Vertical Travel Group unveiled plans to double its number of agents in the next two years at its annual conference in Cyprus.
The group currently has around 180 homeworkers who work for brands including Holiday Elite and Your Holiday Booking, but its head of recruitment revealed plans to grow considerably.
Damian Mc Donough, business development manager, told Travel Weekly the firm could have 400 homeworkers within two years.
“Our plan is to double the group in terms of homeworkers,” he said. “It’s an ongoing process and there’s no real cap on it – we’re just going to keep growing.
“There’s no reason we couldn’t be sat here in a year or two with 400 workers. My role used to be mainly focused on the accommodation and transfers side of things, but now it’s solely focused on recruitment.”
Mc Donough stressed the company is only employing “quality agents with experience” rather than those new to the industry, and said the firm is “well positioned” to cope with the expansion.
He said the firm is hiring on average 40 new employees per year, and believes an increasing number of agents will turn to homeworking as they seek a more flexible work-life balance post-Covid.
“We know we can support the growth because of the way we’re structured as a company,” he said. “We have fantastic marketing and technology resources there, and they can always be expanded too if needed.”
Chief executive Peter Healey said that while growth is key to Vertical’s plans, the group’s primary focus is on existing employees.
“We’ve got about 180 homeworkers across the group and our objective is to grow that number, but our main priority is making the people who are already with us more successful,” he said.