NEWS e partners at its first overseas conference since 2019. Josie Klein reports from Faro, Portugal


Bircham says peaks success rests on ‘getting staffed up’


S


Alan Cross


taff shortages are set to be the biggest barrier to success in peaks season, Hays Travel North West managing director Don Bircham warned agents.


“The key for us [ahead of peaks season] is to get staffed


up,” he told delegates at the conference. “The customer base is there. We will do a lot of


marketing and run a turn-of-year campaign, so I’m confident we can drag people through the door.” Bircham said there was currently a huge opportunity


for the agency chain to take on new shops as rent levels are reasonable and many retail premises are empty due to business closures over the past few years. However, he said Hays Travel could not move into new


shops because it did not have enough staff to run them. “Prior to Covid, we would find a new shop, take


two staff from our existing network plus three from a competitor and then we would be up and running,” he said. “That model worked extremely well and we could grow


the business quickly. But that model is out the window now because you can no longer get the staff.” Bircham said he and other Hays Travel regional managers


would keep visiting shops at weekends to engage with staff. A Saturday rota for regional managers was set up as


the agency’s shops reopened after the pandemic, and has been kept in place so managers can see how their staff are coping on the busiest day of the week.


vive resort flight check-in


hotels, adding he hoped to see it return from May next year. “It will be a lot of work to bring it


back because we have to get permission from each country’s version of the Civil Aviation Authority, so that will take time,” he said. “But it is definitely something we want


to bring back because people loved it. “We had customers book a particular


hotel because they wanted the service. “Hotels told us they had higher customer


retention when they offered resort flight check-in, so it was clearly popular.”


‘Take risks’: skydiver Alan Cross travelweekly.co.uk “It always baffled me that regional managers would


work from Monday to Friday and then be sat with their feet up at the weekends,” he said. “We introduced a roster during Covid for regional


managers to work one Saturday in every five or six so they could get in the car and drive around the shops in their area to see how staff are getting on. “It was daft we weren’t doing that before and we are going to continue to do it now.”


Operator’s skydivers challenge agents to show ‘courage’


Jet2holidays’ trade team completed a 10,000ft skydive to encourage agents to face their fears. Head of trade Alan Cross, trade


sales general manager Lloyd Cross and national trade sales managers Simon Marshall and Nikki McGuire all jumped out of a plane and a video of their efforts was shown at the conference, which had the theme ‘Who Dares Wins’. The team encouraged agents to


have the “courage and audacity” to confront challenges to succeed and to strive to find ways to grow their


business instead of “looking for excuses to fail”. “This week is all about having


the courage and audacity to take risks to deliver success,” Alan Cross told delegates. “The whole conference has been


built around positivity, motivation and ensuring we are being proactive. “You don’t have to go to the


extreme of jumping out of a plane to challenge yourselves – you can do this at work simply by finding ways to grow your business. We must all take risks and face our fears.”


24 NOVEMBER 2022 11


Don Bircham (right) and Lloyd Cross


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92