Introduction

In today’s fast-moving business climate, unfortunately training and development is rarely viewed as a potential source of competitive advantage. However, with the qualified labor market being stretched to its absolute limit by the expansion of the service sector and all-time low unemployment rates, travel agencies are finding it more and more difficult to find and retain qualified employees. Forced to produce more with less—lower commissions and fewer personnel—there’s even greater pressure on agency managers to increase productivity.

As travel agencies shift from a reactive, transaction-oriented culture to being a proactive sales organization, though, increased productivity no longer means just polishing CRS skills. Industry trends, such as airline deregulation and direct sales via the Internet, are forcing agencies to become more creative in their marketing and sales efforts.  While coaching and on-the-job training appear to be very inexpensive and effective solutions, putting out fires rather than providing formal training is inefficient, stressful, and often results in lost business opportunities. Agency success and even business survival will depend on agencies acquiring and utilizing a multitude of new business strategies and skills.

The new breed of travel agent will have a wider range of duties and responsibilities:  expanding the agency’s customer base, selling corporate/leisure/specialty travel, booking reservations, increasing customer retention through direct marketing, researching up-to-date information on the Internet, and advising travelers on destinations, escorted tours, sightseeing trips, cruises, and customs requirements—all with an eye on providing exceptional customer service while contributing to the agency’s bottom line by promoting preferred vendors.

Savvy agency owners no longer view training and development as a luxury or necessary evil. Instead, they see formal training as a fast and cost-effective strategy for improving productivity, profits, growth, sales, and customer service.  Training also helps employees see how their jobs support the agency, enhancing their pride and job performance. Training is a morale builder, a vote of confidence showing that you appreciate and value your employees’ contributions and continued employment.

In this Plus Guide to Just-In-Time Training, you will learn how your agency can benefit from a formal training program, how to identify the skills your agency and specific agents need to meet your goals, how to find cost-effecting training, and how to integrate learning into your agency so you and your agents will reap your rewards.

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BEGIN INSIDE COVER

Making the Most of Your Training Budget

Last year American businesses spend 2.35% of their payroll,  over $60 billion, for employee training. Unfortunately, almost every employee who received training works for a company with more than 10,000 employees. Small businesses, travel agencies included, are quick to cite the need for training but too slow to make the investment.

These practices, though, are in stark contrast to the beliefs that small business managers express about their training needs. To compete in today’s market, they believe that their employees need training in how to effectively promote their small business and increase sales.

          Most studies show that employers that improve work skills have higher retention. Training is a more powerful force at keeping employees than increased compensation. Investing in education programs has been shown to improve attitude and behavior. Trained employees are more willing to take responsibility. And, trained employees prevent problems and catch errors. This translates into improvements in sales volume, profit, workflow and on-time deliveries.

            View your training budget as a revenue-generating tool, not a welfare fund. To achieve the best value from your training budget here are some recommendations:

·    Ask the question “Why?” The answer must be to gain a clear long-term financial benefit.

·    Be choosy. Look for training programs with clearly stated objectives that are in line with your goals for the agency and for the employee attending the training.

·    Make sure that the expected benefits can be measured and evaluated through testing, anecdotal, or established job-performance measures.

·    Train for tomorrow – your employees need to be ready to face the challenges of tomorrow not just the needs of today.

·    Try out new ideas especially through the development of information technology and alternative techniques that can be more cost-effective than established approaches.

·    Ensure that the “lessons” are put into practice after the training, following up to assist with any difficulties.

As with any investment, give it time. ROI for a training program may not become evident in a month or two. Some benefits take longer to materialize. Know which benefits you’re looking for and balance your expectations with a little patience.  

END INSIDE COVER

BEGIN NEEDS ASSESSMENT/SKILLS

Skills to Compete

As the retail travel industry moves toward a more consultative role, the skills the agency and the agent need are changing. Some of the new skills include relationship building, research, specialization, itinerary planning/writing, and more comprehensive trip planning. In an era when knowledge rather than physical assets will increasingly define your competitive advantage, training employees is an investment that every agency must make. The future belongs to those that can grow their knowledge and then apply these new skills best.

Using existing documentation and on-the-job training, agency owners often do a good job of teaching the basics; for example, providing product knowledge and pricing information. However, they often overlook or do not systematically address higher-level CRS skills that increase productivity, and the “softer” sides of the job, such as good telephone techniques, handling customer complaints, providing good customer service, quality assurance, and so forth. The success of the agency, though, may hinge as much on these aspects of performance as on basic technical competency.

