How to Recruit and Train New Agents

As owner of Willett Travel, Tama Taylor Holve has experienced firsthand today’s challenges in recruiting and hiring new agents.

While Holve, a Certified Travel Counselor and travel industry executive, has hired several agents recently for her 65-year-old agency in Studio City, Calif., it wasn’t easy.

“We’ve been very fortunate and have hired a couple of agents recently & but there was a period when there was no one [qualified]. And it does concern me that there seems to be few younger agents coming in,” she said.

Holve’s experiences are echoed across the travel industry as experts and agencies say indications are rising that there is a growing shortage of qualified agents in a changed hiring environment.

While there are no exact numbers, many acknowledge an aging agent workforce, increased retirements and fewer trained young agents have created a vortex in which recruiting efforts that have worked in the past are no longer drawing qualified applicants. This dynamic, combined with sales growth in the cruise and group-tour markets, increasing agent specialization and aggressive competition for sales agents across industries, has led to a hiring squeeze that has some agencies seriously understaffed.

Mancini

“There is, without a doubt, a shortage it’s not critical yet, but it will be very soon,” said Dr. Marc Mancini, an industry speaker/consultant, chairman of the West Los Angeles College Travel Program and longtime contributor to TravelAge West. “There is a lack of qualified agents since airlines cut commissions. The real crisis will hit five years from now. If there is any good news, it’s that baby boomers will continue working as part-time agents & [But] in terms of conventional agents, it’s a major, major problem.”

Agency owners in the Signature Travel Network are also seeing similar constraints.

“There is definitely a shortage of new travel consultants across the board,” said Ignacio Maza, executive vice president of Signature. “In general, young people today do not perceive being a travel consultant as a desirable career choice.”

Last year, the ASTA Foundation and the State University of New York at Morrisville talked to college students, professors and high school counselors and the findings were not encouraging: A mere 25 percent said their college had any travel or tourism program at all, and of those that said they still have such programs, most respondents indicated enrollment has decreased over the past five years. Furthermore, the majority of professors surveyed said less than 20 percent of incoming freshmen were interested in a career in travel.

Counselors and some professors said they believe students are not choosing travel because of a perception that since Sept. 11 the industry is declining and the Internet has made agents obsolete.

“Many are missing the point that this is a great career,” said Holve. “They go online and book travel and don’t realize a travel agency is there they don’t realize agencies are alive and well.”

Pat Walker Travel in Beverly Hills, Calif.,
has no problem recruiting young agents,
such as Alex Dalton and Stacey Chancellor.

New Skill Set

Last month, an ASTA survey on the state of the average agency drew responses from hundreds of agents the vast majority between the ages of 45 and 64. Just a fraction of respondents 0.2 percent was 18 to 24 years old.

“The employment market for qualified agents is as tight as I have seen it in my 24 years in the industry,” said Mike Weingart, president and managing director of Carlson Wagonlit Travel/World Travel Agency. “Less people are entering the industry. And many are either getting out of the industry or becoming home-based agents.”

Van Anderson, co-president of America’s Vacation Center, based in San Diego and Florida, said his company is adding an average of 10 independent affiliates a week and receives hundreds of applications. But he believes the heart of hiring challenges in the travel industry today are based on a history of compensation issues.

“The industry needs to figure out what needs to be done to give travel agents more money. That’s the crux of the problem,” he said. “The industry has too long relied on free travel and we need to move past that and pay agents enough.

“I believe that unless we can, as an industry, address the problems with systems, methods and programs in which a professional agent can make enough money to live as a professional, we’re going to be challenged luring young agents,” Anderson said.

Pat Walker, owner of Pat Walker Travel in Beverly Hills, Calif., acknowledges the shortage of agents, but also says she has not had any problem finding new agents.

“I’ve found that I have not had to recruit young agents,” she said. “There are a lot of college graduates who find themselves in a position of having a degree but not able to find a job so many jobs have been outsourced. They are out there looking in the fields that excite them the most. The combination of working in travel and being able to travel is exciting and never boring & so they come to me.”

Maryanov

Eric Maryanov, president and founder of Los Angeles-based All-Travel.com, said the challenges of finding new agents can also present new opportunities for the industry.

“It depends on how you define a shortage. I’ve been in this industry nearly 30 years. I think so many of us are looking for five years’ experience yes, on that level there is a shortage,” he said. “But there’s not a shortage if we are looking in the right places for the right people & I think the majority [of agencies] are not looking in a new way we’re still looking the way we did in the ’80s when it was about being able to have the technological skills to run Sabre and Apollo. But that’s not the case anymore. The skill set has changed and it’s a completely different story.”

