Travel is something that an employee can handle in one of two ways. They may see travel as a terrible chore full of jetlag and hassle, or they get excited and look forward to every plane trip. Any business with travel-heavy roles has likely learned this difference the hard way, and that it can be challenging to find someone with all the right skills who also adores the travel required for the job.
So today, we’re spotlighting how to find that perfect employee who has everything you need and is ready to hit the road (or take flight) again and again. The key is not just to seek someone who enjoys travel, but to also put effort into making your business trip travel enjoyable.
1) Advertise Travel as a Job Perk
Start by changing your own company culture’s attitude about travel. If travel for work is treated as a chore in the office, then it will feel like a chore even for the most travel-loving professional in the business. Travel is an amazing perk for the right person, and you want someone who feels that way to answer your job advertisement. You want someone who asks when their first flight will be during the interview, not someone who accepts travel as a necessary part of taking the job.
So advertise positively. Market your travel-heavy jobs as awesome roles just waiting for the right travel-lover with the right skill set to apply. Talk about travel in a positive language and emphasize the opportunities to sight-see and experience new places in addition to the other work tasks at hand.
2) Make Business Trips Enjoyable with Flexibility and Apt Travel Management
The next step is to put real effort into reinventing how your travel manager plans business trips. A few small considerations can transform an employee’s experience of the trip. Consider offering an extra hotel day and later return flight so that each trip can include one day of sight-seeing and enjoyment when an immediate turn-around isn’t absolutely necessary. Allow traveling staff to choose their seat on the plane, and take their preference for morning or evening flights into account. Just a little travel support and approval of fun can go a long way in making these roles much more appealing.
3) Work with a Staffing Company to Find the Right Travel-Ready Talent
When the role is ready, reach out to a trusted staffing company to help you find the perfect professional or batch of candidates for the job. Naturally, your travel-lover also needs to have all the necessary skills and experiences to accomplish whatever they do in the office and the true work-related purpose of their travel. Your recruiters will know what to look for and how to market your job so that the right people find the opportunity and are then screened for the skills and travel-enthusiasm you need for the role.
4) Remember to Ask All the Right Questions
Finally, remember to ask the right questions when it comes time to interview your travel position candidates. First, of course, you want to establish that they have all the right skills so go down your usual checklist of knowledge depth testing and experience demonstrations. Then ask whether they enjoy travel, how frequently, and what would make travel most enjoyable to them. And listen.
If your candidates have something they need to enjoy travel or something they enjoy most about travel, this is often easy to provide. A team member who can do the job well and loves the travel aspect is more than worth a little extra investment to have someone who comes back from trips energized instead of run-down.
—
Do you need a travel-ready professional to tackle a role that requires constant travel? Contact us today and our team would be glad to help you find exactly the right person for the job.
