throughout the implementation of the task. Recruitment of tour guides is carried out based on the annual plan, quarterly plan and sudden recruitment when there is a sudden change in the workload beyond the expectation. Recruitment is carried out in steps such as recruitment announcement and receiving application documents, checking qualifications and selection, signing probationary contracts, evaluating probationary results and making decisions on recruitment and acceptance.
- Training of tour guides . The company always focuses on training and development, recruiting key tour guides, actively creating a source of successor tour guides ready to replace and supplement tour guides for the company. Building a team of tour guides with sufficient quantity, consistent structure, meeting standards in quality and qualifications, a team of tour guides with sufficient professional capacity, completing work with the highest results.
The company plans 1 year in advance for training, fostering and improving professional skills programs. Training is carried out monthly according to each route, and organized outside the company in the form of field trips. For domestic tour guides, most of the training sessions take place during low season such as March and August, when the tourism season is no longer at its peak, so tour guides are reviewed and trained. And for the domestic market, most of them are collaborators, but they are all collaborators who have experience in traveling in groups, so they mainly only train some additional skills such as: reminding about new regulations, cheerleading activities, handling situations, teambuilding, etc. For outbound and inbound tour guides, the training schedule is not fixed every year but is only experience review and retraining sessions based on feedback from customers, or the training needs of the person in charge of the tour guide department. The training time is short and mainly reminds about new issues.
The experts in charge of the classes are experienced 5-star tour guides. The company also invites leading experts in culture - art - cuisine to teach tour guides on many different topics to supplement the knowledge and skills of tour guides. Training activities through specialized classes are organized regularly, year-round to promptly consolidate skills and update knowledge for tour guides. In addition, the company regularly arranges for tour guides to go on tours to expand and upgrade the market. Each year, this team must participate in at least 3 short-term training courses organized by the company and issue certificates.
At Viettravel Hanoi, the company's leadership also regularly organizes workshops and talkshows to help employees improve themselves. Specifically: Training courses on skills and professional knowledge for each group including: new employees, long-time tour guides, and managers.
- Arrangement and use of tour guides
For the regular tour guides, domestic and international tour guides are arranged alternately. With the team of collaborating tour guides, the company arranges based on the tour guides' experience on the route, domestic tour guides must have been to the planned assigned route at least 2 times, international tour guides must have been to the planned assigned route at least 5 times. After each 3-day trip, the tour guide gets 1 day off, after a 5-day trip, the tour guide gets 2 days off and then continues to guide customers.
- Performance evaluation and promotion of tour guides.
The star ranking contest is held regularly to improve the expertise of tour guides and sales staff. The star ranking contest is for both regular tour guides and collaborator tour guides.
Every two years, tour guides must pass a star rating exam to certify their quality, level and knowledge. Depending on the star level they want to achieve, tour guides will register to take the exam at different star levels, along with different questions given by the jury, in which the highest star level is 5 stars.
The jury members are Lecturers, Experts, veteran tour guides, company leaders and departments who are experienced and knowledgeable. The exam format consists of 2 parts: knowledge test and presentation before the jury. The topics are quite diverse, from knowledge about tourist routes, about the company, about situations that occur, ... depending on the desire to strive to achieve 3, 4 or 5 stars of the registered tour guide. Tour guides compete in two contents including theory and presentation. In addition to the theory part, candidates randomly pick questions from the ballot box, in the presentation part, each tour guide must answer questions from the jury about handling situations, routes and talent. In the competition about World Cultural Heritages in Vietnam, each contestant will have 10 minutes to present the questions given by the judges, mainly focusing on 5 criteria: history, geography, science, architecture, aesthetics and socio-culture. After the selection, depending on the results achieved, tour guides can be upgraded or downgraded. Tour guides who do not pass the competition will be downgraded or will not be able to continue guiding guests for the company. Tour guides ranked 4 - 5 stars will be able to lead important groups of guests, have high spending levels and higher income. Tour guides who are not ranked will suffer more, which is fair for those in the profession. Through the competition, not only does it create a playground for tour guides to learn, assert themselves and strive for higher rankings, but it is also a way to filter to find the best tour guides. This contributes to encouraging the tour guide team to always be proactive, improve their qualifications, and at the same time retrain and improve the tour guide team's skills to respond quickly and professionally, satisfying the increasing demands.
