A division of H.I.S.-Red Label Vacations, Inc., TravelBrands is one of the largest travel companies in Canada. It offers flights, hotels, cruises, and vacation packages as well as access to travel agents worldwide through its wholesale and retail divisions.
Challenges
In 2019, TravelBrands’ parent company, Red Label Vacations Inc., was acquired by H.I.S. Co., Ltd., forming H.I.S.-Red Label Vacations, Inc. Bringing the organizations together was challenging from a technology perspective as each company had its own HR system, and each was limited in what it could do.
“In the past, many of our processes were manual,” said Diana Valler, chief human resources officer at TravelBrands. “For example, we had challenges pulling reports, and our timesheet process was a burden on managers as they had to complete approvals by the end of each day. A single error could lead to hours of extra work, resulting in additional burden and expense to the company.”
Solutions
To achieve the scale it needed and best support its people, the newly merged organization needed a robust, automated, and centralized solution. In 2021, TravelBrands went live on UKG for a seamless human capital management (HCM) and workforce management solution experience.
“We chose UKG to manage our entire employee lifecycle and the transformation has been quite magical. UKG has made us more efficient by automating and streamlining our HR, administrative, and payroll processes, resulting in lower overhead costs and a reduction in turnover.”
Diana Valler
CHRO, TravelBrands
Results
In its first 12 months with UKG, the travel company saved more than $150,000 and experienced a 10% reduction in turnover, a 25% decrease in the amount of time to resolve HR and payroll issues, as well as a 50% reduction in time spent generating weekly and monthly financial reports. These administrative improvements have improved the overall employee experience, starting with recruiting.
“Recruiting has been a game-changer for us,” said Valler. “Almost immediately, we saw a reduction in attrition because our people now feel part of our company from day one. We can communicate with them first as job candidates, then easily onboard and progress them through the system while providing access to important information along the way — all within UKG.”
Previously lacking insight into the day-to-day performance of employees as well as the ability to analyze workforce trends, Valler says the combination of people analytics and performance management has played a significant role in helping TravelBrands make better decisions about its people, their career development, and opportunities for growth within the company.
“Now, we can see where our people are in their work journey as well as how they are inputting their goals and progressing toward those. We didn’t have that ability in the past,” said Valler. “With access to that information, we can reward our employees for their performance, ensuring a culture of high productivity, and make the best decisions in support of the company as we continuously look for ways to improve and innovate.”
Deeper insight into employees and their preferences — along with UKG and TravelBrands’ shared commitment to people — is also helping the organization attract and retain a more diverse workforce and have more meaningful conversations around diversity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace.
“People come from different backgrounds and it’s important to listen to them and understand how they think, how they feel, and what’s important to them,” said Valler. “UKG gives us tools to meet our people where they truly are, based on their unique needs, and optimize performance and productivity accordingly. We are fortunate to have a partner in UKG, whose purpose is people, as that belief is also core to our DNA.”
