Welcome to our latest guest column, written by SPARK Group President & Founder, and travel retail staffing and recruitment expert, Heidi Van Roon.
She has chosen Valentine’s Day to pen an open letter to all travel retail partners and friends, urging them to celebrate the joy and passion at the heart of every human encounter.
For the love of our industry, let’s focus on the people, for they are the beating heart and soul of our collective journey. Embedded in all the industry advancements lies a deep connection that is forged in the shared human experiences, triumphs and setbacks we navigate together.
It is in valuing the individuals who dedicate themselves to our craft that we cultivate a culture that includes respect, dignity, passion and relevance. If our goal is to curate a memorable customer experience, then this goal is only achievable through tangible supports that live and breathe everything that inspires work cultures to smile and thrive.
Valentine’s Day is a perfect time for celebrating the joy and passion at the heart of every human encounter. May the love for what we do continue to inspire the meaning and purpose of every task big and small. With global passenger traffic expected to surpass 9 billion travellers in 2024, our industry has a tremendous opportunity to cheer up the world by meaningfully engaging with each and every journey. Imagine, that’s over 9 billion more smiles this year just in airports.
In 2015 SPARK formally launched initiatives for celebrating the joy and purpose that comes from doing our work with more heart. As we have adapted our service offers over the years, we are now calling on our entire industry to modernise the Human Resources framework.
The market is asking for a relevant in-person retail channel, and we have an opportunity to deliver. It starts with our staff and plays out one customer at a time. The fault lines, antiquated processes and the pain points have almost immobilised our opportunities for growth and relevance. Recently we raised a red flag that old-fashioned recruiting isn’t working unless we collaborate better.
When sales hours are not filled for months, or not filled with top-tier and committed talent, then we have the making of a retail mayday that is not circumstantial, but systemic. If there is one staffing priority, then it is that our employment brand must offer what the current labour and customer demographics are looking for.
This is not hard, but it does require insight, honesty, vision, direction, commitment and best practices around all people’s priorities.
For example, here are just a few:
- Staffing optimisation because every sales hour not covered is missed branding moments and foregone revenue
- Ensuring A-List applicants are successfully hired
- Relevant and well-managed recruitment, onboarding, performance management and succession processes.
- Compensation design benchmarked against living wages and at the market value of skills
- Faster implementation of new labour legislation. For example: wage transparency and wage equity in Canada
- Elevating the employment brand to attract and inspire the best and brightest skills
- Prioritising a workplace culture that is equitable, kind, respectful, accountable, transparent, mutually rewarding and validating the individual
- Celebrating achievements, offering training, encouraging life-long learning
- Strengthening the transition and connection between education and industry
- Defining and offering one, two and three-year career development programmes.
I am thrilled to report that our recent pilot programme for volume recruitment has reached the immediate goal of filling urgent vacancies. There are few moments more rewarding for a recruiter than seeing great candidates excited about their offers of employment and supporting brands and retailers with well-qualified and valuable sales staff. Conversely, there are few frustrations as painful for a staffing provider than seeing allocated labour budgets unused or not productive.
Beauty Brand Testimonial Jan 2024 (paraphrased): The interview assessments for every SPARK candidate exceed those of recent interviewees for other US vacancies. The other recruitment firm we engaged presented no candidates in six weeks. Instead of filling one Beauty Advisor position, we have also approved a Counter Manager position because of the calibre of talent you presented.
Candidate Testimonials Feb 2024 (paraphrased): I am genuinely thrilled and honoured to accept this offer and express my deepest gratitude for this incredible opportunity. I am excited about joining the SPARK team and contributing to the brands that I greatly admire. Your trust in me is appreciated and I am committed to bringing my best to this role.
Our staff teams have demonstrated that:
- staffing optimisation (the right staff in the right place at the right time) can add +20% and even up to +50% to daily sales
- professional time management reduced unexcused absenteeism by -50%
- excused absenteeism, vacations, protected leaves and attrition account for 25% of foregone sales coverage and therefore 15-20% of productivity
- tenured employment is supported by well-managed recruiting, qualifying, onboarding, advancement and compensation design at market value
- recognising and celebrating a variety of sales achievements contributes to team strength, mutual respect and shared success
Thank you for allowing us to partner in big and in small ways around your people’s needs. We are committed to upholding the highest standards. We love what we do and more than that, we look forward to another year of working with the people that make this all worthwhile and meaningful.
Please contact me anytime at heidi.vanroon@sparkgroupinc.com. We are here to make a measurable difference. 
