Every year, Elizabeth Merritt and her team at the American Alliance of Museums examine changes shaping the sector in their influential TrendsWatch publication.

From augmented reality to Blockchain, this year’s report highlights the forces shaping museums and many are relevant right across the attractions industry.

In our interview in this issue, Merritt says the pandemic has had a major impact on the workforce which has led to stress, burnout and resignations, with a labour exodus hitting the nonprofit sector particularly hard.

Since the world reopened, some employers have been struggling to attract and retain staff and Merritt says it’s not only about pay and benefits – although these are still important – companies must now offer flexible, hybrid work schedules, examine their workplace culture and think creatively if they want to build strong teams.

TrendsWatch highlights organisations taking a more dynamic approach, including Delaware Art Museum, which has broadened its pool of applicants by removing unnecessary requirements from job descriptions, while also recruiting outside the museum sector and the Philbrook Museum of Art, which has partnered with recruitment initiative Tulsa Remote to provide cultural incentives for workers to relocate.

California historic house, Filoli, focused on pay when staff turnover soared to 50 per cent, prompting managers to make a living wage the base remuneration for all positions and increasing revenue in a variety of ways to support these higher salaries. Following the change, Filoli reports that turnover staff dropped down to eight per cent.

All these examples show how attractions can make small changes that make a big difference to the people charged with the duty of delivering the customer experience.

TrendWatch also considers the power of tech and its role in developing teams, suggesting the creation of staff development plans for digital literacy – another example of career development.

You only have to look at this edition of Attractions Management, which considers empathetic robots (p26), tech green space (p30), eco-tech (p31), immersive art, eye tracking (p86), deepfake (p88) and digital worlds (p40) to appreciate that it’s to the advantage of both employer and employee for training in digital to be a fundamental part of the mix.