Furloughed Corporate Travel Agents Receiving Training for New Roles for Recovery Mode
Skift Take
It's unclear how many travel companies are training staff on furlough, but with a potential uptick in travel in the coming months and complex bookings on the horizon, it could pay to get preparations in place.
Learn a new language, take up baking, do a giant jigsaw puzzle ... there's a lot of commentary on social media about how furloughing gives people more time to try new things.
But one UK agency consortium is taking a different tack by training its members' staff on new ways of booking corporate travel for when they return.
The Focus Travel Partnership, which has a network of 60 corporate travel agencies with a combined annual revenue of £1 billion ($1.2 billion), plans to retrain furloughed staff across 48 companies.
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Focus is taking advantage of UK law that allows an employer to train staff it has furloughed. According to law firm Blake Morgan, "it is a key principle of the scheme that the individual cannot do any work for their employer whilst furloughed. They can take part in volunteer work or training as long as this does not provide services to, or generate revenue
