This August, millions of Britons will head off for their holidays in search of sunnier climes. While most will seek tried and tested hotel complexes, for an increasing minority of travellers privacy and individuality - a home from home - is more important. This trend has already led to the growth of websites where families from across the globe can 'swap' and live in each other's homes, free of charge.
For those who own holiday or second homes and want to rent them out to like-minded people, a second group of providers - managers and renters of other people's homes - has also grown up. Leading them in the UK is HomeAway, which allows holidaymakers to rent other people's homes from Provence to the Caribbean. Testament to the expansion of this sector is the fact one of its rivals, Holiday Lettings, was recently acquired by TripAdvisor for an undisclosed amount, while HomeAway's own growth has been spectacular. It recently announced a 43% increase in year-on-year in booking requests from 2008 to 2009, with property listings jumping by more than 45% over the same period.
Yet, three years ago, when its HR manager for Europe, Valerie Mann, moved from France to join the company because she felt the profession in her home country was "too slow", its 40 or so staff had no HR function to turn to. "I wanted to work here because I was keen to be involved in a company with a commercial focus and a European flavour," she explains. "But I spent my first day here renewing contracts. Staff had no benefits and line managers felt they had no structure."
But what could have been a daunting process became a journey of achievements, with HomeAway this year coming fifth on the Great Places To Work's listing for small companies.
"I started with the basics," she says. "I just listened to staff - and they were certainly keen to talk. Employers always think they can do without HR, but it becomes indispensable when a business is growing."
In three years Mann has defined the company's principles and values, communicated them to staff, implemented a raft of employee benefits and brought employees under her European remit closer together. The Portuguese and Spanish branches of the company are currently being 'incubated' in the London office until they are large enough to operate on their own, and Mann views this process as vital to the business as it grows and develops.
She says: "London is a multi-cultural hub and we like it. We have an incredible number of languages spoken here and we will consider recruiting anyone who shares our values."
Although the company is small, Mann believes HR directors in large companies have a lot to learn from how HR is done in smaller ones like hers. "Many HR directors have been forced to go with the direction of their leaders but we have to be a lot closer to them in order to get management buy-in on HR issues. If you listen to business leaders and allow yourself to become their sounding board, you can get straight on with your job and deal with important issues as they arise," she explains.
"There is always the assumption business leaders know everything, but even very powerful leaders can't foresee everything," she says. "HR is positioned uniquely between the employee and the company, so in a small business I am lucky to be very close to both of them. When you work with powerful leaders, HR has to make an impact very quickly and I am constantly trying to think of what I want to achieve for the business with every HR decision I make. Customers have to be the constant priority," she adds.
Although issues like employee engagement may seem easier for Mann as she works in an office of 70 UK staff now, HR has been at the forefront of HomeAway's growth and expansion. She explains: "We are running a business but we are growing it too and we need to constantly focus on where we want to be. As an HR manager I sometimes find myself dealing with toilet roll orders, but at the same time I am part of the management team and we are building things. We have to work at keeping up the momentum and an agile culture. I love the chaos of an SME because there is so much to build - but we are moving and changing things all the time. We don't want to be an SME forever."
Mann is one tenacious player. "HR in France is very legislation-driven," she grumbles, reflecting on why she had to come here. "While I was studying business in Paris, we had to fight to even have an HR module on the course," she says. But she is surprising too. You wouldn't expect this to come from an HRD's lips: "An HR director's ultimate goal should be to make themselves redundant - you want the business to be able to function without you," she says. That's a statement for any HRD in need of a holiday to consider.
