ONE of the thematic focuses of the WiT Travel roadshow episode 3, was talent. According to a UN policy brief, more than 100 million travel jobs were lost last year due to Covid-19, and 63 million of those job losses were in APAC.
As travel haemorrhaged jobs last year it is not inconceivable that we may have lost an entire generation of talent.
Now as we look ahead to our next-steps as an industry, how do we bring talent back, and more importantly, how do we hold on to it?
We already know that Gen-Z (the generation that is starting their adult lives in a world bearing the battle scars of these past 18 months) views the world through completely different lenses than preceding generations.
They are more socially and environmentally aware, for one, and more likely to choose employers whose values match their own. They also see themselves as global citizens – having both interest in and responsibility for the travel choices they make.
But what else are they looking for in their careers and how do they envision the future of travel post Covid?
Well one way to find out is to ask them, and that’s just what we did at the final panel of the WiT Travel Roadshow Episode 3.
As it was for so many others, the pandemic was a time for introspection and reflection for our Gen-Zers.
Mesbaul Islam Anindo, a senior at Yale-NUS college who hasn’t seen his family in over a year, reflects on how young people can be so focused on pursuing the “next great opportunity” that they forget to slow down and cherish simple things like family-time.
The sentiment is echoed by Sandra Sarah Mathew, a senior at Singapore Management University’s School of Computing and Information Systems, who describes a process of reprioritising her values saying, “It’s not that I don’t believe I should work hard, and that I should always do my best in whatever I pursue, but I think Covid has taught me that at every milestone that I reach in life, I should really think about what I value at that point of time and prioritise those things.”
Despite it being a period for personal revelations, Gen-Z is surprisingly sanguine about their career prospects post-Covid.
James Ong, a business undergrad at Nanyang Technological University, who is currently working at Pace, a BNPL startup, believes the general trajectory of his career will not shift, remaining focused on “innovation and technologies for a better world”.
What he does think has changed is that the acceptance and embracing of remote working will open up opportunities that he may not have had access to pre-pandemic.
Mathew, who is interning at DBS Digital Banking sees the new normal of remote working as something that was always likely to happen, believing that the pandemic was only a catalyst. Upon embarking on her internships last year, she was initially disappointed that she wasn’t getting the “complete experience”, but then swiftly realised that the “complete experience” was probably going to look very different going forward than it had pre-pandemic.
Aside from raising the profile of remote work, Anindo thinks the pandemic has shone a spotlight on the kinds of skills that will be in demand; specifically, the idea that generalist skill sets better equip people to transition to different careers during times of economic upheaval.
Our Gen-Zers also had clear ideas about what they were looking for in their own careers, starting with the leadership that they expect.
A balance between autonomy and guidance is key for them. Mathew believes that a leader that allows her to “get her hands dirty” is demonstrating trust in her abilities, while respecting her space to learn and grow while Ong acknowledges that the proper guidance must also be given to shape thinking and understanding of the issues at hand.
Leaders who want to attract Gen-Z must also be able to appeal to their values. Or as Anindo describes it, be “someone who truly believes in stakeholder alignment and value creation… a business leader who considers both profits and purpose”
Beyond the leadership, they also want the organisations they join to stand for something.
Ong sees it as impact and challenge, saying of impact, “I just want to know that my work has empowered or enabled others” and of challenge, “especially in a tech role… we joined the industry because we wanted challenge”.
Organisations need to have bold vision and dare to be disruptive to be at the leading edge of change – another thing important to the Gen-Zers. Says Anindo “I really want to work in an organisation that allows for creativity amongst employees and effectively rewards this and incentivises this.”
Mathew meanwhile, wants to work in an organisation with a strong corporate culture that she can identify with, believing this will mean like-minded colleagues and teammates.
No pressure, future employers.
As for travel, Gen-Z like the rest of us, is travel starved.
As Ong admits, “I miss travel, which Gen-Z person doesn’t?” pointing at pent-up demand that has built while travel has remained so frustratingly out of reach for this group in particular.
They remain cautiously optimistic that travel will eventually go back to normal, so that they can, as Mathew puts it “finally resume checking things off my bucket list”.
And they believe that the ability to leverage remote working may create more opportunities to travel in the form of work-vacation hybrids.
Even as travel returns, Gen-Z travellers may be difficult to typecast. Responding to research by Amadeus that states that six traveller tribes will shape global travel in 2030, our Gen-Z panel found none of the tribes to be a perfect fit.
Anindo sees himself as a mix of Cultural Purist and Ethical Traveller, describing his attitude to travel as a “very intentional approach to learning about a new culture – that’s what invigorates me. [But] in doing so, I don’t want to cause externalities in the form of the environment, or harming the local community.”
Mathew, for her part, agrees that cultural purism is one of the tribes she identifies with – enjoying exploring and immersing herself in different cultures. But, in her travel experiences she also appreciates the chance to unwind and splurge, something more suited to a Reward Hunter.
Ong believes he would move through different tribes depending on the situation and the purpose of the travel.
Although they may not immediately identify with a travel tribe, Gen-Z knows what they expect out of future travel experiences, and anyone hoping to appeal to Gen-Z travellers must be able to meet these expectations.
Citing social media and technology platforms as influencing how and why they travel, they want technology to empower them to venture off the beaten path and make new discoveries.
Personalisation and customisation are also crucial, as Gen-Z wants travel experiences that are highly tailored to their preferences and interests presented to them in such a way that saves them the time and tedium of seeking it out.
Finally, they also want to see the reconciliation of wanderlust and sustainability, believing that travel is at an inflection point where it must become possible to travel more sustainably.
If that sounds like a tall order, it might be. But Gen-Z also makes up 32% of the global population, and will only grow in influence as they settle into their careers and expand their consumption patterns.
One of the final questions we put to the panel was what the best piece of advice they had given to their parents (and by extension, the rest of us elder-folk) was, to which Mathew quipped “not too sure if my parents have actually taken my advice seriously”.
Mathew’s parents may not have, but whether they choose to travel for leisure, or pursue a career in travel, this generation will become hugely influential for the industry, so the rest of us may want to take Gen-Z very seriously indeed.
Featured image credit: www.epictop10.com