So, how can small agencies develop their employees to remain competitive? Without a training department. Without professional trainers. And, without classrooms. The answer lies in utilizing industry-sponsored training programs, Internet-based courses, and generic sales and customer service training packages.

To take the best advantage of these vast training resources, agency owners and managers should first assess their training needs – for the agency as well as for each individual agent. With limited resources, every training dollar you spend should help you achieve specific goals such as improving productivity, improving quality, increasing sales, utilizing technology, or expanding your customer base.

What does the agency need?

First, you owe it to yourself to systematically examine the way your agency functions now and the way it should be. Will you attain the goals you’ve set for this year? Next year? What are your agency’s strengths? Weaknesses? What keeps you from expanding your customer base? Increasing sales? Being more productive? Do you fight fires all day? Why?

            As you perform your analysis, anticipate future needs due to impending changes such adding a new product line or losing an experienced employee to retirement. Consider opportunities and new directions that could give you a competitive edge, like taking advantage of new technologies or specializing.

Of course not all of your agency’s problems may be attributable to a lack of training. Perhaps you need to change the workflow or you need additional staff. But if some of your headaches and lost opportunities are due to a lack of knowledge and skills, formal training may be your best answer.

What do your agent’s need?

            Don’t be in too big of a hurry to send someone to a seminar until you have taken the time to pinpoint specific needs and have identified training solutions that will produce the results you expect. Start your training needs analysis by developing a customized checklist or by using a job description or  performance appraisal form. On each factor critical to your agency’s performance, rate each agent from zero (unsatisfactory) to five (excellent). Give a separate rating for knowledge (don’t know), current skill (can’t do), and performance (won’t do). The results of this analysis will help you identify what specific training will be best suited for improving the individual performance of each employee. The chart below is an example of one you might create.

Agent Needs Analysis

                                                                              Knowledge         Skill       Performance 

Sales Ability

Rapport building

Persuasiveness

Listening skills

Ability to assess needs

Ability to match products to needs

Ability to close a sale

Travel Industry Expertise

Destination knowledge

Product knowledge

Specialty travel (e.g., scuba, golf)

Mode of travel (e.g., train, barge)

Customer expertise (e.g., seniors, families)

Interpersonal Skills

Initiative

Enthusiasm

Detail tracking

Judgment

Resilience

CRS Experience

Basic Worldspan system skills

Issuing Documents

Car Select^®

Hotel Select^®

Queues

World Files^SM

Tour Source^® /Cruise Line Source^®

             Once you’ve defined the gaps between current and expected levels of proficiency, rank your priorities. Where can you get the biggest bang for your training bucks? By improving CRS skills? By increasing product knowledge? Or, by improving sales skills? Decide where you’ll reap the greatest return with your training investment.

Now you’re ready to use your checklist to develop specific performance objectives and counsel with each employee about how a custom-designed training solution can improve his/her performance, as well as help the agency meet it’s goals.

END NEEDS ASSESSMENT/ SKILLS

BEGIN PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

Establish Performance Objectives

Many training programs produce marginal results because little attempt was made at defining and documenting performance objectives prior to the training. A performance objective describes a proposed change in the behavior of the employee after the training is completed as well as a standard or criterion for measuring acceptable performance.

If you define clear-cut performance objectives before the training:

·      The employee will know what behavioral changes are required and expected

·      You will better know which training resources will meet your goals

·      You will have objective measures for evaluating the effectiveness of the training.  

Writing Performance Objectives

Using the results of your gap analysis for each employee, identify the performance objectives for each area that you believe training will successfully address. Suppose, for example, that a relatively new agent, Sharon , needs to improve her listening skills. She’s always interrupting and cutting off customers mid sentence. This interferes with Sharon ’s ability to build rapport as well as to close sales because she does not gather enough information to relate the benefits of her recommendations to the customers’ needs. If you express your training goals for Sharon in terms of performance objectives you might say:

            Following training, Sharon must:

·      Stop interrupting customers mid sentence.

·      Redirect customers only when they start to ramble or repeat themselves.

·      Take notes as customers describe their travel needs.

·      Stop shuffling papers and doing busy work while talking with customers.

·      Give positive responses to show that she’s listening; for example, saying “yes” or “uh-huh” during the conversation.

·      Repeat what customers say and request to confirm accurate understanding.

