In February, as the prime minister declared a 4-step plan to lifting COVID-19 restrictions, despite no promise for foreign travel, desperate holiday makers surged online, generating a spike in tourism bookings with TUI reporting a 500% increase (BBC).
However, with uncertainty still in the air, last year’s holiday disruptions and cancellations, and now a possible threat of a third Covid wave to reach our shores, many people have instead turned to staycations. Hoseseasons Chief Commercial Officer Simon Altham has declared that last year’s booking record of 1 per 11 seconds has been surpassed this year, showing strong signs that the UK tourist industry has the potential to boom.
Businesses are keen to benefit from this imminent staycation opportunity. A Bumper year will not only help recoup some of the heavy losses the industry has endured, but also provide the opportunity to encourage UK tourism for future years to come.
Companies operating in the tourism industry will be assessing their readiness for the imminent surge in pending business. The industry has had many disruptions and shifts in employment statuses. As lockdown is steadily lifted, businesses will be concentrating their focus on their core functions to maximise sales and service during this surge, outsourcing wherever possible.
Recruiting, training staff and performing checks ready for tourism take off will be a time-consuming non-core role, averting attention from what is important – steering your business and optimising sales and opportunities.
Those who have already ‘future proofed’ their payroll and HR by outsourcing will be benefitting from their supplier’s economies of scale, saving 30% of associated payroll operational costs. In addition, they will experience smooth onboarding of staff returning to work, and for seasonal workers too as they are relieved of the associated admin burden. By utilising an established company’s services, they can instead focus their time on enhancing and growing their business. Happy to know payroll accuracy is increased and GDPR compliant, comforted knowing they are not reliant on one or a few employees for this legal function.
Increasingly, businesses are recognising the benefits of national / global visibility and reporting. Zalaris’ payroll outsourcing services provide this on a single platform approach, giving visibility across their business, whilst providing the benefits of improved accuracy, compliance and reduced office stress. As outsourcing also recoups time, along with the ability to save money, it is only a matter of time before the industry openly acknowledges outsourcing as an efficient norm.
Zalaris are a comprehensive multi-country HR & payroll technology and services company who, for more than 20 years, have provided a first-class, multi country, single cloud-based HR & payroll solution seamlessly connecting all aspects of our customers HR and Payroll processes into one turnkey solution. Zalaris further accompany our leading technology platform with outsourced business services to manage all aspects of our customers HR & payroll outsourcing transactional needs.
This post was written by Sonya Gillam on the Zalaris website here. They are an exhibitor on the HRTech247 Payroll, Time & Attendance floor in the technology hall here, and the SAP Partners floor in the Partners Hall here.
