have a credible case.”

Francis explained: “We have made a small cut in our training budget – but only to make the scheme more efficient.”

Source :  HR Magazine

Prior to taking recruitment in-house, the firm had 23 recruitment agencies in the UK alone. KFC launched its online recruitment platform in 2009.

Speaking yesterday at the European HR Directors’ Business Summit in Birmingham, Misty Reich, vice-president, HR UK and Ireland at KFC, said: “Our career site is about brand-building and our focus this year will be to hone and refine the people we want for our business.”

“We have dipped our toe in social media. In the past two months we have had 11 applications on Twitter, we also support blogs and we have a Facebook site. We haven’t recruited a candidate this way just yet though.”

Since the launch of the recruitment website in mid-2009 KFC has received 110,000 online applications on its recruitment site and has seen the cost-per-hire reduce from £1,367 to £403.

Applicants who use the site can apply straightaway, taking part in a behavioural screening test. Less than 50% pass the test. They are then kept up to date with the progress of the application if successful or given careers advice by email if not.

Reich added: “Recession is driving companies to take their recruitment in-house. The right technology is key. Avoid risk – get on board before your competitors do.”

Source : HR Magazine

In March 2009, The Guardian reported the television channel’s profits had slumped by 41% as it was forced to compete with 450 other UK-based television channels for advertising revenue at the height of recession.

Speaking yesterday morning at the European HR Directors’ Summit in Birmingham, ITV’s group HR director, Andy Doyle, said: “The only thing we knew for 2009 was that it was going to be hard. We delayed decision-making but in the end we had to press the reset button.

“We only employ 4,000 so when we made 400 redundant, no part of the business was untouched. My HR team is 40% smaller than it was last year.” But he added: “We did it the right way, in outplacement; we worked to find out what was important for staff. I have to say, JobcentrePlus really helped sort some staff out with funded training opportunities.”

But the idea of an upturn and a potential end to the recession brought with it a new set of challenges for Doyle and his team.

He explained: “Now the market is a bit livelier – my challenge is not to sound like the HR police. Education of line managers is now a big thing for us and I have to do this with a 40% smaller team. A third of our senior management went last year and we need to develop new managers.

“Also last year we scared the living daylights out of staff and people are still considering leaving. It is hard to engage staff but we are still on a journey to do this.”

As well as the additional perks and revamp of the staff canteen, the company is investing in refurbishing its reception and simplifying its payroll system.

Doyle reports that in the most recent engagement survey at the start of 2010, engagement levels among staff were equal to those before the start of the recession.

He added: “There is no master plan – no silver bullet. I am just an HR guy who tries to get on with stuff – I am no great thinker.

“We made some really difficult decisions last year. But 91% of the UK has watched an ITV programme in the past week.  ITV brings families together and creates a shared experience. Our customers love us and our people have done more creative things than we ever thought about. Those things have stuck.”

Doyle concluded: “We want engagement scores to rise further. But although it is a tough year, we have to keep smiling. We have been here before.”

Source : HR Magazine