Episode 9 - Hiring a Remote Team
Connect and get in touch with HollyDay Travel
People and Links mentioned in this episode:
TIME Programme - get in touch with TIME Programme at time@travelindustrymentor.com.au
Matt Lewis - TIME Programme mentor
EPISODE SUMMARY
Business Growth Challenge
First Hire - Usha (Sri Lanka)
• Initial role: Admin tasks, itinerary building, invoicing, email responses
• Current role: Team leader, all-rounder, Europe specialist, client phone support
Second Hire - Uresha (Sri Lanka)
• Role: Europe specialist, client relations, detailed reporting
Third Hire - Mary (Philippines)
• Role: Bookkeeper and tax agent
Fourth Hire - Tracy (Philippines)
• Role: Content and marketing manager
Fifth Hire - Bonn (Philippines)
• Role: Opening to close Australian hours, airfare specialist
Hiring Platforms and Methods
• Personal connections: Most successful hires through recommendations
• OnlineJobs.ph: Mixed results, required extensive filtering
• Requirements: Own laptops, reliable internet, home office setup
• Holly provides: Desks, proper screens, equipment for home offices
Team Management Structure
Daily Operations
Company Culture
Communication and Recognition
Financial and Legal Structure
Benefits of Remote Team
• Cost effectiveness: Significantly lower wages than Australian employees
• Dedication: Exceptional commitment and work ethic
• Flexibility: Mutual flexibility for emergencies, family needs, extended hours
• Customer service: Incredible client relationships and service quality
• Time freedom: Holly focuses on client relationship building and business growth
Challenges and Realities
• Staff turnover: 3 team members didn't work out over the years
• Training investment: Initial time investment required for proper training
• Interview process: Can be lengthy and challenging to find right fit
• Trial periods: Probationary periods essential for both parties
Alternative Options
• Australian agencies: Companies that handle finding, interviewing, and managing VAs
• Office spaces: Can hire office space in Philippines for team
• Third-party management: Companies that handle all HR and management aspects
• Trade-offs: More expensive but less hands-on management required
Training and Development
• Sonja Leicester: Travel Trainer provided customer service training
• On-the-job training: Continuous skill development
Final Advice
• Just do it: Overcome fear and take the leap
• Time investment: Initial training time pays long-term dividends
• Focus shift: Allows business owner to focus on what they love most
• Support available: Holly offers to share resources and company recommendations
• Risk worth taking: Essential for business growth and personal freedom
READ THE FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT HERE
Introduction
Hello and welcome to episode nine of Travel Business Unlocked. I'm Holly Velardo from HollyDay Travel and today I wanted to talk to you about how I have hired my team and how we work with a remote team that are based offshore in the Philippines and also Sri Lanka. Now, this was something that was very new to me when I started this over three years ago now. I was working very closely with other travel agencies and one of them had mentioned to me that she had a staff member in the Philippines and that it was a great way that I could also start hiring externally and see how that process would work.
Now, I get asked about this type of business model all the time. People like, “It's so unique, it's different. How do you manage it? How did you start? Where did you find them?” So many questions. So I thought that this episode would be the perfect opportunity to get it out there, explain what I did. And I know everyone's journey is going to be completely different and how you do it could be very different or how you've already done it, but this is just about me explaining how I did it and what felt right for my business.
Post-COVID Business Growth
So once COVID was over, the dreaded COVID word, I had prepared myself and done a lot of business courses and thought I was completely ready for what was coming. And we got completely slammed very, very quickly once the borders opened and the world opened once again. I couldn't handle the amount of bookings that were coming in and so I knew I needed to hire a team member. Now, having five children, you know, working from home, I knew that I wouldn't be able to afford Australian wages and put someone on full-time. So I decided to hire remotely.
Connection to Sri Lanka
Now, for me, I'd always had a very close relationship with Sri Lanka and that was something that happened since about 2017/18 when I was invited on a famil (familiarisation) to Sri Lanka and got to what a beautiful country it was. I loved it so much. A few months later, I took my whole family back and the kids love it and now we've been four or five times and it is just one of those places that captured my heart.
