Julian Perigo is the Managing Director of Boston Link, the market leader in specialist professional recruitment in Malta. He discusses the launch of their specialist brand focusing on the Travel, Tourism Leisure industry, and Link Talent.
Boston Link has been recruiting for the aviation sector in Malta since 2018. We’ve been involved in the hiring of many key industry personnel on the island over the last four years, both from the domestic market and abroad. We felt the time was right to enhance our focus on the Aviation sector in Malta through the launch of a dedicated brand, Link Talent. Link Talent recruits both technical and non-technical positions within the Travel, Tourism and Leisure sector.
When our business started recruiting for the Aviation sector I was struck by how passionate everyone is about their industry, despite the fact that everyone I was meeting told me how hard it is to make money as an Aviation business! This was a big contrast to the Gaming and crypto sectors where you’d often hear the opposite. It is clear that managers and business owners in the Aviation sector are driven by an unwavering passion and dedication to their industry, despite the challenges. We recognise that recruiting the right personnel is absolutely critical to the safety and success of our clients’ operations.
What has changed since you started recruiting for the Aviation sector?
Clearly the industry has been through some incredibly challenging times during Covid. When I speak to stakeholders now, employee attraction and retention is the number one concern.
In your view what can employers do to ensure they can attract and retain the best talent?
Operators clearly pay a lot of attention to their company brand, but I’m surprised how few have created a compelling employer brand. Top talent is attracted to companies that have a strong, visible employer branding strategy in place. There is a reason why some companies can consistently hire the best talent, and it’s not always about the best salaries. It’s about creating a shared story, displayed externally through your company website, social media and crucially also through your employees. It should offer insights into what it’s like to work at the company, what your values are, and how you treat people. I would recommend that every employer conduct an assessment of their employer value proposition and ensure they have invested in their employer brand.
So it’s not all about salaries then?
Well of course it’s still important to ensure your staff are not under-paid! Boston Link has been producing free annual Salary Benchmarking reports for the Finance and iGaming sectors since 2014, which are now downloaded more than 20,000 times every year. Link Talent will be producing an inaugural Salary Survey for the Travel & Leisure industry in Malta. Our reports focus on benchmarking employees gross base salaries, but there are other monetary and non-monetary factors that appeal to today’s workforce. Working for a company that genuinely cares about its employees, that can help them to create a work-life balance and that can offer career progression opportunities are all important elements.
How is Link Talent helping to solve the recruitment challenges that the sector faces?
We’ve observed that recruiting for the Aviation sector requires in-depth technical and industry knowledge, and that is one of the key drivers for us to create a new brand dedicated to the sector. It is also critically important that we know how to market Malta as a place to live and work, as 1 in every 4 candidates that we place locally is relocating from abroad. Experience has taught us what makes a successful relocation to Malta.
