Jill Hawkins, director, Aniseed PR Limited, shares the findings from the Annual Events Industry Salary Survey.
We can now report the findings of the Annual Events Industry Salary Survey produced by EventHub.Jobs and supported by Mash Media. Approximately 1,288 people responded to the survey – giving us a robust and credible look at the industry’s salaries, benefits and working patterns. Some of the findings confirmed patterns and trends that were predicted, whilst other were very surprising.
Salary is important
“There was roughly a 50/50 split between those that were happy with their salary and those that weren’t,” said Robert Kenward, chief talent officer at YOU Search and Select and founder of EventHubs.Jobs. “Everyone is worried about cost of living and we often hear that companies are focusing on rebuilding and so they aren’t paying well, so it’s good to see that nearly half of respondents are happy with their salaries.”
Dale Parmenter, CEO of DRPG, noted: “When looking for a new role the highest priority came out as salary, which goes against current thinking that salary isn’t at the top of people’s list when looking for a new job. Especially given the noise surrounding the importance of health and well-being programmes and learning and development investments. This result potentially reflects the cost-of-living situation happening right now.”
“With the positive return to in-person events we believe organiser roles will be in more demand,” added Felicia Asiedu, senior marketing manager, Cvent. “It’s great to see the confidence levels in industry professionals securing their salary goals; with 37% of respondents from the annual salary survey confident they will achieve their expected salary, whilst a further 27% are already there.”
Hybrid working
Hybrid working was always going to feature very heavily in the survey. “Around 63% of the industry already benefits from hybrid working, but employers should take note that over 85% of candidates say that they will now only consider a role if it offers hybrid or remote only working,” said Kenward. “People need a balanced approach now of a few days at home and a few days in the office.”
“There seems to be a growing appetite for the return to ‘office life’,” commented Mary Carter-Lee, people and culture director, Identity. “Working from home all the time is also way down the list of priorities when deciding on a future role, with almost everyone wanting to work some of the time in the office – or away from home.”
Claire Fennelow, chief executive of EVCOM, said: “It’s interesting that salary and opportunity to work from home are given equal importance in looking at future roles despite 35% of audience being under 35 – I would have thought the younger group would be more interested in being in an office environment.”
To echo Fennelow’s comment; there are certain sectors of the industry that simply can’t or won’t work from home. “We do offer our team the opportunity to work two days from home, but the vast majority (85%) prefer to be in the office,” commented Jack Jacob, managing director of public sector event organiser PNE.
“We are a growing company, so our teams really benefit from being together in the office – learning from each other and bouncing ideas off each other. I think it’s hard to build a company culture if everyone is working at home.”
Joanne Barratt, managing director, The Venues Collection and Lime Venue Portfolio, said: “As a venue collection, our teams cannot work from home; you simply can’t be a chef, run an event or conduct a physical venue show round from home.
“Many suppliers cannot operate from home either because they have physical kit to get ready for an event. Is the fact that so many event agency staff now want to work from home creating a divide in our industry? Can we really encourage clients and delegates to meet in person again, if so many of the industry don’t want to leave their homes?”
“I was surprised to see that 77% of companies have some of their staff working entirely from home, I feel that this could be a mental health time bomb,” said Margaret Reeves, managing director, RefTech. “We do still offer flexible working – subject to event and client needs – but personally I don’t think that working entirely from home is healthy for a lot of people.
“Employers need to be aware of this as they have a duty of care, but where does the level of concern stop? Do we force staff back into the office to ensure that they do have some real-life interaction with their teams? How will this impact on employees’ mental health in the long term? In 10 years, will we look back and acknowledge the damage it has done?”
“For an industry that is built on the coming together of people face-to-face, it is interesting to see these results from individuals who work within the sector,” commented Kerrin MacPhie, chief executive,
the Meetings Industry Association (mia). “The question now often asked is ‘do hybrid/virtual meetings have a place?’ Yes, they do based on 85% of the respondents’ view.”
Next steps
Over the coming months, we will be taking a deep dive to look at how location and job title affects salaries and to see how age and ethnicity affect the findings. Look out for further features exploring and cross-referencing the results in more detail.
The full whitepaper will be available as a free download from EventHub.Jobs.