Maza said that while previous emphasis was on agents being able to process transactions quickly or being proficient with GDS systems, “today the emphasis is finding employees that can be consultative, that have excellent customer-service and follow-up skills and have a passion for what they do.”

That approach has worked for Steve Cosgrove, president of Southlake, Texas-based Dynamic Travel & Cruises. “We have had no problems finding agents. We seem to be able to add agents as needed without any issues,” he said. “But then we don’t just look for experienced travel agents. We look for people with a passion for travel, a love for people and the ability to sell.”

Tanzman

Susan Tanzman, owner and president of Martin’s Travel and Tours in Los Angeles, said she recently hired two agents in their 20s one who previously worked for a dress manufacturer.

While many owners use the online site Craigslist. com to recruit, this was not successful for Tanzman, but she has found good results through word of mouth. She said everything from chambers of commerce and friends to travel schools and other professionals can be valuable in generating recruits.

“You have to have a new attitude,” she said. “Look everywhere you go for personality. Keep all options available and always look for optimistic people.”

Sharak

Bob Sharak, executive vice president for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), said agent hiring needs to suit the individual agency, but there are also several traits that are important for virtually any sales agent. “Number one is to be passionate about what they do about travel and sales. You also have to be a goal-oriented person, always achieving the next sale, the next client, converting the next cruiser,” he said. “And it should be fun & so it won’t seem like work.

“The market is ripe right now for agencies looking to hire. I mean, look at the insurance business and real-estate business. There are others out there selling and they may be willing to make the transition over to travel,” he said. “If you can find someone who fits those skills, you may have the making of a great new agent.”

Incentives Are Key

Amid the squeeze, ASTA has boosted resources for recruiting at its Web site www.asta.org, and The Travel Institute www.thetravelinstitute.com also offers resources, as well as training.

Chris Russo, president of Denver-based Travel Partners and head of ASTA’s Young Professionals Society, has been aggressive in hiring younger agents and said the average age of his staff is 30 and all have been with the agency at least three years.

Guestrooms Dr. Marc Mancini
teaches students in the Travel
Program at West Los Angeles College.

“I actually have found it is a great time to hire young people,” he said. “Some things I do, I think, that attract younger people is give them flexible scheduling options and the opportunity to specialize in what and where they like to travel & such as either becoming a specialist for a certain area like Mexico or for a certain type of traveler.

“I also let them work for commission, if they want so that they can make as much money as they want and of course there are travel opportunities for training,” he said.

Russo said that while young agents need all of the basic training, most are very fluent with computer technology and also familiar with travel because they have researched it on their own via the Internet.

“My philosophy is if they have all that and a passion for travel, I can teach them sales or send them to & any of the wonderful sales speakers out there to learn more about it,” he said

Still, there are plenty of training challenges for agencies that are able to land new hires.

“I compare a travel agent’s job to a chair. It needs four legs for stability: sales skills, service skills, computer skills and product/destination knowledge. For older recruits, concentrate your training on computer and product knowledge,” said Mancini. “For younger ones, learning about destinations and selling are most important.”

Mancini said that while technology works well with online Webinars and courses, sometimes peer interaction is invaluable. “Our online classes at WLAC are a big hit and work well, but the students themselves admit it’s about convenience. Many blend both online and on-campus to fulfill their studies,” he said.

Weingart

Weingart said Carlson offers in-house training programs and also uses ASTA and CLIA courses. Maryanov starts new agents with specific products and then expands. Holve offers salaried workers who hit a certain threshold a percentage of what they generate for the agency.

Maza said incentives can include recognition; opportunities to network and learn; seminar attendance; product training; a fun working environment; compensation packages that allow agents the ability to earn more if they go the extra mile; and additional responsibilities.

Weingart, who said Carlson has hired four new staff members in the past three months, said his agency praises agents for good work, celebrates birthdays by bringing in lunch and offers merit as well as cost-of-living raises.

“We make major year-end cash distributions based on the year’s profits and the individual’s performance,” he added. And Maryanov said he tries to keep agents motivated with his own enthusiasm for travel.

“Motivation does come from the top down, my personal motivation and their clients’ satisfaction. Most of us are people pleasers in this business,” he said. “Is good money important? Yeah. But there’s also a personal reward when clients come back and send a picture or say they loved their trip. We all eat it up.”

But as agencies reposition their recruiting, hiring and training efforts, Mancini cautions about the outlook if things don’t change.

“What will happen in a decade when the crisis really hits? Three things. Semi-retired agents in their 60s and 70s will work out of their homes to serve their most loyal customers.

“Second: Career changers of all ages will decide to become travel agents, partly because they feel a career selling dreams is better than what they’re doing, partly because the laws of supply and demand will force agent compensation to rise to a more reasonable level especially at mega-agencies.