of tourists. If they want to be classified, tour guides must improve their own capacity, which helps the company improve the quality of tours. The star rating of tour guides helps the company have a basis to build a periodic capacity assessment program, build a training program, and build a reasonable welfare regime for tour guides. In addition, every year, Vietravel organizes a ceremony to honor the best tour guides to recognize the achievements and contributions of each person after a year of work...
The company also focuses on building welfare policies and treatment regimes for tour guides. The payment of salaries (remuneration) to tour guides is always linked to the performance of tour guides, business performance and the company's salary fund. The company's salary table includes basic salary which stipulates the basic salary coefficient of the company's permanent tour guides, the business salary table stipulates the business salary coefficient. Basic salary is used to sign labor contracts and calculate social insurance, health insurance, severance pay, ... and other regimes related to employees. Business salary is based on the business salary coefficient, responsibility allowance coefficient, business salary unit price decided by the company director based on the business results of the whole company, the quality of work completed by employees and the actual number of working days and the number of working days according to the company's regulations. Bonus policy is based on the results of evaluating the performance of employees with standards. Many different bonus levels are always offered by the company's management to encourage the spirit of the regular tour guides, including: 13th month bonus; holiday bonus according to the law; Bonus for exceeding business targets; Bonus for exceeding KPI plan; Travel support from the company; Giving travel coupons to tour guides on special occasions of Vietravel; Support in work; Support for uniform sewing costs; Support for work-related items and equipment; Business expenses; Support for makeup and shoe polish for employees; Opportunities for training and development.
Vietravel builds a reward and commission policy for tour guides when participating in promotional activities and introducing customers to the company. In particular, the treatment and reward policies for tour guides (regardless of official or collaborative) are guaranteed. Therefore, they are always motivated and have timely support to best fulfill their role.
To ensure that tour guide operations are carried out in a synchronous manner, Vietravel Hanoi has implemented tour guide management through the website guidebook.vn. On this website, the processes from tour assignment, personal profile creation, tour guide competency testing, and payment settlement are all automated.
- Creating environment, working conditions, and rest regime for tour guides
The tour guide department always maintains relationships with other departments of the Company, especially the market department, operations, car crew... to coordinate with tour guides in serving customers attentively, creating sympathy and prestige for all tourists when coming to Vietnam through the Company. Internally, there is also coordination between tour guides to be able to help each other professionally or replace in urgent situations. The previous tour guide considers the following tour guides as their guests (internal customers), that is, the previous tour guide must work in a way that both completes his/her tasks and creates conditions for the following tour guides to serve customers better or at least not affect the tour guide work of the following tour guides. Priority is given to arranging tour guides according to their wishes to go on the same tour to support each other, creating higher efficiency in performing the tour guide work.
3.2.5.2. Current status of quality and activities to improve the quality of tour guides of Hanoitourist travel company
* Overview of Hanoitourist travel company
Company name: Hanoitourist Travel Company
Address: 18 Ly Thuong Kiet, Phan Chu Trinh, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi Phone: 024 777 0666
Email: info@hanoitourist.vn Website: www.hanoitourist.vn
Hanoitourist Travel Company, formerly a tourism center under Hanoi Tourism Company, was established on March 25, 1963, a state-owned enterprise under the Hanoi People's Committee. On July 12, 2004, the Hanoi People's Committee issued a Decision to establish Hanoi Tourism Corporation, piloting operations under the model of parent company - subsidiary company, on the basis of gathering a number of tourism businesses in the city with the goal of focusing on building a large tourism corporation, with a strong brand, operating in multiple industries, multiple ownerships, highly competitive and effectively integrating into the international economy, in line with the development requirements of the tourism industry and the capital's economy. Hanoi Tourism Company was established with the task of welcoming and serving diplomatic delegations and international guests visiting the capital Hanoi. From a small center under Hanoi Tourism Corporation, Hanoitourist travel center was converted according to the parent company - subsidiary model to become a member company under Hanoi Tourism Corporation.
