AI is key for travel businesses, especially those who understand the future is about personalised experiences. However, it’s hard to create value from AI unless you excel at data processing, algorithm creation and developing deployment infrastructure. Without good tech people, you simply can’t make AI work.
Investing in people
It’s integral that travel businesses put themselves in the best possible position to attract top AI talent. Harvard Business Review recently highlighted that demand for AI talent from non-AI companies has increased over the last year, even as tech giants such as Amazon and Facebook have doubled down on their hiring efforts. In the UK, the number of advertised tech jobs in H1 2021 was 42% higher than pre-pandemic levels according to tech growth platform TechNation.
Providing flexible opportunities
Travel businesses therefore need to consider what motivates technology professionals. It should be taken as read that flexible working is now an expectation from a workforce that has become increasingly nomadic in outlook. Most businesses serious about talent attraction jumped early to change their home working policies and are now reaping the rewards in the midst of the Great Resignation. From a commercial perspective, it’s a no-brainer, allowing you to cast the talent net wider than a 45-minute commute. But, talking about flexible working policies in isolation misses a broader point. Success in talent attraction stems from organisational culture. In this sense, meeting employee needs around flexible working is an inevitable consequence of a healthy, supportive and inspiring company culture, rather than a silver bullet HR policy.
However, for flexible working to be successful, it must be aimed at promoting further innovation and collaboration across the company whilst simultaneously supporting a healthy work-life balance for employees.
Prioritising diversity and inclusion
A strong culture has to be grounded in diversity and inclusion. According to a recent Bequom survey, 48% of adults surveyed said they’d consider switching to another company if it had a stronger D&I strategy. Getting this right isn’t just about fairness and equality. It’s about recognising the business necessity of diversity of thought to drive innovation. This means looking for talent worldwide, providing equal opportunities to candidates from all races, genders, sexual orientations, socioeconomic backgrounds, and recognising the benefits of diversity.
Providing development opportunities
The next key principle of an attractive culture is the ability to nurture. It is human nature to strive for self-improvement. The best organisations facilitate this by investing heavily in training and development. We know Gen-Z and millennials place specific importance on this, and there are broad benefits. If you teach non-technical teams about AI, they will find ways to incorporate the technology into their own processes. Similarly, the pace of change in technology is rapid. If teams don’t constantly learn, the business will lag behind and employees will move on to find new ways to develop their talents.
Creating interesting challenges
A final factor to consider is simply making the work interesting. Tech people are problem solvers, with creative brains that love to be challenged. As humans we are fulfilled by achieving big things, innovating, and contributing to something worthwhile. Businesses should give their employees that opportunity. Challenge them to work on high impact projects, developing disruptive products and utilising cutting-edge tech, even if this means introducing innovation challenges that aren’t linked to the bottom line. You never know what they might create. If travel businesses want to entice employees from Apple and Amazon, they need to explain why their work will be both personally fulfilling and meaningful.
At eDreams ODIGEO we believe in ensuring all the aforementioned factors are at the very essence of our company. That is why we are set to launch a 3-year long hiring campaign this year as the company intends to fill 500 vacancies in prominent European tech hubs that we believe will foster greater innovation and attract Europe’s very best AI talent. Notably, positions will be available in our two new tech hubs in Porto and Milan as well as in our Barcelona, Madrid and Budapest offices. We are also currently setting up new tech teams on the Mediterranean coast, specifically in Palma de Mallorca and Alicante. The new recruits will be pivotal in bolstering our tech, product and innovation teams and will allow our business to build upon our extensive range of travel products and services, including our Prime subscription service which recently reached 3 million members worldwide.
Investing in AI is a big focus for all travel businesses at the moment, including our own. It will be fascinating to see how successful the travel sector will be in its bid for top talent, and I am excited by the opportunities for innovation this will generate.
