Online travel portal MakeMyTrip is betting big on its ‘Holiday Experts’ – mostly women who work from home to offer trip-planning guidance to travellers – and plans to more than double their count to up to 1,500 in the next two-three quarters. At present, around 700 women homemakers across 10 cities work flexi-hours as MakeMyTrip Holiday Experts.
“Right now this whole channel contributes to almost 40 per cent of our revenues for the holidays that we sell in India. It’s a huge number. It has been a highly successful channel for us. We have holiday experts right now predominantly in metros and mini-metros and we have plans for hiring people in Tier II and Tier III cities. Right now we are 700 and we intend to increase this number to 1,200 to 1,500 in next two-three quarters,” said Yuvaraj Srivastava, chief HR officer, MakeMyTrip.
The Holiday Experts initiative offers a career opportunity to Indian women homemakers as it helps them utilise their skill-sets by providing them in-depth training and access to latest tools and technology, along with close and continuous mentoring.
There is a clearly defined hiring process to ensure quality of people who are being hired. They are hired through various recruitment drive across the country and in target cities. Post hiring, the appointees go through a training programme, Srivastava said. After a seven-day long on-boarding programme and industry orientation, these women aged typically between 25-45 go live on the platform. Besides, a clearly defined hiring process to ensure quality of people who are being hired, a quality team and a supervisory team is also there to ensure quality work and overall performance management.
Besides, the company has a ‘BackToFuture’ programme, which is especially designed for women in the field of technology who have taken a break from their careers and are now ready to return. A 24-week-long guided platform, BackToFuture features structured learning experiences aimed at helping women rediscover their potential, with structured on-boarding, focused mentoring, flexible work options and on-the-job learning, according to a blog posted on the company website.