Hanoitourist Travel Company was established in 2005 as a subsidiary of Hanoi Tourism Corporation - LLC, a company specializing in international travel with 3 travel business segments: Inbound - Outbound - Domestic. Travel company
Hanoitourist is responsible for the tourism business in addition to other business areas such as hotel business, office rental services, commercial services and entertainment that the corporation is operating.
* Tour guide team of Hanoitourist company
According to the organizational structure of Hanoitourist, tour guides belong to the tour guide department.
Table 3.23. Hanoitourist's permanent tour guides
STT
Content | Quantity | Proportion (%) | |
1 | Title | ||
Head of Guidance | 1 | 5 | |
Deputy Head of Department | 1 | 5 | |
English speaking tour guide | 3 | 15 | |
French tour guide | 2 | 10 | |
German speaking tour guide | 1 | 5 | |
Chinese tour guide | 5 | 25 | |
Russian speaking tour guide | 1 | 5 | |
Japanese tour guide | 1 | 5 | |
Vietnamese tour guide | 5 | 25 | |
2 | Sex | ||
Female | 2 | 10 | |
Male | 18 | 90 | |
3 | Age | ||
23 – 30 years old | 10 | 50 | |
31 – 40 years old | 9 | 45 | |
41 – 50 years old | 1 | 5 | |
5 | Experience | ||
Under 2 years | 1 | 5 | |
2 - 5 years | 10 | 50 | |
6 – 10 years | 9 | 45 | |
6 | Level | ||
Secondary, college | 2 | 10 | |
University | 17 | 85 | |
Above university | 1 | 5 |
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Source: Hanoitourist Company Human Resources Department, 2020
In addition to the original HDVDL, the company currently has a list of more than 200 collaborating HDVDLs.
regularly with businesses. During peak season, the company cooperates with domestic tour guides to lead tours specializing in history, architecture, culture, etc.
* Quality of tour guides of the business
At Hanoitourist, there is a large team of permanent tour guides who play an important role in the success of maintaining the quality and reputation of the company's brand. Tour guides are divided into language groups, which ensures convenience in dispatching tour guides, but it is difficult for tour guides to be knowledgeable about all the company's tours. Tour guides who collaborate with the company are long-time collaborators, not only good at professional expertise, the tour guide team also contributes to being a bridge in promoting the beautiful image of Vietnam tourism to domestic tourists and international friends.
The quality of Hanoitourist's tour guides is rated as good by the company's managers. 85% of customers give positive feedback about the company's tour guide team. After guiding a group of tourists, the tour guide must get the tourists' opinions on the quality of his/her work and submit it to the head of the tour guide department. The company's tour guides are highly rated for their skills and performance in guiding.
The salary and bonus of tour guides depend on the evaluation of customers as well as the quality of their work and their professional level. This forces tour guides to constantly improve their knowledge, professional expertise, and increase their responsibility for their work. A team of good tour guides is a significant factor contributing to the success of the company, attracting more and more customers to the company. The quality of tour guides has been significantly improved every year, in which the proportion of professional tour guides of the company being rewarded is also increasingly higher.
* Activities to improve the quality of tour guides at businesses
- Recruitment of tour guides
Recruitment is carried out according to the company's needs, in compliance with the recruitment process of Hanoi Tourism Corporation. Recruitment of tour guides is in accordance with the provisions of the labor law, tour guides are signed with a fixed-term labor contract and agreements for each tour program. Regarding the source of tour guide recruitment for the company: The company mainly uses external labor sources attracted from the market through mass media channels, recruitment companies, and training facilities. The recruitment process is also strictly followed according to the recruitment regulations of the Corporation, including: recruitment announcement, receiving applications, researching and classifying candidate applications according to criteria of education, work experience, health, aspirations, making a list of qualified candidates and conducting interviews including preliminary interviews and in-depth interviews.
