Finding & Keeping Young Agents
by Robin Amster /Travel agents looking to hire young talent should consider recruiting through local universities’ study abroad program as well as community college practicum programs, according to Jason Coleman.
Coleman, a vacation and cruise consultant in Los Angeles, is a past president of ASTA’s Young Professionals Society and a travel industry instructor at West Los Angeles College. He spoke on finding, recruiting and retaining young agents at last week’s Travel Market 2014 conference in Boca Raton, Fla.
Recruitment ideas
Recruiting young talent in the aging travel agent community continues to be a major issue for agencies who want to grow their staffs, said Coleman, who sells travel using the business name Jason Coleman, Inc.
Coleman told agents a good place to find young talent is through local universities’ study abroad programs. “These students make for great prospects,” he said. “They also have experience of a sort in that they’ve travelled abroad.”
Other avenues for finding young candidates include considering practicum students from local community college travel programs and conducting an after-hours agent training program at your agency.
Forget newspaper ads
Do not, however, place a newspaper ad for prospects, Coleman cautioned. Millennials don’t look to newspapers for job opportunities; instead they’re on LinkedIn or online job sites.
It’s also counter-productive to ask job candidates for too many industry-specific prerequisites, including GDS knowledge or a book of business, he said.
“Where does someone get that if they’re trying to get into the business?” he asked. “To think that a new hire can hit the ground running is unrealistic. Look at this [hiring] as a long-term investment.”
No advancement potential
Many new hires leave an agency because they don’t see a route to advancement, Coleman said.
“They usually don’t go to another agency but they’ll move to a job with a supplier,” he said. “So provide new agents with a picture of how they can advance.”
It’s also important to provide new hires with “clear and tangible performance expectations” that are more than just the dollar amount of their sales.
Hiring no-nos
Coleman said one hiring no-no is to offer new agents commission earnings only.
Agency owners and managers may find that a surprising piece of advice, but Coleman said new and unseasoned agents might feel they’re facing a sink-or-swim scenario if they are only offered commission compensation.
“Most successful young agents – those who stay more than 18 months [with an agency] –start on a salary and slowly are moved off that,” he said.
“Also don’t oversell the travel perks of the job, because those who only have a passion for travel don’t usually do very well in sales,” he said. “But don’t fail to recognize the benefits you are able to offer such as education and the ability to advance in your organization.”
Holding on to new agents
To retain young agents, it is of prime importance to let them do the job for which they were hired.
Don’t put them to work on the office tech help desk or on social media efforts, areas in which many people think millennials are accomplished, Coleman said.
If a younger candidate is hired as an agent, he or she shouldn’t be steered into areas they didn’t apply for; that only leads to frustration and discontent, he said.
Agency owners and managers should also mentor new hires “to death,” encourage them to get involved in the travel industry and be open to their new ideas.
“They’re new to the business,” Coleman said. “So they don’t know things like, ‘Why we’ve always done it this way.’ Allow them the flexibility to try, with your leadership, new things.”