Barrhead Travel plans to have a “wellness champion” in every store by the end of the year.
President Jacqueline Dobson revealed the travel agency chain had “invested heavily in our people during the pandemic in terms of training and wellness”.
Speaking to Travel Weekly as a delegation from US parent Internova flew into London this week, she explained: “Sometimes staff don’t want to talk to their manager or to HR.
“These people [wellness champions] are independent; someone members of the team could have a confidential chat with.
“We are working with a local college to train people in mental health.”
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Dobson explained every manager would undergo the training, and a volunteer from each store will become its wellness champion.
In terms of other training, Dobson explained that – due to furlough, or because many staff been working on NHS Scotland contracts – some staff had not worked in travel for more than a year.
Those staff are now being given three to five days of training courses to refresh them on the processes and product changes, as well as all the new travel restrictions that have come in to play in the last 15 months.
She revealed Barrhead Travel was also launching a new training hub that could be accessed by each of its staff, even those still on furlough or working for the NHS.
Barrhead also operates a week’s Holiday Helpdesk, giving staff the latest country-by-country travel advice so they can confidently advise their customers.
“There’s no one system that’s accurate and in real-time, so we do it weekly for all our staff,” Dobson explained.
She added that a new phone system had just been installed, with new technology and functionality that links to Barrhead’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, enabling each travel agent to give better service to their clients.