Some criteria the company sets when recruiting tour guides include:
+ The target is a person who has graduated from university, college, or intermediate level in tourism, has a tour guide card, has good communication skills, and knows at least 1 foreign language.
+ Appearance: Good looking face, no deformities, always smiling.
Male: 1.65m or taller, 56kg or heavier; Female: 1.55m or taller, 45kg or heavier. Age: 20-25 years old.
+ Regarding professional skills: Basic knowledge: 50%; Advanced knowledge: 30%; In-depth knowledge, problem solving ability: 20%.
Candidates who pass the in-depth interview will undergo a medical examination. The company will make a hiring decision after the candidate meets the health standards for work.
- Arrange and use tour guides
After the company makes a decision to recruit tour guides who meet the requirements in the recruitment process, the tour guides will be received and assigned work by the guidance department. The arrangement and assignment of work for tour guides will be entirely proactively arranged by the leader, the head of the guidance department and based on vacant job positions. After each tour, the tour guides will make a report on the results of the work and the person in charge, the direct manager of the tour guides will evaluate the tour guides' capacity and effectiveness in performing the work, the suitability of the tour guides for the current job position. Based on the assessment of the tour guides based on the criteria of the ability to perform the job, the suitability of the tour guides' capacity for the job the human resource is undertaking, the direct manager will make a report to the administrative organization department and the company's Board of Directors regarding the renewal of the contract, not renewing the contract or when the human resource is not suitable for the job position. The results of the job placement for tour guides recruited in recent years by Hanoitourist travel company show that all tour guides have met the requirements and have been assigned to positions according to the recruitment needs of the company. A special requirement for tour guides is that once they have accepted a tour, they cannot cancel the tour. If a tour guide has accepted a tour and then cancels it, that tour guide will never have the opportunity to continue working with the company.
- Human resource training and development
Hanoi Tourist Corporation mainly conducts training in two forms: training at the parent corporation and at member companies and subsidiaries. The corporation has a plan to train member companies on general knowledge and skills applicable to member companies such as foreign language training, sales marketing, and communication skills. Training activities at Hanoitourist travel agency are mainly orientation programs.
Professional training, professional training according to each functional block. This training activity takes place regularly, not fixed in time due to the nature of frequent changes in products and services. The training plan of the corporation for member companies has on average about 2 training courses with an average duration of one to several months depending on the content of the training program, on-site training at the unit is relatively frequent, taking place many times a month so that HDVDL can grasp new regulations, work processes and especially training content on professional skills, products and services. Because HDVDL is mainly used collaboratively, the development work is focused on at the enterprise.
Sharing about the difficulties of businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Deputy Director of Hanoitourist Travel Company Le Hong Thai said that the company has sought to reduce personnel and premises costs to ensure income and benefits for employees who continue to work at Hanoitourist. During this period, product sales are almost not implemented, so the company focuses on training on the use of social networking platforms to interact with customers. In particular, during this period, the company standardizes processes, products, builds data with service providers and deploys trial sales of some products on e-commerce platforms.
- Evaluate work performance and encourage tour guides
After the tour guide has completed the tour, the company collects customer feedback forms on the tour quality, including the tour guide's quality assessment. If the tour guide has negative comments, the operator will immediately give feedback and make corrections so that the tour guide knows and learns from the experience. The company also collects feedback from the tour guide to make reasonable adjustments to issues that have not been done well in the process of performing the tour guide's duties.
Regarding material incentives for tour guides: Currently, the company is applying the basic salary payment method according to the State's regime in Decree 205/2004/ND-CP of the Government applicable to State-owned enterprises. Salary is based on the basic salary coefficient of staff, the minimum salary unit price prescribed by the State in each period, the actual number of working days and the number of working days prescribed according to the Company's regime. This is the basic salary used as the basis for calculating social insurance, health insurance, severance pay, paid leave and other regimes related to employees. For tour guides, the business trip fee will be paid immediately after the end of the tour. The form of incentive for tour guides by the enterprise is to create conditions for tour guides to pay insurance through the company and pay income tax for tour guides.
- Create working environment, conditions and rest regime