Why staffing could put a stop to restarting events and travel businesses in Ireland

As restrictions begin to ease, Norma Murphy, Head of Blackjack Promotions Ireland warns that staffing issues could put a stop to restarting for many businesses.

The road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic seems to give with one hand and take with the other. Some businesses have opened, only to close again due to large numbers of staff needing to self-isolate; outdoor dining and entertainment was given the green light followed by the wettest start to the summer we’ve seen in years. With every problem solved or moment of respite, there seems to be a counter problem for businesses to address.

Now we face a new challenge. While the summer has seen further easing of restrictions, giving Irish hospitality, events and travel industries the opportunity to get back to something resembling normal, businesses are struggling to recruit the staff they need to open up properly. At a time of economic crisis, this unexpected obstacle feels counter intuitive and is frustrating recovery for businesses even further.

The issue ultimately comes down to the generosity of the government’s support. The COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was created to support employees or self-employed people in Ireland who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic between 13 March 2020 and 7 July 2021. Created to aid the thousands and thousands of people with no livelihood, the PUP was a lifeline for many. However, in solving that problem, a new one has come to the fore.

The terms of PUP are generous, and many people have found they’re better off staying on PUP than going back to or finding a new job. This is particularly prevalent in service roles across events, hospitality and retail.

At Blackjack Promotions, we too have faced obstacle after obstacle. As specialists in human connections in the staffing, retail and brand experience sector, the restrictions in international travel, retail closures and event cancellations meant our business needed to adapt and evolve in order to survive. In a world where everyone stayed at home, we simply couldn’t deliver our role in the same way.

Rather than wait for the world to reopen, we sought new opportunities where we could leverage the strength, skills and agility that our team has to offer. The sector most in need of those qualities at the time, was healthcare. As people specialists, we are proud to have been given the opportunity to help in the fight against COVID-19. We successfully redeployed hundreds of team members into the health service to support COVID-19 related activity, opening up a new long-term business stream for us and our people.

What the past 18 months has showed us is that the challenges will keep coming, but we are well positioned to adapt and serve a plethora of industries, which presents huge opportunity for the people who work with us. We want to offer our talented pool of people to service the needs of hospitality, events, retail and beyond.

The customer service training we provide for our people makes them ideal candidates for these industries which are struggling to hire the people they need to give their businesses a chance of recovery. Our teams have the empathy and customer service experience these industries need to help drive the recovery under the most challenging of conditions.

Likewise, the ongoing issue of team members being asked to self-isolate having been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 means that these industries also need our flexible staffing arrangements and speed. The “pingdemic” experienced in England and parts of the UK as a result of the government’s Track & Trace app shows how good public health intentions can soon incapacitate businesses in all sectors. And closer to home the latest Health Service Executive update revealed contact tracing workload to be up 88% last week on the week before in Ireland. Here at Blackjack we have the experience and resources needed to be able to adapt to changes in staffing requirements as a result of illness or self-isolation.

As the country gradually looks forward to further easing of restrictions, we are acutely aware that businesses are nervous about taking one step forward only to take two back. While the PUP payment won’t be in place forever and people will begin to look for work again, every day of trading is crucial to the longevity of businesses, and people are at the heart of that. Over the past year, our team members have proven themselves to be nimble, flexible and resilient, and have maintained an excellent work ethic during an extremely difficult period. That’s why we are excited to give the hospitality, retail and events sectors the opportunity to take staffing off of their list and focus on recovery.

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