Now, the company that had originally taken me on the famil, I had become very close with their CEO, Dishan. And when it was time for me to start hiring someone, I thought, what a perfect place to get them from, from Sri Lanka. They've got great travel industry over there. The people are absolutely beautiful and I would love to hire a woman who could work from home and have the flexibility like I do. Raise a family, but also be out of work. So for me, that was really important and that was one of the major prerequisites that I put in when I was having this conversation with Dishan.
Finding Usha
He runs a destination marketing company in Sri Lanka where he has many, many, many staff. And so I asked him if he knew of any women that were looking to work for an Australian company, were looking for a work-from-home role or something that was just a little bit different, and were wanting to also change their expertise and work with Australian clients more and more.
So I flew over to Sri Lanka. Dishan had set up some interviews which were fantastic. They were great. I met some incredible people during that process, but none of them felt exactly right or exactly what I was looking for.
And then that night, Dishan took us out for a dinner, Angelo and I—my husband—and his wife Usha was there, and we got to meet her and their beautiful daughter, Sophie. And during that time, I was talking to Usha and she was saying that she had been on maternity leave and her previous role was managing huge teams of people, and she had incredible expertise and she was just looking for something, but was finding it very, very hard to get a job that would fit around Sophie's schedules and commitments and everything as well.
So I instantly clicked with Usha and I actually just said, “Would you like to work for me?” And that was very new for her. It wasn't something that she had ever done before, working remotely, working. She had a little bit of travel experience, but it was mainly in logistics that she had worked previously.
Usha's Role and Growth
So we came to an agreement that she would start working for me. And initially when I was looking for someone to do some work for me, it was to do the tasks for that I just didn't have time to do anymore. And it was things like itinerary building, you know, putting those itineraries together for the clients. It was doing the invoicing. A lot of the admin roles, if it could be replying to emails.
It was much more the admin tasks is what I hired Usha to start with. So Usha started probably about a month later, after our trip, I spoke to our lawyer here in Australia and I had him—he’s in commercial law—he drew up some contracts, and it was really important as well that in these contracts everything was very clear. The expectations of what Usha's role was going to be, the wages and the work conditions where she was expected to work from, everything like that. But it was also making sure that this contract protection, protected not only myself, but also Usha. Obviously there was all types of things about security and safety and everything in there as well. So something I highly recommend you do if you are not hiring through a company directly.
So I put Usha on initially as a three month trial period and very quickly I realised what an incredible asset Usha was and still is to this day. She still works for me. Usha is now our team leader. She is loved incredibly by our clients. She is our all-rounder. She does absolutely everything in the business now, from answering the phones to detailed client itinerary. She's our Europe FIT specialist. She is just incredible. Her patience, her knowledge, her willingness to learn, her attention to detail, she's just incredible.
Hiring Uresha
So Usha was my first hire and from there I realised pretty quickly that I needed someone who was an airfare specialist. So that was an area where it was taking a lot of my time as well. And I needed somebody who could step in quickly, book flights for me, help out with the workload, do the ticketing and had experience like that.
So I did go back to Dishan and say, “Have you got any more staff members or anyone you know?” And they were using a contractor at the time as well. So it was fantastic. I was able to use this person as a contractor and I put them on and they worked for me for quite a few months.
Unfortunately it didn't work out. They just weren't quite right, just like any other staff members, you know, that you may have hired. So we moved her on and then after that I hired Uresha, who was another hire through Sri Lanka. Usha and her had worked very closely in previous roles. Usha was actually Uresha's boss. So she came highly recommended again to take on a lot of the tasks of things like commission reconciling, reporting. And this is where her speciality was. Her speciality was in numbers, was in reports, was going to hold me accountable. She, you know, prepares all the reports before our monthly meetings for us. She does all of our commission reconciling.
She also now has been with me for over two years and I think it's close to three years. She is also one of our specialists in Europe. She's amazing. Again, her attention to detail. Our clients love her. She is onto you instantly. She's amazing. She responds really quickly. So lucky with those two hires. They were incredible.
Training and Development
And being able to train them on the job and teach them, that is something I will do a completely separate episode on, on how we did train the team and what we do now, with our training programme, how we hire them as well, the interview process, the questions we ask, what we do. That will be on another episode because there's just so much to go through with that. And I'd really love to give you some detailed information there, how to find the right people, because that can be actually a very, very tricky process. I was extremely lucky that these people were coming to me highly recommended. Of course, they always came on on probationary periods, you know, and I was very clear about what their tasks were and what they were needing to do.
