Tour Staff Supervisor

About Us

G Adventures is the world's largest small-group adventure travel company and we've been making epic travel memories happen on all seven continents for over 30 years.

Our mission is simple: to change lives through travel. And not just our travelers' either. Since day one, our tours have been built to establish meaningful relationships with local communities, directly benefiting the people and places we visit at every step of our tours.

With the demand for travel coming back strong, we are set up and excited for this next chapter in our company's story — and we'd love for you to be a part of it.

Our DNA revolves around building, nurturing, and developing a diverse culture of people and a true sense of belonging, where everyone is encouraged to bring their authentic self to work each and every day. You'll have the opportunity to grow your career, and yourself, alongside a passionate, talented, and welcoming community that works hard to spread goodness around the world.

If all that sounds like your kind of thing, well, we can't wait for you to join us.

About The Role

We are looking for a Tour Staff Supervisor who will be responsible for leading and supporting the regional tour staff team to ensure effective recruitment, training, scheduling, and performance management. This role manages daily operations, fosters team engagement, coordinates crisis response, and maintains strong collaboration across departments to uphold brand standards and operational excellence. The Supervisor also drives continuous improvement through data analysis and enforces policies that align with company goals.

This role is a hybrid role based out of South Africa, where a minimum number of days as set by the region, is required in the Cape Town office.

What you'll be doing:

Team Leadership & Staff Management

• Maintain the full CEO lifecycle framework including recruitment pipeline, onboarding, shadow coaching, development, and offboarding.

• Maintain engagement among tour staff, G Reps, local office and global G Adventures teams by leading regional tour staff engagement initiatives.

• Provide day-to-day leadership of the tour staff team, working closely with Operations to ensure clear priorities, consistent communication and aligned decision making.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all business inquiries and challenges related to tour staff management in the region.

• Manage and coordinate all actions related to tour staff performance issues, ensuring timely resolution.

• Lead the tour staff performance, including quarterly reviews, regular 1:1s and ongoing coaching, ensuring performance documentation and improvement plans are kept up to date.

• Manage and coordinate all actions related to tour staff performance issues, ensuring timely resolution.

• Lead monthly performance check-ins and maintain structured documentation

Recruitment, Onboarding & Training

• Manage the end-to-end recruitment process for tour staff, including forecasting needs, reviewing applications, sourcing candidates, conducting interviews, and finalising contracts.

• Oversee and manage tour staff training programs, including Forums, Wanderer programs (virtual, hybrid, and in-person), National Geographic Journeys, Overlanding driver training and other specialised training.

• Oversee all administrative onboarding duties for new and returning tour staff in systems such as Workday and Polaris.

• Maintain a regional skills matrix and ensure optimal match between CEO competencies and trip requirements.

• Coordinate remedial training plans and link training outcomes to performance outcomes.

• Tailor recruitment, training, and performance management programs to meet the diverse needs of multiple brands.

• Support regional travel style training and compliance requirements.

Operations, Scheduling & Budget Management

• Manage the tour staff scheduling process, including forecasting regional staffing needs and approving final schedules.

• Oversee monthly audits of Workday, Polaris, compliance documents and Equals Cards

• Manage CEO relocations, swaps, allowance rules, and days-off accommodation processes.

• Oversee swag stock control and ordering cycles.

• Develop and manage the tour leader administration (overhead) budget, ensuring alignment with company targets and operational needs.

• Ensure timely and accurate submission of all tour staff-related financial information, including allowances, expenses, and payroll, while working with the tour staff accounts payable team to resolve discrepancies.

• Implement and maintain regional tour staff policies and procedures, ensuring consistency, compliance and clear communication of changes to all tour staff.

Crisis & Incident Management

• Coordinate ground support for logistical challenges and emergencies during trips; assist local Operations teams and Manager, Tour Staff with Critical Incident Management.

• Conduct structured CEO debriefs after incidents and ensure follow-up actions are completed.

• Ensure SOP and brand-standard compliance in all operational decisions involving Tour Staff.

• Review Critical Incident reports in a timely and thorough manner, ensuring follow up actions, CEO debriefs and documentation are completed as per CIM SOPs.

• Provide support during emergencies by liaising with local operations team, suppliers, DMCs and brands - ensuring consistent and accurate communication.

• Participate in emergency phone rotation and respond to crises outside of regular working hours when required

Communication, Collaboration & Brand Representation

• Represent G Adventures and client brands appropriately across the region to maintain brand standards.

• Represent Tour Staff in cross-functional process improvements across Ops, Fleet, Product, Buying and Finance.

• Produce monthly Tour Staff reporting including KPIs, trends, issues, and recommendations.

• Support collaboration with Operations and other departments to address regional and brand-specific tour staff needs.

• Maintain and report on key Tour Staff KPIs (days worked, NPS, performance, CIM patterns, recruitment pipeline, budget adherence) and lead continuous improvement initiatives based on these insights.

Skills & Experience

• Minimum of 5 years' experience in tourism operations.

• At least 2 years in a management role within the travel industry.

• Proven people management and project management experience.

• Experience designing and delivering training with a flexible and motivational approach.

• Advanced proficiency in English, both written and verbal.

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, Google Suite, and social media platforms.

• Excellent office administration, problem-solving, and organizational skills.

• High attention to detail and accuracy.

• Exceptional customer service and communication abilities.

What do we offer you?

• Competitive salary commensurate with the role

• Competitive benefits package 

• Birthday day off

• Vacation time for you to recharge

• Enhanced Parental Leave

• Learning and growth opportunities

• Employee Resource Groups

*Applicable based on location*

G Adventures is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We consider all qualified applicants.