G Adventures is recruiting people from across the world to work remotely as the operator’s workforce recovers from the impact of the pandemic.
Founder Bruce Poon Tip said the company had more than 1,000 terminations and furloughs over the course of the Covid crisis but it is now rebuilding its teams as travel restrictions ease and tours resume.
But he told a Travel Weekly webcast that finding the right people is difficult and the operator is facing similar recruitment challenges as others in travel.
“We lost so many smart people…many people just left the industry and they’re not going to return. For us it’s actually painful,” he said.
“We are having recruiting issues, just like anyone…from getting people on the phones to executive management – especially people that are really talented on a leadership level, because people still have reservations about entering the tourism or hospitality industry at this stage.”
He said the challenges have meant more roles are now remote and hybrid working formats have enabled the operator to recruit from a wider talent pool.
“I don’t know if anyone is going to return to five days a week, eight hours a day, working again; if you do, you’re not going to get the best people,” he said.
“When you hired someone before, you probably were looking at people in a five or 10-mile radius from your office that can commute.
“Now we’re hiring people from all over the world and offering flex schedules and starting hubs and bases in different places.”
He admitted it’s a “scary” process because G Adventures has invested so much in its offices to take advantage of the “random collisions of people getting together” and being creative.
“In certain areas, where it’s a bit hard to keep people, in Toronto, Boston or London, we can have remote people, especially in technology, leadership, project management, you can get really great people anywhere,” he told the webcast.
He also admitted he found it difficult to “create energy” in Zoom meetings when they started in the early days of the pandemic but has now grown used to helping nurture innovation during online sessions.
“Going back to normal is not our goal, we have an incredible opportunity to rebuild back better,” he explained.
“We’re a 32-year-old company having the opportunity to rethink things and be a start-up with 30 years’ experience.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being entrepreneurial; one of the most important tenets of that is speed to market.
“When you can’t move quickly, and you can’t react and be nimble as an organisation, it’s death.
“We’re really looking at everything…and how we’re structuring the talent pool with the way we’re working remotely.”
Despite the problems of lockdowns and travel bans, G Adventures continued to innovate, developing new brands such as Roamies, in partnership with Hostelworld.
It has also appointed 10 female chief experience officers in the Middle East and North Africa to mark International Women’s Day.
They are based in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Oman, marking the first time the operator has women tour leaders in all destinations in the Middle East and North Africa region.
“It’s always been a very important thing for us. In some countries, it’s been a hard uphill battle,” said Poon Tip.
“Even in the field, when women are leading trips, they don’t have the respect of some of the other companies that have men.
“But here in 2022, we’ve seen a lot of change; we’ve seen a lot of associations that are training women and are opening the doors for women.”