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Barrhead to roll out talent management programme for agents

Barrhead Travel is looking to recruit its first head of people development and is rolling out a new talent management programme to better look after its 800 employees.

All staff records are currently held in manual files, but president Jacqueline Dobson wants the system overhauled in the next quarter.

“Every member of staff will have a digital personal profile and it will contain every bit of information about them – from personal data to which training courses they have completed, fam trips or ship visits they have been on, and skills they have acquired, etc.

“It means we will have a comprehensive record on every single employee, including their qualifications, achievements and key skills, so that when we are looking for a certain type of person to fill a particular role, we will be able to identify them really quickly,” said Dobson.

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Barrhead Travel announces new product and commercial director

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Barrhead has recently internally promoted Caroline Dobson from her role as product and commercial director, to looking after cruise as well. This follows the departure of previous cruise director Catriona Parsons. Donaldson is being supported by Louise Hunter who becomes head of cruise, looking after business development and marketing, and Sharon Fox who will support Donaldson with other product and commercial responsibilities.

Dobson said she was really excited about the new structure.

Barrhead has also appointed a new head of e-commerce from outside of travel to look after the company’s six websites.

“This is a big focus for us this year,” said Dobson, revealing the Barrhead Travel site alone received six million visits a year. “Not so much for customers to book online but just so that the user journey is simple.”

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