Hiring Mary - Bookkeeper
Then it got to a point where I needed to hire a bookkeeper. And for me, I don't love numbers. It's not something that I want to be reconciling every single bank transaction that's coming in and out, every client receipt. It was just wasted time for me where I could be spending that time building the client's dreams, doing the things that I love doing, and not having to reconcile. So this is where I hired Mary. She is a fully qualified tax agent. She is amazing. She again came highly recommended to me through my mentor, through the TIME programme. He had been using Mary in his business.
So I hired Mary and again, she's been with us for nearly three years. She's amazing. She does so much. Her role has changed incredibly over three years. The amount of work that she now does for us is so much more than what we initially hired her for. But she's unbelievable. She works so close with our accountant here in Australia. So we're all very clear. We're on the same page. We know what the goals are, we know what's needed from each other. And she's amazing.
Hiring Tracy - Content Manager
And then I was feeling that there was another gap. I was spending a lot of time doing media posts. I didn't love doing them. I didn't have a lot of experience in them. They were taking me a lot of time just to get one post out or reel out or story out. So I found Tracy. And Tracy is also in the Philippines and she is our content and marketing manager.
She started with basically just doing some of our social posts for us. And then she very quickly, with her incredible expertise and her past experience, moved on to helping me with our weekly emails that go out to our clients. She works with us on contents and blogs and website updates and Facebook ads. So much content, incredible amounts of content. And she works very closely with another marketing agency that we have hired and they work incredibly close together.
She is my go-to for so many things. And Tracy also was working for the same mentor that Mary was. So again she came highly recommended, employed her, and I'm just so grateful for Tracy and what she has provided for me over the years.
Then we really needed to get someone. Due to the time difference in Sri Lanka, that was becoming a little bit of an issue for me. I was really, the business is really amping up. I wasn't able to spend as much time answering the phones in the mornings. There is either a four or five hour time difference with Sri Lanka to Adelaide depending on daylight saving times.
So I was more than happy to start with I would be on the phones in the mornings, and then the Sri Lankan team would come on and they would take over from answering the phones from the 1 or 2pm onwards until 9pm at night. But then I realised I actually needed someone from Australian times as well. I wanted a little bit more flexibility in the business. I didn't want to be tied down to just sitting in the office from 9 to 5 every single day. You know, I have the kids, their commitments. I needed to have somebody there who could answer those phones for me from the opening hours in the morning.
Online Jobs Philippines
So this is where I went through a Philippines online job agency. It's called onlinejobs.ph and you pay a monthly fee to be part of this agency. So I went on to this knowing that the time difference with the Philippines is either only an hour and a half or two and a half hours. So it's much easier to have them working reasonable hours. They're not having to start so early in the morning and then they can be there for that first part of the day.
So that process, using Online Jobs, I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't amazing. I put my ad on there. I think it was a hundred US dollars for month. I paid for the month and put an advert out there. I was extremely specific with what I wanted. I put all the details of previous experience, what I wanted the consultant to be able to do. In this case, I wanted them to have a minimum five years experience working in the travel industry, knowing destinations, knowing airfares. Airfares was a huge thing, complex airfares around the world, all of that type of thing that I was doing and spending so much time doing and didn't want to continue doing that.
Finding Bonn
So we put the job out there and hundreds of emails came through very quickly. A lot of them were just rubbish. But I did scan through them and found quite a few really good candidates in there. And then through a very quite brutal and gruesome interview process, I put them through to make sure I was finding the right person, I found Bonn.
And many of you have, if you've ever seen my team or got to meet my team, just like Usha and Uresha, you would have heard of Bonn. He's incredible. He works very closely with a couple of your other travel agents as well. You work together with airfares, and helping each other out in that sense as well.
So Bonn has been just amazing. He is there from opening until pretty much close—well, the Australian hours closed and the Sri Lankan girls are there in the evenings to talk to everyone, they come home from work if needed. So we have some great flexibility.