·      Ask probing questions to further understand the customers needs and desires.

·      Use the information gathered during interviews to make recommendations and close sales.

                  Notice that each of these items is expressed as an action: to start or stop behaving in a specific manner. Written in simple terms, the expectation can be easily understood and visualized.

Using Performance Objectives

            Performance objectives can be used to communicate performance expectations to your employees, to establish performance standards, and to help you locate the best training resources for improving performance.

            Communicating Performance Expectations: Employees, particularly new employees, have a right to know objectively how well they are doing. Performance objectives tend to become an open, honest contract between the trainee and the agency so that each party knows clearly what is expected: “If I can learn to do these things and demonstrate proficiency in doing them, my performance will be satisfactory.”

Setting Performance Standards: Sometimes setting performance standards is simple, like the ability to type 50 words per minute with a maximum of two errors. However, most of the time establishing a standard for measuring acceptable performance is not so straightforward. If you examine the action-oriented performance objectives developed for Sharon , though, you’ll see that it would not take much effort to turn these requirements into a fairly simple performance checklist that can be used to evaluate performance before and after the training. More about that later.

            Selecting Appropriate Training: Most course descriptions detail the training objectives and skills that will be taught. If you find a good match between your performance objectives and those of the course, you have a much better chance that the training will accomplish your goals.

            Identifying and documenting measurable performance objectives for each employee is  vital for communicating training gaps with employees, selecting the “best” training resources, and measuring training results. Knowing what you want to accomplish with training before it begins greatly increases the likelihood that you will achieve your training goals.

END PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

BEGIN LEARNING ENVIRONMENT/MOTIVATION

What’s in it for me?

Adults don’t learn a skill simply because you order them to or because you send them to a workshop. Adults learn (and hear) only what they are ready to learn (and hear). Thus, the challenge for the busy agency owner and manager is to individualize training benefits in such a way that each employee will have a desire to learn the content with a minimal amount of coaching and direction: to accept responsibility for his/her own learning.

If you don’t make the effort to help employees understand how they will personally benefit from training, their learning will be hampered by questions like:

·        What am I doing here? I already know this stuff.

·        How’s this going to help? This isn’t the way we do it.

·        How long is this going to take? I need to get back to my customers.

To head off these objections, convey to employees the personal benefits they will gain from mastering the material and subsequently changing specific work habits and processes back on the job. For example, the immediate benefits to a new agent for attending a sales training program might be to increase his commission by closing more sales. A single mother, needing to cook dinner for her young children each day, might want to improve her CRS mastery so she won’t have to work overtime to complete transactions. To increase her commissions, as well as further agency goals, a seasoned employee might take a class to expand the agency’s presence in a specialty such as selling cruises.

Discuss Training Goals

To help employees understand and buy into your training recommendations, utilize the information generated by the needs analysis for your agency and for each employee to discuss individual training plans:

·      Explain the big picture and how the agent’s skills and performance are critical to the agency and its future.

·      Provide performance feedback, focusing solely on behavior. Discuss the perceived gaps in the agent’s skill versus agency needs and your expectations.

·      Discuss the relevance of the skill to the overall quality of service and agency performance. Detail the consequences of errors and inefficiencies.

·      Offer specific training solutions for attaining needed skills and meeting performance requirements.

·      Explain that the skills taught and methods used in the recommended training program are the best available for achieving the goals.

·      Discuss alternative methods, as needed for comparison.

·      Discuss your expectations and set clear-cut training objectives.

·      Define measurable performance goals, if possible [increased sales, less overtime, reduced transaction time, etc.].

·      Invite questions and suggestions.

Gaining commitment from the employee prior to training will enhance the learning experience for the employee as well as improve the results when the person returns to the job. Preparing your employees to benefit from  training is one of the best ways you can maximize the results from your training investments.

Recognizing Achievement

When employees were asked to rank the top ten items that that they wanted from their jobs, recognition was ranked #2. While most people are highly motivated by achieving their own goals (promotion/growth ranked #6), if their extra effort goes unnoticed, they may begin to wonder why they should bother with training.

Even on a shoestring budget, you can give a sincere thank you that will make your employee feel valued and reinforce training results. Select your reward carefully and thoughtfully based on that person’s particular needs and taste. Ask peers, friends, and family members for ideas, if you cannot think of one – much like you would if you were buying a birthday present. Recognition  “personalized” in this manner will have much greater meaning than its actual cash value.

