Gail Marie Timmer, CTC
Having a multi-generation staff effects the way a travel agency runs and does business. Many workers are continuing their careers past the age they are eligible for retirement. As the older generation stays on the job longer, they increasingly come into contact with the younger generations who are just setting out on their careers and the generations in between.
Each generation has skills and a way of doing business and each generation can teach and mentor the other generation.
Many people assume that mentorship is the older worker mentoring the younger worker, but this is not always the case.
I used to be one of those people who assumed the older generation would teach the newer generation. I never considered that the younger generation could teach me how to be a better travel agent or do my job better until a few young ladies came into our work environment and showed me otherwise. Through a process referred to as reverse mentoring, it is possible for the younger generation to mentor their elders. This means that with proper mentorship between generations in the workplace the result could be workers who possess all of the skills regardless of what generation they come from. This relationship between age groups in the workplace can lead to a significant increase in the talents and skills shared by all workers. With a wide range of skills that are brought to the table by different generations.
Does the younger generation have things to teach the older travel agents? You bet they do!
We thought we would be teaching the new young agents, but we found they have as much to teach us, as we have to teach them.
Our agency consisted of 8 agents ranging in age from 50 to 74 years old. We have a great client base following and between the group have knowledge of most of the world. We as a combined group have traveled to many destinations. But we knew only the basics of using client base and the computer to do our work. We were very inefficient in our computer skill and did most of our work in an outdated computer aspect. Hand typing documents and letters of what to expect and do individually for each traveler for example. We did not use spread sheets for our groups, we would hand write the list which looked unprofessional, compared to a computer typed spread sheet.
We had been hearing for years when attending conventions and seminars by our local group MAST Midwest Agents selling Travel, that the travel agents in the industry were getting older and the industry was not seeing new younger agents coming into the industry. So, when we had the opportunity to hire a young lady under 30 years old, our office jumped at the chance. We thought the agency would benefit because she would have a young following of friends who would want to book travel thru the travel agency. Which she did, but the travel agency soon discovered that she had way more than that to offer. She modernized the agency getting most of us to use 2 monitors. This saved on paper and ink because we were printing less. We optimized our time because instead of writing down client information from client base onto a paper or print it on the xerox machine and then typing it into a booking we could now pull up the information on our 2nd monitor and type the information into the 1st monitor. She helped us understand how to move between the 2 monitors.
Her outgoing friendly attitude motivated us all. Soon she got married and had a baby. She now works from home, as an outside agent for our agency.
We thought the agency could benefit from young people wanting to purchase from young people also.
According to an online line article by Jamie Biesiada March 7, 2018. It is said the Travel industry can benefit from millennials and their purchasing habits are omnipresent. Suppliers’ products have been specifically tailored to that generations. Millennials can even take a river cruise designed just for people their age Agents want them as clients and rightly so, Millennials, as a generation, are highly likely to us a travel agent.
But like every generation, millennials grow older, which is why marketers are slowly adjusting their focus on the younger people coming up behind millennials: Generation Z, the oldest of whom are in their 20s.
They’re already buying their own travel and perhaps even more importantly today, they are heavily influencing their families’ travel decisions, oftentimes planning entire vacations bankrolled by mom and dad.
Marketers are increasingly looking to reach Gen Z, which by some calculations is now the largest generation in the U.S., or very close to it.
Lynn Kaniper, president of marketing agency Dana Communications said, “I do feel like they exert influence on their families and their travel decisions, and I do think that is why it ‘s so important for us to be considering them and not saying ‘ These guys are too young, ‘ or, ‘They’re not really who we’re going after.’ They do influence.”
We heard through friends there was a young lady in town who just graduated from college with a degree in tourism and offered her a job. She is of the age of being the youngest Millennials or the oldest Generation Z. We found she was eager to participate and had a friendly and helpful personality. She showed us how we could use spread sheets to help keep track of our destination weddings and keep them in the computer for all to view and update as clients added into the wedding group. She set up the office to do weekly zoom calls during the Covid 19 pandemic and keep everyone connected and updated while we practiced social distancing and worked from home.
We felt the weekly zoom calls worked so good thru Covid 19 to keep moral up and the office connected that we are continuing our weekly meeting to keep the outside agents and inside agents connected with each other and updated. Even though most of the agents have now returned to working inside the office. We are able to update each other with new policies and talk thru situations that may have come up during the past week. Advise of special packages we have found. We also are able to hear about a fellow agent’s trip to a destination to hear any updates on hotels and the destination.
