Two birds and

Winter in the Alps and summer doing "the season" is on offer to the staff of Gardner Merchant Leisure and Crystal Holidays this year. Thanks to a joint initiative to solve their mutual recruitment difficulties, the two companies can now provide employees with year-round work.

The idea is simple. Gardner Merchant Leisure, as one of the biggest employers in the contract catering and event catering market, has the usual industry-wide problem of finding enough good employees to fill the thousands of vacancies it has, particularly in the summer months when many events clash.

As an example of Gardner Merchant's insatiable appetite for staff in the summer, catering for Royal Ascot alone requires 3,900 casual employees. At the same time, another 1,000 are needed at Lord's Cricket Ground, and a further 250 at the Paris Air Show.

In direct contrast Crystal Holidays, as one of the UK's leading ski operators, has an annual need of about 1,000 staff to man its catered chalets and hotels in the winter. Though the operator does have a summer "Lakes and Mountains" programme, only about 80 people can be offered summer work. The result is that many chefs and chalet representatives are let go at the end of a winter season, after having gained valuable experience, and the operator has to trust to luck that they will choose to return to work with them the following season.

The two companies had a recruitment problem in reverse - so why shouldn't they work together and guarantee employees 12 months' work?

That was the idea that came to Gardner Merchant Leisure senior resourcing and development manager Alison Gilbert, who is a keen skier and is familiar with the calibre of staff employed by UK ski operators.

She suggested the idea to Gardner Merchant Leisure human resources director Lynda Brennan during one of their regular conversations concerning ways to encourage recruitment. Brennan was keen, and the idea soon became a reality. Contact was made with Crystal, the Surbiton-based operator recently acquired by sunshine-holiday operator Thomson. The first approach was made in the middle of last summer.

The Gardner Merchant team found that Crystal also had difficulties filling the vacancies it had on its ski programme. Following a series of meetings last autumn when both sides sounded out the other on recruitment practices, the scheme was set in motion for the start of the winter 1998/9 season. Over a few weeks last March, towards the end of the ski season, Alison and a colleague toured a number of Crystal's French resorts, talking to staff who were taking time out from their jobs to hear about opportunities for summer work.

Word spread, and staff who missed the briefing in their own resort would turn up to hear it in another resort. For many, the opportunity of guaranteed work during the summer was a godsend. They were enjoying the lifestyle in a ski resort, but were concerned they would be pressured by parents to find permanent jobs in the summer. They were also aware that they themselves would be tempted to forgo life on the piste if they found a permanent pensionable job.

If, on the other hand, they had guaranteed work during the summer that was definitely going to come to an end, they could commit to Crystal for a second season more easily.

Such was the appeal of the offer laid out by Gilbert during her recruitment tour that by the end of it, she and her colleagues had signed up 160 Crystal staff.

The ski lifts have been shut for a few months and by now, many of the Crystal ski-chalet employees have had a few weeks of working with Gardner Merchant under their belts. A variety of employment arrangements have been made by Gardner Merchant Leisure with Crystal staff. Some have signed up for work throughout the summer and, apart from a couple of weeks off, will be working through the summer and on to the next ski season.

Others have taken advantage of a pick-and-mix arrangement from Gardner Merchant, whereby they work at particular events, such as the Chelsea Flower Show, the British Grand Prix or the Stella Artois tennis tournament, then during the in-between-times, take time to travel. Brennan says wage rates are negotiated on an individual basis.

At this point, only Gardner Merchant can give a view as to whether this tie-up with Crystal is working, and so far the team are pleased with the arrangement. Administration time has been reduced as they do not need to go through the same lengthy recruitment and interviewing process as when they hire people from the market. Though it depends on the position the person is being recruited for, Crystal will not need to follow up on all the form-filling and reference collecting usually required.

Mature, motivated staff

They have also found that the calibre of staff hired by Crystal is high. In general, the type of young person who has worked a ski season, managing a chalet or ski resort hotel, is mature, sociable, enthusiastic, energetic, and highly motivated.

Brennan notes that because they are given a high degree of autonomy in resort, they are also well able to make on-the-spot decisions and do not need to check back to head office for confirmation. That is a particularly valuable skill when it comes to an event where a Gardner Merchant senior manager may not be easily contactable. "They are able to hit the ground running, which is what we need," says Brennan.

She is hopeful that the arrangement with Crystal will reduce staff turnover significantly. "Because the jobs are seasonal, the situation up to now is that the majority of people leave at the end of the season, find other jobs and do not return to us. The link with Crystal could mean that up to 75% of staff will return to us the following year and that will give us good continuity." But Brennan says it is unlikely that they will make savings on their recruitment budget because of the costs involved in recruiting in resort. "This is not about making savings - it may cost more, but it means we get better quality management."

Brennan is so pleased with how it has worked so far that she has already resolved to do it again this coming winter when the company will look at taking on up to 300 people from the ski resorts.

There will be some differences, however. This time the Gardner Merchant team will be visiting Crystal resorts throughout Europe, not just France, and they will also be doing the recruitment tour earlier in the season to catch staff before they have made plans for the year ahead. The catering company is also looking at extending the scheme to Thomson, Crystal's parent company, which also has a ski programme.

Brennan says that both Gardner Merchant Leisure and Crystal have acknowledged that at some point employees will decide they have enough of the nomadic lifestyle, and opt for a permanent position. And that moment could come when the employee is working with the other company. "It may be that we lose staff to them and they lose staff to us, but we have to be honest with each other and we have said that we are not going to poach each other's staff."

It is only about now that Crystal is starting to look at its recruitment needs for the season ahead. Already the company's overseas representatives manager Sue Hustwick expects that a significant number of the operator's own staff will return for the winter after a summer with Gardner Merchant. She also anticipates that the holiday firm will attract newcomers working with Gardner Merchant who have heard about the programme.

"It is very hard to find chefs who are prepared to live abroad for five or six months and who are willing to work unsociable hours, so it is useful for us to be able to access their base of staff for recruitment." n