The manner in which you present the reward is almost as important as the reward itself. Express your appreciation personally: in person, with a thank you note on personal stationery, or even an e-mail message. Recognize the person’s achievement at a regularly scheduled meeting so everyone will know that you value training. Or, bring donuts and coffee to a special presentation during your morning coffee break. As appropriate, ask the employee to share some of his/her new knowledge with your staff, gaining further benefit from the training. Make sure, though, that you don’t embarrass a shy person with too much exposure or fanfare.

Adult learners will be much more motivated to invest time and energy into training if they know in advance what the benefits will be to them personally as well as to the agency. By recognizing training achievements, agency owners can reinforce the value of training to the agency as well as foster a positive climate for continuous improvement through learning.

BEGIN REWARDS SIDEBAR

Typical Rewards

·        Bonus

·        Bulletin board notice

·        Certificate of achievement (framed)

·        Courtesy time off

·        Engraved desk accessory

·        Engraved plaque

·        Gift certificate (dinner)

·        Jewelry (pin or pendant)

·        Personal note saying “thank you”

·        Parking privileges

·        Press release to local newspaper

·        Professional or trade association membership

·        Promotion/job title change

·        Recognition at an employee meeting

·        Savings bond

·        Salary increase

·        Taking the employee to lunch

·        Tickets to an event – sporting or cultural

·        Trophy or ribbon

·        Tuition reimbursement for continued education

END REWARDS SIDEBAR

END LEARNING ENVIRONMENT/MOTIVATION

BEGIN TRAINING OPTIONS SIDEBAR

Unraveling the Training Maze

In the past, training employees has ranked among the five worst things about being your own boss. Why? Not enough time, not enough money, and it’s too complicated. Well, no more. Take off your trainer hat and dawn your career counselor uniform.

Effective career counseling is based on mutual respect, acceptance of other people and their limitations, and a belief that employees can best solve their own problems. So your job as career counselor becomes one of assessing training gaps, providing measurable performance objectives, listening, and guiding employees to effective training resources – a job not unlike providing travel advice to your customers. To become an effective career counselor, you only need to familiarize yourself with the features and benefits of some new “destinations” -- in the form of training resources.

Travel Industry Sources

One of the best places to begin your search for training is with the national travel associations that offer training:

ARTA -- Association of Retail Travel Agents (www.artaonline.com)

ASTA – American Society of Travel Agents (www.astanet.com)

CLIA – Cruise Lines International Association (www.cruising.org)

ICTA – Institute of Certified Travel Agents (www.icta.com)

Additional travel-trade training is offered by vendors such as Worldspan (www.worldspan.com) and independent training firms such as Technology Marketing Associates that provides Internet-based courses via www.TheAcademy.com.

            A complete listing of these extensive offerings designed specifically to meet the needs of travel agencies is inserted into this publication for your review.

Other Training Sources

            Many universities, community colleges, and vocational schools also offer courses for travel agents, as well as general sales, marketing, and customer service curricula. Their continuing adult education programs may include guest lecturers and satellite-transmitted telecasts featuring well-known experts. Check with your local institutions to discover the resources available in your vicinity.

Don’t overlook your library system. In addition to extensive collections of business “how-to” books, many provide a broad range of off-the-shelf training programs including computer-based CD-ROMs as well as audio and videotapes. Bookstores also stock training programs and self-help workbooks worthy of investigation.

If you have a number of employees that need similar training, or if you can partner with another agency in your area, you may be able to hire a consultant to custom design a training program. If you do, be sure the consultant has experience in the travel industry. Some community colleges will design private classes for companies as well as provide the facilities for your staff to meet in.

If you have large employers in your area, contact their training departments to see if their  classes are available to non-employees. If so, determine if any of their offerings could benefit your staff.

Choosing the “Right” Training Design

            Choosing the “right” training program for an employee goes beyond simply identifying a package that provides the desired content as reflected by your performance objectives. Not only must it be right for your agency, but it must also help your employee meet your training goals.

Agencies are generally limited to two types of training: on-the-job and offsite. Some prefer on-the-job training because the training is performed in the office with little time lost from regular work. Offsite training can be local or require travel. Either way, if the training is required, the agency will be responsible for paying the employee’s salary during the training.

After you’ve found a training resource that appears to meet your needs, evaluate the cost (tuition and travel), dates offered, time required offsite, stated goals, etc. The class might be excellent, but if it’s not offered for six months, you may not be able to wait. Or, if it requires being offsite for a week, you may need to schedule it for a slow period.