“Fortunately for the industry, most will bring maturity, cultural literacy, sensitivity to people’s needs and ideally, prior experience with sales skills. Some young people will join them, but not many.

“But a third trend is more ominous,” Mancini said. “When society is faced with a labor shortage, it often turns to automation as a solution. We’ve already seen the beginning of this process, but expect it to become far more sophisticated.”

“I look for a good personality and good phone skills. I actually do an interview on the phone and ask them questions like directions to the airport or to their favorite restaurant so I can see how much detail they go into,” he said.

“We have a reserved parking space to reward someone doing something special. But the best incentive is money. We try to tie it to performance and not just an automatic hike.”

It also pays to hire an agent who is sociable and enjoys generating word of month and referrals for the agency, as well a person who can easily adapt to everything from new technologies to new ways of doing business.

“The environment has changed and hiring and expectations need to change. There is more opportunity in the industry than ever. It’s not doom and gloom there is good stuff out there.”

Maryanov said his agency does not have a career section on its Web site, but he has successfully hired a handful of agents younger than 30. One is a 27-year-old former JetBlue reservation agent.

“I’m interested in how someone approaches people, sales and communication skills. They either have them or they don’t. The rest of it I can teach. I cannot teach people skills,” he said.

Holve said she has used the online site Craigslist.com to advertise for an entry-level receptionist, but amid the plethora of responses there were no qualified candidates. So far, the most effective recruiting she has tried has been word of mouth including putting the word out to businesses in the same building as her agency.

Her agency also has recently rebuilt its Web site and will be adding a career section, and she has reached out to retired flight attendants’ associations and is considering going to school jobs fairs for possible candidates.

Developing New Talent

A survey last year by the ASTA Foundation and the State University of New York at Morrisville found few high school and university students were eagerly pursuing careers in
the travel and tourism industry. Here are some excerpts of
the report’s recommendations:

Consider developing ways to assist high schools and
colleges, including providing current information and
perhaps career seminars and mentoring efforts.

" Embark on a campaign to enhance the professional image of the industry and travel agents to identify career options along with the benefits and rewards of working in travel.

" Reconsider the salaries of travel professionals.

" Inform the public of the capabilities and limitations of Internet travel bookings.

" Focus a marketing campaign on parents, friends,
professors and guidance counselors regarding the benefits
of the industry, perhaps through direct mailings, seminars
and sponsorships at conferences.

" Focus on a public-relations campaign that helps students understand the facets of a career in travel and the number
of employment opportunities available.

" Consider partnering with colleges offering travel programs to extend the reach of current marketing efforts by those colleges.

" Identify a process to provide current and accurate information about travel careers to students, counselors
and professors.

Source: American Society of Travel Agents

Tips for Recruiting

While experience is important in hiring talented agents,
some say other qualities may be even more important
in the changing travel industry. Here are some tips
offered by recruitment experts:

" Most companies hire salespeople based on experience,
but research shows specific personality traits are the real indicator of sales superstars.

" The best salespeople often are results-oriented, positive, competitive, systematic, disciplined and have an extreme focus on a customer’s goals and needs.

" The best sales candidates may not come looking
for you you need to find them.

" Companies not using recruiters should leverage the
network of existing sales teams and others through word of mouth.

" Some of the best online places to search include LinkedIn
or ASTA’s job board.

" Cast a wide net. There are the traditional paths such as classified ads, Monster.com, Craigslist.com, job fairs, professional recruiters and the trade press. But agencies should consider new possibilities such as recruiting flight attendants particularly in major hubs such as Los
Angeles, Chicago, New York, Miami and Dallas.

" Consider an “employment opportunities” section on your agency Web site.

" Consider recruiting via social networks on the Web such
as MySpace.com or Facebook.com, or hiring teachers who are leaving the profession, retiring or looking to go in a new direction.

" Don’t be afraid to hire someone who has no travel background, but has great sales and customer-service skills.

" Look to travel schools like West Los Angeles College, but remember: Everyone else is trying to get those students,
too. Be open to hiring an older, career-changing student. Contact the school to find out when the semester or term ends and recruit then.

" Look for someone who knows why you should hire them.

" Hire a candidate infected with a love of travel. All the education and work experience in the world doesn’t matter
if the agent doesn’t “get it” and love it.

" Once you’ve found a good candidate, use everything from salary and perks to your own enthusiasm to land them.

Sources: Signature Travel Network; Marc Mancini, West Los Angeles College; Ottawa-based search firm Peak Sales Recruiting; Guy Kawasaki, Entrepreneur magazine