For Hays Travel’s Hayley Gadd, named Manager of the Year at the Travel Industry Awards by TTG last month, her own advice couldn’t ring truer this past year. Alongside a number of major achievements for her team in Weymouth, the agency has faced a series of deeply challenging personal circumstances.
“We’ve had member of the team lose her husband this year, while another had a heart attack. One lost her boyfriend to suicide, and we had a member of staff become a single mum to two young children – we’ve had to take care of each other,” Gadd tells TTG.
“I care greatly about my team and offering a safe space. By saying, ‘come in, let’s have a hug and a sit down, let’s put the kettle on and see what we can do to help’, to have somewhere they know they can go for that support and structure is really important to help keep going.”
Gadd sorted through her bereaved colleague’s legal paperwork and organised them a solicitor, and is acting as a guarantor for another’s flat. For her, it’s about creating an environment where the workplace can offer more than just a 9-5 job.
“Our shop is a place where we get things done,” she says. “It’s a network that isn’t always available to people. It’s something we can provide as store managers that I don’t always feel is seen.”
‘Who is going to see any value in me?’
Gadd began her career in travel the best part of 25 years ago as a Lunn Poly apprentice, and now has more than a decade’s experience under her belt as a manager – but her career has not been without hurdles of its own.
When she joined Hays in 2018, Gadd remembers being wracked with self-doubt. She was returning to the industry after her second set of twins and, in her own words, “very much doubted” her own abilities.
“I’d had three years away and I was feeling quite downtrodden – I thought, ’who is going to give me a job or see any value in me?’,” she recalls.
Seven months after taking the reins at Hays’ Bridport shop, she was asked to lead the team in Weymouth – the agency’s largest store in the region at the time.
“I flew [at Bridport] because I went in with such determination,” she recalls. “I wanted to prove to myself I could be a mum of two sets of twins while running a successful travel agency. Being asked to run Weymouth felt like an out of the frying pan into the fire situation – but the belief the Hays team had in me was so important, and I wanted to reward that faith and pay it back.”
In her four years as manager, the Weymouth store has doubled in size, growing from five to 10 staff, and has more than doubled its turnover.
“We’ve just managed to squeeze in a sixth desk as there’s always people queuing,” smiles Gadd. It was under her leadership the branch was named the South West’s Top Agency at TTG Top 50 Travel Agencies 2021 and was Hays Travel’s best-performing store in the south this year.
The secret to these successes? For Gadd, it lies in the team’s hard work during the pandemic and – much like her and her staff’s approach to each other – helping anyone in need of support.
“The help we gave the community, regardless of whether they had booked with us, has come back to us ten-fold. Even now, we’re still getting people coming in saying, ‘you helped my mum, or my aunt, or my nan during Covid’, and they want to book with us now.”
Great communication
Gadd also swears by in the importance of a morning meeting. “Those 20 minutes are the most important of my whole day,” she explains. “Setting boundaries and standards, celebrating successes, creating excitement for the day ahead, and keeping everyone motivated.
“We also make sure we know how each other is getting on, which is so overlooked sometimes – ‘How are you today? How was your evening? What’s going on in your life?’.”
Although, as Gadd admits, it’s not always non-stop positivity, something she doesn’t mind embracing too.
“We’re not about ‘toxic positivity’ because sometimes we do have absolutely crap days,” she laughs. “We’ll acknowledge that and we’ll say what an absolute nightmare it’s been.
“At these times, it’s important to make sure everybody is heard and everyone contributes. By empowering the team, we get better ideas and everyone feels valued. Getting communication right is the biggest piece of advice I can give anyone thinking about moving into management. Have great team talks and deal with everything as honestly as you can.”
‘You’re showing everyone what kind of person you are’
The togetherness fostered by Gadd with her team is clear judging by their reactions to her Travel Industry Awards win last month.
“The first thing I did was put a picture of the award in our team group chat and everyone was just about as emotional as I was,” she recalls. “Irene [Hays, owner and chair of Hays Travel] stood up and gave me a hug on my way up to the stage, which made me well up even more.
“Customers came in and said congratulations. There was such a buzz in the store the day I was travelling up to London and when I came back. It was so lovely. It’s funny though, it’s such a massive thing to happen and then you just get back to the day-to-day. I came in the next day and hoovered the shop floor. It brings you back to reality!”
The bond between Gadd and her staff also showed when the team undertook an emotional charity challenge at the end of the summer – a virtual, 397km cycle to raise money for a mental health charity, whose services they had needed during recent tough times.
With three bikes set up outside the store, and eight hours’ continuous pedalling shared between the team, it made for a testing but rewarding day, one that captured the imagination of the local community.
“The cycling was a bit of a shock to the system and we were all aching for a few days,” laughs Gadd. “But we raised more than £1,000, which is being matched by the Hays Travel Foundation. Everyone got involved, and we also had a bake sale and a raffle in the store.
“It was actually one of our busiest days in the shop too. There was a fantastic buzz about the place and we turned over about £50,000 – lots of bookings and lots of fun.”
The event – and team spirit – epitomises Gadd and her team’s outlook, their passion for their jobs and their desire to bring their positivity to work after such a challenging time.
“It’s not our usual day job, but you’re showing everyone what kind of person you are and that you care. That’s the sort of person I would trust with my holiday – someone who cares.”