In addition, examine the training methods. Is it mostly lecture? Does it offer a workshop where the employee can practice new skills? Is it a correspondence class that the employee can work on at his/her own pace? While all of these formats can be effective, keep in mind that people have different learning styles: Some learn better in a lecture environment, others learn by reading, and others learn by doing. Some people learn better when they work at their own pace and on their own time using a workbook or computer-based training via CD-ROM or the Internet.

In general, a combination of learning approaches is more interesting and produces better results; for example, using various combinations of lecture, hands-on exercises, reading, video, group problem solving, interactive computer-based materials, and so forth. The important thing is to match the training method to the employee’s learning style. (See also Training Method Pros and Cons.)

As a career counselor, your job is to identify your employees’ skill gaps, understand their learning style, and select training resources designed to meet specific performance objectives – a needs analysis and sales process with which agency owners are already familiar and comfortable.

BEGIN METHODS SIDEBAR

Training Method Pros and Cons  

Correspondence: Printed materials provide course content. Trainee may send completed lessons and/or quizzes together with questions to a trainer who will provide feedback via mail, e-mail, or phone.  

Lecture: Presents training material verbally, for the most part in one-way communication. By aiming at an average level, some attendees may be bored and others lost. Some people will be too shy to ask questions. May be difficult to translate skills directly to the job without simulation or workshop practice.  

Workshop/Role Playing/Simulation: Attempts to recreate situations and problems encountered on the job so attendees can apply and practice their new knowledge and skills. This method is particularly effective for teaching CRS, sales, and customer service techniques.  

Audiovisual: Television, videotapes, and films are very effective at providing real-world conditions and situations in a short timeframe. Unlike lectures that can vary from one presentation to the next, the message is consistent and of high quality. Without a live coach or instructor, however, there is not opportunity for questions and interactions to help clarify and assimilate the information.  

Computer-Based/Internet Training: Computer-aided or Internet instruction allow trainees to learn at their own pace. In addition, they can bypass material that does not apply or that they’ve already mastered. Sometimes an automated post-test is provided to assess proficiency.

END METHODS SIDEBAR

END TRAINING OPTIONS

BEGIN EVALUATION

Putting Your Training Dollars to Work

There are a number of questions you can ask to assess if an employee benefited from training:

·        Did the employee enjoy the training? Does he/she feel good about it?

·        Did the employee learn and remember enough to pass a test? [The test may be administered in the class or it may be an oral discussion you have with the employee.]

·        Can the employee demonstrate learned behaviors and skills on the job?

·        Has the training had a positive affect on bottom-line business performance indicators such as sales, productivity, error rates, overtime, or transaction volume?

While the answers to each of these questions are interesting to know, the real crux of the matter for any given employee comes down to whether or not the training has met your written performance objectives by narrowing skill gaps and positively changing targeted behaviors.

An easy way to assess if your training goals have been met is by turning the performance objectives developed for an employee into a Performance Checklist. For example, the listening skills performance objectives listed earlier could quickly become a tailored Listening Performance Checklist. By rating the employee on each item from zero (very poor) to five (excellent) -- before and after training – it would be relatively easy to assess if performance changed and the training objectives had been met.

Keep in mind that while some positive results may surface immediately – enthusiasm, increased confidence, and greater efficiency, for example -- others may take awhile to appear. Mastering newly learned sales skills, for example, can be very difficult and only accomplished after much practice. Reward employees for attempting to change their habits. Follow-up frequently so they don’t fall back into bad habits. You may need to provide additional coaching and training to bring all of the behaviors up to acceptable standards.

If the training results do not measure up to your expectations, don’t jump to the conclusion that the employee didn’t try hard enough. Investigate further to determine if the class adequately addressed the subject. Make sure that the work environment, itself, is not hampering the utilization of new skills. Discuss barriers to applying the training with the employee and attempt to remedy the situation as quickly as possible. For example, you may need to acquire new technology, alter your processes, or rearrange your office layout.

The success of any training effort depends largely on how well you assess the skill gap, define measurable performance objectives, communicate your performance expectations, motivate employees to change, select the appropriate training, and follow-up to make sure the learning is integrated into the job. By having a clear strategy for identifying needs, valuing learning in your agency, and insisting that training demonstrate a return on investment, you can have greater confidence in achieving the best possible value for your agency.

END EVALUATION

END PLUS 9