Transforming a Global Travel Brand with a Scalable People Strategy
The Client: A Growing Travel Brand Looking to Scale
A global travel company, founded in the late 2000s, had built a strong reputation across North America and Europe, operating in key hubs like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, and London. With an extensive passenger count and a growing footprint, the company was already performing well but had ambitions to become an even bigger player in the industry.
In 2023, the CEO decided to step back from day-to-day operations, bringing in a COO to lead the next stage of growth and professionalise the organisation. The COO recognised that while the company had achieved success, it lacked the operational and leadership infrastructure to scale effectively. They brought me in as Interim VP of People to drive transformational change, ensuring the business had the right structures, leadership, and people practices to support sustainable growth.
The Objective: Building Leadership, Talent, and Operational Foundations for Scale
When I joined, it was clear that the company needed urgent intervention to:
-
Create a clear talent pipeline for business-critical roles in Marketing & E-commerce, Product & Distribution, Tour Operations, and Finance
-
Improve accountability and alignment across markets by replacing siloed regional structures with a global approach that incorporated local nuances, particularly in Tour Operations
-
Ensure robust and defensible financial processes by implementing proper global budgeting, forecasting, and workforce planning
-
Establish People Operations from the ground up by shifting away from manual, inconsistent processes
People Operations in this business was uniquely challenging, operating across multiple countries with varied employment arrangements including full-time employees, freelancers, contractors, and at-will hires.
When I joined, people data existed but was fragmented, difficult to access, and lacked transparency. There was no single source of truth for workforce structure, payroll, or time off, and reporting was highly restrictive. Performance management was loosely defined and inconsistently applied, making it difficult to track employee development or ensure accountability.
The challenge was not just building structure, but shifting the mindset of how the company viewed and treated its people. Employee morale was low, and there was an over-reliance on third-party contract workers via Upwork, leaving gaps in institutional knowledge and long-term workforce stability. My role was to build a scalable, structured, and sustainable approach to people and operations.
The Solution: A Scalable People & Talent Strategy
-
Hired business-critical roles across Marketing & E-commerce, Product & Distribution, Tour Operations, People and Finance, ensuring the company had the right expertise rather than relying on internal promotions without skill alignment.
-
Led Finance transformation efforts by repositioning the Head of Finance role to align with a lean, startup-friendly leadership model rather than an outdated Financial Controller approach. I ensured the Finance Operations function was stabilised by bringing in external Finance Ops support, which was initially meant to be temporary but remained in place for over a year due to inefficiencies in existing financial processes and lack of administrative support.
-
Overhauled recruitment pipelines by expanding hiring efforts in the US beyond NYC while balancing new city expansions and operational limitations.
-
Developed a global people strategy that empowered regional operations while ensuring global alignment across Product & Distribution and Tour Operations. The business had historically operated in silos, and this shift created a more structured, scalable approach with clear accountability.
-
Redefined leadership structures by moving away from an unstructured operating model where roles lacked clarity. In collaboration with the COO, Head of People Experience (who was seconded to Operations), and myself as Interim VP of People, we built a leadership structure that focused on expertise rather than tenure. The new framework introduced dedicated leadership across Marketing & E-commerce, Product & Distribution, Tour Operations, People and Finance.
-
Led a significant role clarity initiative by developing universal job profile templates and working directly with Heads of Departments to refine and finalise team structures. The new leadership team brought strong insights and clear requirements, ensuring that job roles were fit for purpose rather than legacy structures. While traditionally seen as an administrative exercise, this process created a common language across teams, left room for role evolution, and laid the foundation for performance conversations using HiBob’s Talent module. This was a huge cultural shift, as the company had never used a structured performance management cadence before.
-
Built the company’s first integrated People tech stack by successfully launching HiBob (HRIS) and Teamtailor (ATS), providing visibility into hiring, onboarding and performance management for the first time.
-
Managed the company’s relationship with Deel (EOR provider) to improve employee support and contractual consistency across geographies. Historically, compensation lacked structure and transparency, with no formal benchmarking or review process. Before I left, we introduced a proactive, annual compensation review, ensuring Heads of Department played an active role in pay discussions rather than decisions being reactive. The newly appointed Head of People led the first full review, embedding a more structured and disciplined approach to workforce planning.
-
A key milestone was securing 401(k) contributions for US employees, a long-overdue step toward aligning compensation with market expectations. While this was just the beginning, it marked a shift toward more strategic workforce planning and pay transparency.
What Got Fixed and What Improved
Due to confidentiality, specific numerical data cannot be shared. However, below are the key areas where significant improvements were made.
-
Leadership & Talent Infrastructure shifted the company from a family business model to a structured, growth-ready organisation
-
Role Clarity & Performance Management introduced structured job profiles, ensuring all employment types had clear expectations and accountability
-
Hiring & Workforce Planning ensured critical roles in Marketing & E-commerce, Product & Distribution, Tour Operations and Finance were filled with the right talent
-
Technology & Automation reduced inefficiencies through the implementation of HiBob and Teamtailor
-
Finance Structure & Capability improved with a redefined Head of Finance role and external Finance Ops support to stabilise financial processes
-
Compensation & Benefits Strategy introduced 401(k) benefits for US employees and focused on levelling the playing field for international staff
While the business was not yet a fully high-performing organisation, the new leadership team set a higher standard for talent and created the right conditions for long-term success. However, by late 2024, the Founder shifted toward a more conservative approach, pausing further investment in scaling. As a result, my role was phased out as planned, with the People Partner promoted to Head of People and the Head of People Experience formally transitioning into Global Head of Tour Operations.
What the Team Had to Say
Throughout my time as Interim VP of People, I worked closely with the COO, CEO, and global leadership team to build a more structured, high-performing organisation. The changes were not always easy, but the feedback I received reflected the positive and lasting impact of these efforts:
Takeaway for Founders & Business Leaders
Many founders hesitate to invest in People Operations because they don’t know where to start or what “good” looks like. But scaling without structure leads to bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.
This business was able to transform its leadership, talent, and operational workflows to drive measurable improvements because it took action at the right time.
