Richard Turen
I noticed her about five minutes into my introduction. She was sitting in the third-row center seat on the left side of the classroom.
It was the summer of 1983. I was teaching a three-day class on cruising to 54 students enrolled in Chicago's most expensive travel industry course. We were in a bright, glass-enclosed high-rise in the city center.
The occupant of seat 3C glanced at me once or twice but we never spoke -- not until two weeks after the course was completed. She was leaving the fashion world and had secured a job with one of Chicago's most visible travel agencies.
We went to the Arboretum on our first date. During our walk, she leaned against a tree and I blurted out, "You know we're going to get married, right?"
She laughed and asked if that was a line I used on all of my dates. I told her that there are only three things she needed to know about me: "I don't want children, I far prefer large dogs to small ones and I will live anywhere but Florida."
Dear reader, you may know the rest of the story. In 1987 she and I launched a new kind of travel business, and you and I have been speaking from time to time for almost two decades.
The woman I married, Angela, turned out to be the greatest travel advisor I have ever encountered. She has been my boss since our business launched. I report to her; that is, when I am not helping take care of our daughter and our two small dogs out of our home in Florida.
Our business model has worked beautifully -- up until now. I remember pre-Covid when I would interview agency owners or talk with consortium colleagues, I always heard the same response when I asked what was their greatest business challenge: "Price rebaters." Plain and simple.
But post-Covid, I hear a different response: "Finding staff." This has become, for most, the single biggest business challenge.
In some sense, and within my abilities, I have tried to share advice in this space since the first Reality Check. But I want to state for the record that I have no solution for the staffing issue. I have not solved it at my firm.
Admittedly, our staffing challenges are of our own design. We are looking for home-based members of our Concierge Team. It involves absolutely no selling. We have never employed a travel agent or anything like an IC or outside sales agent. We are looking for extremely well-traveled, uniquely computer-savvy team members whose sole job is to service and enhance each guest's travel experiences.
We allow our staff to work three or four days a week, their choice. They can take off whenever they need to. We start them at $22 per hour and include a generous 401(k) plan. We provide an air stipend and full travel benefits. We do not do air, and our average transaction is over $26,000. Our clients live in 46 states, and we operate with unlisted phone numbers and a waitlist.
I carry the job description in my back pocket when I visit the bank, Whole Foods and some of our favorite restaurants.
Yet while your business model and ours may be very different, my "reality check" is that I am having the same challenges you are when it comes to finding the best potential employees. I just don't have the answers.