Family-friendly job opportunities for mums aren’t that easy to come by in the UAE but there is a brilliant opportunity for anyone who fancies being a Travel Counsellor with flexible working hours around your family…Travel Counsellors allows mums to have a flexible work-life balance and launch their own business in the dynamic and interesting world of travel.  Woman@work asked Travel Counsellors’ Recruitment & Sales Manager, Holly McCann, what the process was to become a Travel Counsellor;

What makes people decide to become a Travel Counsellor (TC) here in The UAE?

The main reason people decide to set up their own business with us is that they have a huge passion for travel and lots of entrepreneurial spirits. We have different routes to entry into the business depending on the level of previous experience including our Travel Academy which is designed for people who haven’t actually had any previous work experience selling travel, last year over 50% of the new TCs that joined us in the UAE came via that route. Our business is built on delivering exceptionally high levels of customer service so along with the passion for travel joiners will have attention to detail, an ability to exceed customers expectations and go that extra mile. Also with the business being a work from home model it lends itself well to Mums who need more flexibility around their working hours.

How do people make initial enquiries and decide if the business is right for them?

I am that first point of contact for anyone looking to find out more about Travel Counsellors here in The UAE, generally that starts with an initial phone call where I can explain in detail how the business model works, what the commercial arrangements are and discuss your previous experience to confirm which route to entry we can consider you for, Another great source of information is our free “discovery session’, we hold these informal but informative sessions near our office in Business Bay once a month. The session begins with a presentation about the business, we then have a couple of our Travel Counsellors who are already running their business here come in to share their experience firsthand. The session ends with a Q&A session where the Travel Counsellors in attendance and I can answer all the questions you might have.

What’s the recruitment process for people once they decide they want to apply?

Generally, the 1^st stage is a 121 interview with me, I go through your CV get to know more about you and your motivations behind setting up your own travel business. I can also answer any additional questions that will have come up since the discovery session. I can arrange this meeting either in our office in Business Bay or as I also spend some time working from home, I can arrange to meet for a coffee nearer to your home if that’s preferred.

After that interview we ask you to complete a business planning exercise where you can get your ideas down on paper; what type of travel you think you’ll be selling, where you can find customers, how much time you have to dedicate to the business, what your financial expectations are various other points that are good to consider before launching the business.

When you return the business plan to me, I can then arrange a final meeting with Maggie our General Manager and Katie from Business Development who works closely with the new TCs during their first year in business. During that meeting, your plans are reviewed and time is taken to explain in more detail the type of support you can expect from the operations and business development team in Dubai.

At the end of this process, most people will have drawn a conclusion about whether a career as a Travel Counsellor is right for them and generally by that point, we will be in a position to confirm if we are happy to extend a contract to you. We don’t take everyone who applies and it’s really important that we get people who are the right fit and bring the skills we are looking for in future business partners.

What is the onboarding process?

After signed contracts are received, we will get you booked onto an induction. Depending on which route of entry you are joining through the initial induction will be between 1 and 3 weeks. We run these inductions very regularly and generally avoid school holidays. Prior to the in-office induction there are some pre-induction activities to be getting on with including creating content for your social media and webpage, getting to know more about the most popular products and locations we sell and finding that all-important photograph for your Travel Counsellors profile (this is always the thing that makes people the most time).

After you have completed your in-office induction that’s when your new business will officially “go live”!! It’s such an exciting time and can be a little nerve-wracking but don’t worry the Head Office team are all here to support you along with your new colleagues in the TC family.

————————————————————————————–

If you are interested in exploring a career as a Travel Counsellor you can contact Holly directly on 047036803 via holly.mccann@travelcounsellors.com or you can register to come along to one of the discovery sessions here – https://hubs.ly/H0hHxwg0