So our phones are open from 9:30 in the morning till 9pm and what I love about that is it rings on their computers, they're able to answer that. They talk to the clients, they deal directly with the clients. Obviously I am still available. I'm there when I can be. Clients want to talk to me, I'm 100% there. But what it means is it's freed me up to do what I love most and that spending times with the clients, building the dream. And these three are able to sit there and, you know, do all of the work behind the scenes, which they love, but they also talk to the clients and build these relationships for me.
And they have incredible customer service and that is something as well, I will do another episode on. We had an amazing lady, Sonja Leicester, come in from the Travel Trainer. She did some great training with the team on customer service and what to do. So we will do an interview episode with her. Her experience is unbelievable and what that created for us was amazing.
Additional Hires and Current Team
So then we had Bonn and after that we did hire a couple of other people that were through Online Jobs as well or recommendations. They unfortunately didn't work out. But I have my amazing team of five now that I absolutely love and I am so grateful for them.
And you know, one of the ways that we make this work is they all work from home. I that was the option for them from day one. I didn't want them working from an office because of the commute time in their countries. The traffic is crazy getting to and from work. They would be wasting hours every day. This was very clear when I was interviewing that they would need to have their own laptops, their own internet that was very reliable. And then I have provided them with things like a desk and proper screens and you know, so that they've got a really good setup in their homes as well. So this was very clear from day one.
Work Culture and Values
And I guess one of the reasons why this works so well for all of us is they have flexibility where, you know, we've got families, we have things going on in our own lives. Yes, absolutely, they need to be there to answer the phones and talk to the clients. But everyone has things that happen. So if they need to go to an appointment, they have that flexibility where they can do that and I truly believe in…we've got some incredible HollyDay Travel values. You can jump on our website, you can have a look at them.
But this is something we talk about in our monthly meetings and it's also something that is brought up in our interview process. And we talk about these values a lot. We incorporate them within our everyday work-life at HollyDay Travel. And you know, one of them is obviously, we do what is right. And you know, for me, that's doing what's right by our clients, what's right by our team, what's right by myself and my family, making sure that we can have that balance in our lives. So we make that very clear.
Team Relationships
My team are like my family. They mean so much to me. You know, I like to hear all about their lives, what's going on, their families, their pets, whether it's cats, it's dogs, it's whatever they've got. And I absolute love hearing all about it.
We meet every single day on a team meeting that is for Uresha, Bonn and I, we meet every single day. We talk about the client bookings, we talk about what's important, what needs to be done, anything that's going on in their lives. And that is a non-negotiable, that happens every single day. And so that is really important is building that community with your team and making them feel like they have a say, they're heard. And it doesn't matter that we're remote, the laughs that we have, the conversations we have.
You know, we also do team member of the month and for me that's peer voted. So they get to vote. Obviously I get the final say, but they have to give reasons why. And they have to also talk about what of the values within HollyDay Travel has that team member followed the most that month and why do they deserve to have that?
And they all get a prize. They get whether it's a gift voucher or, you know, a bonus in their pay or whatever it is that month, that's what they get to have. And it brings so much fun. And I read out what each team member said about the other one and why they voted for them. And it builds so much rapport on it and it really helps them feel like they're working together. And again, you know, some months it's really hard with who to choose, but it's been fantastic for us here at HollyDay Travel.
And I love reading that and listening to their way of seeing what's happening because even though I'm talking to them, they're all talking to each other behind the scenes a lot more than I am. And, you know, they also see things differently. So having their perspective has been amazing.
Benefits of Remote Staff
Now, you know, one of the things for me, the benefits of having the remote staff, of course, the main reason I did it initially was the financial reason. Obviously, the wages over in Sri Lanka and the Philippines are far less than what they would be here if I was paying an Australian staff member. But their dedication to me is unbelievable. And I think as long as we can keep creating that, I do choose to pay my staff above what they would get in other jobs if they were working in similar roles for other companies, that I do choose to pay them a slightly higher wage.
I do want them to have a good life and to have choices. And, you know, one of my team members was able to put their children through private school because of the wage that I was paying them. You know, they’re able to change their lives. It gives them so much freedom and flexibility by working from home. They love having that option. And because I am flexible and I am a mum myself, I know things happen.
