HBAA leads the way in forming a partnership with HUGS UK who provide a free service for people in this industry that is vital during these challenging times

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Juliet Price, Consultant Executive Director of HBAA

HBAA is endorsing and promoting HUGS UK, a new, free, not-for-profit initiative that has been launched to support people in the UK hotel, travel and events industries.

The services that HUGS UK provides include advice and support on key areas such as CV guidance; LinkedIn profile appraisals; job applications; interview preparation; interview techniques; presentations; video interviews; wellbeing, up-skilling and career diversification. The HUGS UK LinkedIn page gives details of free advice, tips, webinars, jobs and much more. These services are offered to those in the industries who have lost their jobs and also to those who remain in work and continue to face uncertainty and challenging times.

Pauline Houston, joint founder of HUGS UK said: “All our services are free, at no point do they lead to paid services, or advertisements in return for payment. No money is involved, every service and support is 100 per cent voluntary. We are simply willing to embrace everyone in the hotel, travel and events industries and provide whatever support they need.

“The hospitality, travel and events sector has been one of the hardest hit industries as a direct result of COVID19 lockdowns, government guidelines and quarantine restrictions. Daily we are hearing of more and more redundancies, with a recent estimate stating that there could be as many as three million people globally who will have lost their jobs in hospitality, travel and events by the end of 2020.

“With fewer open roles, the competition is fierce and for some this is the first time in a long time that they have been unemployed or are having to join the masses in applying for a limited number of roles. We aim to support them in giving them the best opportunity to display their talents and improve their chances of securing their next career step. For some, that will not be in hospitality, so it is about how they can showcase their skills to be transferrable and of value in a new arena. For others it is having the confidence to be able to profile their talents in a way that makes them stand out from the crowd and get through to that all-important next round.

“Additionally, we want to support those who are still in work and are feeling the strain of having to take on responsibilities outside of their sphere of experience, working many more hours than they were being paid for, suffering significant wage cuts and potentially having survivors guilt; all whilst worrying that their name may be on the next list of roles to be cut.

“The hospitality, travel and events industry is close knit and supportive of each other and this is our way of paying it forward, knowing that we are all but one phone call away from being in their shoes and that someone would do this for us, if that call ever came.”

Juliet Price, Consultant Executive Director said: “As an industry association we see providing support which relates to the welfare and protection of our members and their staff as a priority. HBAA warmly welcomes valuable supportive initiatives such as this and we wholeheartedly endorse HUGS UK as an excellent tool to ensure our people are #HBAAfuturefit”

“We are immediately promoting HUGS UK to all our members as widely as possible. We urge the industry to get behind this as a community that must face these incredibly challenging times together. Prior to the pandemic, the UK events industry employed over 700K people and every one of us has been impacted in some way.”

Hugs UK can be contacted via their LinkedIn page or by email at Hugs-uk@outlook.com.

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.