Seasoned travel advisors Lina Sutton of Go Wander Travel Co. and Julie Patterson of Wanderfully Planned know firsthand how challenging hiring and onboarding a new employee can be.
“Mentoring someone is like a full-time job,” Sutton said.
And yet, a product meant to alleviate the stress and demand of hiring a new travel advisor has yet to be found — until now.
After struggling with the lack of support found within the industry when it comes to onboarding new hires, Sutton and Patterson have teamed up to solve the problem by creating a comprehensive Onboarding Manual for advisors. Their product is not just an explanation of how to create a training program for new hires; it’s an entire onboarding program itself.
Here’s what to know about their new travel advisor Onboarding Manual, and how it can help you take your business to the next level.
What made you two want to team up and create this manual for others?
Patterson: If we didn't, we would both be reinventing the wheel, [which] is what any other advisor who has ever hired has had to do in order to train and teach their new people. Reinventing the wheel is such a waste of everybody's time. We know how much work went into this manual and we truly don’t want other advisors to go through that. We love this industry and we’ve both purchased resources from other people that have helped us accelerate our business, so we want to pay it forward and be an active part of this community.
Where is the manual available? To whom is it available?
Patterson: It currently lives on my website, wanderfullyplanned.com. We have it priced at $899. It is for any travel advisor who is looking to hire or more intensely train a new assistant or IC [independent contractor] at their business. It is also for any travel advisor who wants a one-stop-shop blueprint for their business.
The manual is 160 pages, and it has all the information that any travel advisor would [need] to share with someone coming onto their team. We've shown you exactly where to put that information, exactly what to write and exactly where to plug in unique pieces of information about your business.
A recent Embark Beyond trends report stated that with the staffing shortages that continue to plague our industry, the biggest inhibitor of growth for travel advisor businesses is capacity. Do you agree with this?
Sutton: Something that we frequently hear is, “I don’t have time.” When you are so bogged down in the client work, and you aren't outsourcing and delegating, you don't have the space to be able to do [other necessary things for your business] — because not only do you not have the capacity and the time, but then you also need a bit of mental and creative space.
Patterson: What we’re trying to do is take away the time you would spend creating [an onboarding procedure] yourself, and give you this document so you can then expand your capacity to take on more. Hire an assistant or hire another travel advisor, so they can come in and take some of the weight off your shoulders so that your business can expand.
Can you tell us about the gap you’ve seen in the industry when it comes to training new hires?
Sutton: Colleagues that we greatly admire have put together some incredible resources for travel advisors, and I think that they are helpful. But there wasn't anything that was specifically focused on onboarding. There's a lot of talk about hiring — when to hire, why you should hire and what to look for — but what do you do once you’ve hired the person? There are so few resources that you can lean into for the onboarding process. Our manual is a great tool to maximize your time.
There's a lot of talk about hiring — when to hire, why you should hire and what to look for — but what do you do once you’ve hired the person?
How does your manual speed up the hiring process?
Patterson: One thing that we hear from advisors is, “I want to hire, but I don't have the training established.” That keeps them from doing so. Our manual takes away that roadblock for you to start hiring.
Sutton: We designed the manual to build logically on different things. We start with an overview and then move on to building a base knowledge of the industry. Next, we move into more tangible, hands-on topics, such as the before, during and after of trip design. We’ve also included a suggested onboarding schedule because people get overwhelmed when trying to figure out where to start. I’ve heard a lot of advisors ask, “In what order should we teach this? In what order should we start working on these things?” Our manual does a great job of simplifying this process and establishing a logical flow of information.
Patterson: It takes a couple years to really feel like you know what is going on in this industry. This is a way to give [your new hire] that foundational knowledge, so that they feel so much more confident and prepared. I think it accelerates them being great at this job a lot faster, as opposed to spending years trying to figure out how to do this.
Sutton: Our manual also includes practical exercises and links to as many supplemental resources as we could add. Our goal was to have one living, breathing document that's essentially a gold mine of anything a travel advisor could want.
What are the pain points when it comes to hiring as a travel advisor? How can your new manual solve them?
Sutton: Time. Mentoring someone is like a full-time job. Figuring out how to do that and how to get all the information to do that is what the manual has solved. It has everything that you might need to be able to hire someone.
Patterson: Organization is another one. In the first few years of my business, I put different resources into different documents and programs and then couldn’t find where they were when I actually needed them. This manual helps prevent that. It keeps everything in one place.
Sutton: Everything in the document is bookmarked. So, even though it's 160 pages, you can just click on the link to whichever section you need, and it'll take you right there. That is a huge time saver.
Patterson: Productivity is also important. When you're a business owner and don’t have this strategic, intentional way of training somebody, you're risking a loss of productivity due to unclear expectations. You’re potentially feeling like you didn’t hire the right person, but [the problem may actually be that] they’re not getting the right information from you. Our manual eliminates that risk.