I have extremely high expectations on their work and what I expect from them and their daily tasks and everything like that. So as long as they can achieve that and achieve the incredible customer service to the clients, I am happy to be flexible with them. But that flexibility comes both ways where, you know, there's days where they're working really, really long hours because we've had an emergency or clients are stranded or, you know, it's a weekend and we’re working really hard to, you know, fix an airline strike or a train strike or, you know, flights are delayed or whatever it might be. You know, so they also give me that flexibility too, where they're able to stay late if needed and they're able to do those things.
Mutual Respect and Communication
So it's really, really important that no matter where your team is and how you operate your team, whether they are remote or whether you're all in an office together, it is having that mutual respect for each other.
And while I'm the boss and absolutely it's, you know, what I say goes, I have so much respect from them and, you know, they're able to talk to me at all times if something's not working, if they're finding it really difficult working with another staff member or the communication isn't right and I'm not available enough because I'm having a busy day and they need answers, you know, things like that, that is always there for them to be able to talk to me. They can come to me and explain what it is that their concerns might be, but also what is working really well and what ideas they might have to make this work even better.
And like I said, that recognition and rewards, you know, the staff member of the month is a big thing. But we also have so many great testimonials that come in from our clients. I am sharing these all the time. Anytime we get an email or I get a phone call or text message, “Oh, your team is amazing, Holly. Thank you for everything”. I'm telling them about that because it is so important that they understand their hard work and what they have done. It is so valuable. It is so incredibly valuable. And so I really like to keep that rapport going and just knowing that they can be who they want to be and working together and having this life of freedom and flexibility where they wouldn't be able to have that in other jobs that were so rigid before for them. And I know that they really do truly appreciate what I do for them.
Realistic Expectations
And staff members will come and go, absolutely. We've already had that. We've had three that didn't work out, and I'm sure there'll be others in the future that don't work out. But when you are hiring your team and remote team, you need to get that feel. You need to, you know, you learn pretty quickly if they're the right person for you and, you know, have a look at their skill set, have a look at what it is that you need and just take that risk. Just go for it.
Alternative Options
There are so many companies that can help you do it if you don't want to do it my way and do it on your own. Where we pay them to directly, I use a program called Airwallex. It is fantastic to pay their wages. They're contractors, they're not employees. It's their responsibility to pay their own taxes and everything at their end. I pay them a contracted rate and I pay it directly into their bank account. But if you're not comfortable doing that or you don't want to go down that track, there are so many companies here in Australia earlier that you can use that will help you find the right virtual assistant or remote team and who will help you with the interview process, all of those things is absolutely available. Of course they will charge you a fee to do all of that for you, but that might be your way to do it.
For me, I wanted all of the money that I was going to be spending to go directly into my staff member's pocket. It also gives me the flexibility that if I want to increase their hours or increase their wages or give them a bonus at Christmas time or, you know, it's their birthday and I want to give them more money or whatever it is, I can do that. I'm not going through another company. I'm not having to get that approval and you know, justify to anybody why I want to increase their wages or why I think they're worthy of getting more money or whatever it might be. But like I said, I have protected myself with their contracts, with the security systems we have in place, with everything like that in all of our systems. So it is important that you do that, absolutely, if you're going to go down the track of having a remote team without having any third party company that is managing them for you.
And I know there are offices that you can hire within the Philippines. You can offer a high hire an office space. There is all of those options. There are so many things.
Final Advice
So if you do have any questions about this, please get in touch, send me a message, give me a call, DM me, whatever it is, please reach out and I can pass some information to you or let you know what companies are out there that might be able to assist you.
But if you are struggling, if you are looking for a way that you can get some of your time back and really just focus on doing what you love in your business, then I cannot recommend it enough. Just do it.
If my mentor didn't say to me, “For God's sake Holly, just do it. Stop being scared, just do it.” And I can't say that enough. And yes, initially you need to find the time to train them. And while you might be chaos and busy, you might find that difficult, but it is worth every second because now I am able to really focus on what I love in the business and what I want to do. And I have this incredible team behind me that is supporting me and supporting my clients to make that possible.
So thank you so much for tuning in this week to Travel Business Unlocked and continue to unlock your potential. Take that risk, just do it and hire your first remote team member.