We hired another young lady She is our youngest and falls into the Generation Z category. She was originally hired to do our social media. She has been working on doing Instagram and posting for our office. She has also made a few tick tock videos for the travel agency getting some of the older generation agents to do fun unique thing to post on tick tock.
She has showed us how to use client base to the fullest. We are now attaching passports and documents to clients’ profiles in client base in the attachment section. She has step up a spread sheet for each agent to store their passwords for each company along with the website information to go online and book trips. This enables us to sell travel from our homes or even when out of our homes and the agency. We can book travel over the phone or on the internet with our smartphones now that we can find the link and password information so easily thru Microsoft teams, which is linked on all of our phones. She showed us what to do to set up our phones. We can now check and answer emails from our cell phones. We can go onto Microsoft teams to check our office work schedule and meetings from anywhere using our phones. She has set up Zoom on our cell phone so we can attend our weekly meetings if we are out of the office. She has made a general spread sheet for any agent to access with phone numbers for each company and special departments within the tour companies that we can contact for help.
We are now offering electronic documents instead of paper documents to clients if the client wants the documents that way instead of the paper options, which costs the agency money to print and mail.
We have detailed letters stored explaining to clients what to expect on their trip, instead of having to hand type each time or verbally tell them and they forget. This way we can still go over the details in person with the client, but they later have a piece of paper or can refer online to the email we send with the remainder of what to expect while on their vacation.
I attribute all of these new modernizations to our younger staff. Without the younger generation showing us how to use the computer better we would still be using our older slower way of doing business.
This way we can use our time to book and service our guest better. It also allows us to do more quotes and booking during our day instead of having to work late to get the job done.
Millennials are prone to using technology to transform workflows and increase workplace efficiency.
Millennials have grown up with technology. In fact, they’re the last generation to remember a world without the internet in every home. Since they have had such widespread exposure to the evolution of tech, they expect technology to be a part of their work culture as well.
Understanding millennials and technology in the workplace is key to the success of your company.
In turn the older generation who has been selling travel for 30 years or more showed the newer agents in the office procedures and where to find information sites to book travel. We set them up with passwords and sign ins. Showed them how to find information about where a passport is needed and if a visa or vaccines are required for travel.
We advised them where to look for information on Covid 19 rules if a test is needed before travel and for how long before travel the test needs to be done or if they need to quarantine and for how long. Also when the new agents get a new booking we talk to them about where is a good locations for the customer to travel and why we feel this would be a good vacation choice for the client. We explain the difference between the hotels and what the resort offers, such as additional amenities and the dinning nights allowed and if reservations are required to eat in the resort restaurants. We walk them thru and explain how to follow thru on a reservation before, during and after the trip. Show them how to issue the documents and what additional information should be included in the documents. This helps them how to learn to sell travel on their own.
They are very quick to learn.
Our owner has them do online training and learning. MAST -Midwest Agents Selling Travel has a great learning program that has been helpful to the new agents along with numerous tour, cruise and hotel learning programs.
In conclusion having a multi-generational staff has been a beneficial asset to our travel agency.
We all learn from each other and work extremely well together. I feel these young ladies are young enough to be our daughters and we all immediately cared for them. The younger ladies in turned seems to care for us, maybe they think of us as someone who could be friends with their mothers. They are so friendly, respectful, and eager to learn.
We have a great work situation and enjoy doing travel related activities, office picnics and parties together which furthers the workplace environment.
We have went on office rewards trips and the younger ladies bring board games of drawings and guess games that we have never played before. We have played Camma Cabuchi a singing song game the young ladies played when they were cheerleaders in school with them, which until 2 years ago I had never heard of. We have sung karaoke at the resorts when it was offered at the resort, these young ladies have gotten us to do fun exciting things on these office trips.
All of these things increase the workplace environment and help us to know and understand each other better.
As said in an article in FOND online “An engaged workforce is not only more productive, but also reduces employee turnover as well.”
We work well together because of all of these factors.
I hope our agency is able to add more multi-generational staff to continue this practice it has worked so well for our office.
References
MAST Vacation Partners, INC.
www.mvptravel.com
Taylor Brundage
Generations Working together; The Pros and Cons Employers, Job Seekers July 25, 2016
Jamie Biesiada
They’re not millennials: Targeting Generation Z
Travel Weekly Magazine March 7, 2018
Millennials and Technology in the Workplaces: 4 Ways You Can Use Tech to Improve Millennials Engagement
August 22, 2019, Fond Technologies, Inc.
