How Advantage Travel Partnership marries being mobile-first with mission-led through Employment Hero

In a sector built on movement, Advantage Travel Partnership is the UK’s leading community of independent travel businesses, empowering its stakeholders to thrive with an industry-leading, single-stop solution. With 107 employees, many of whom are constantly on the road or supporting agents across the UK, Advantage Travel Partnership’s HR tools have to work wherever their people are. 

To best facilitate this, Xian Mayes, Advantage Travel Partnership’s Chief of People and member of the CIPD’s HR30, turned to Employment Hero for a mobile-first solution for their on-the-go team. In return, they decreased their costs by 5% compared with their previous provider, freed up 15% of time spent on admin, and provided the necessary infrastructure to build a new organization-wide Objectives & Key Results (OKR) strategy.

The Challenge

A mobile workforce, disconnected systems

Instead of enabling the business, Advantage Travel Partnership’s old HR software only added friction. From clunky admin to expensive add-ons, Advantage Travel Partnership found themselves managing a decentralized team with a fragmented system.

“We were sold a dream with our previous provider, and the reality was very different,” says Xian.

The core challenges Advantage Travel Partnership faced included:

• Rigid, non-mobile systems that didn’t suit a remote team
• Expensive costs and poor value for functionality
• No alignment between team KPIs and business strategy
• Manual onboarding, compliance tracking, and policy management that burned time

Advantage Travel Partnership needed a smarter way to bring people, goals and operations into one view.

The Solution

Real-time goals that align with OKRs

Before Employment Hero, team members were creating their own key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics that didn’t always reflect strategic outcomes. Performance felt disconnected from purpose. With Employment Hero’s OKR feature, Advantage Travel Partnership made a critical shift. Now, every department goal ladders up to shared business objectives that are visible, trackable, and accountable.

“Everything we do now is linked to company OKRs. It’s a cultural shift for the better. If it doesn’t feed into the business goal, why are we doing it? Our CEO can easily view how goals cascade, who owns what, and how we’re progressing.”

That transparency has reshaped how Advantage Travel Partnership plans, prioritizes and reports. Leaders now own both their goals and Profit & Losses (P&Ls), using OKRs to align activity with financial accountability.

A mobile-first platform for a remote-first team

With staff working remotely or constantly in transit, Advantage Travel Partnership needed HR that worked wherever their people did. The Employment Hero Work app quickly became a daily essential for every single employee, giving them the tools to self-manage their work life, from payslips and leave requests to team calendars and company news.

“The app was one of the biggest reasons I chose Employment Hero. Our team is always on the move, and now they can access what they need without HR chasing them.”

Scalable training with the Learning Management System

With future growth in mind, Xian wanted a better way to build capability across the business. Employment Hero’s Learning Management System (LMS) gave her team the tools to deliver onboarding, compliance refreshers and skills training at scale, all trackable from one central dashboard.

“We know who’s done what, what’s outstanding, and we’re not relying on spreadsheets or chasing people anymore.”

Whether it’s getting new joiners up to speed or keeping seasoned employees compliant, the LMS has helped Advantage Travel Partnership drive learning with clarity and confidence.

The Impact

Admin reduced, alignment achieved

Employment Hero has helped Advantage Travel Partnership ditch the complexity of disconnected tools. They’ve transformed HR into a strategic, mobile, and people-first function, all whilst reducing their overall spend and reducing time spent on administrative tasks.

Since implementation, Advantage Travel Partnership has achieved:

• A 5% reduction in costs compared with their previous system.
• 15% less time spent on admin-related tasks.
• Mobile-first HR adoption, with 100% of employees self-serving via the EH Work app.
• Department-level financial ownership, as leaders align goals with budgets and P&Ls.
• The implementation of organization-wide OKRs, a new initiative which is already driving impact.
• Centralized learning delivery, ensuring every employee gets the training they need.

Advantage Travel Partnership now has the tools to scale confidently, without slowing down.

“Employment Hero met our expectations where our previous provider didn’t. It’s simple, intuitive, and genuinely makes HR easier to manage.”

The world’s first Employment Operating System from Employment Hero

Employment Hero’s Employment Operating System is more than just a platform–we’ve taken the traditional isolated aspects of employment and integrated them into a seamless, human and AI-powered solution that empowers employers, employees and job seekers alike. Find and hire top talent with SmartMatch, seamlessly onboard new hires, automate complex payroll, drive employee engagement and more.

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