A working holiday visa holder’s journey

As a working holiday visa holder, my journey is filled with excitement, enlightenment and inspiration.

  • I take this opportunity very seriously.

While doing research before writing this blog post, a range of information was accumulated and carefully studied so as to develop my future employability brand. To be more specific, from now on, I will keep learning technical skills from LinkedIn Learning which is an online learning platform offering a wide variety of courses. Peart (2019) suggests that the illiterate of the new century are not people who cannot read & write, but people who are unable to learn, unlearn & relearn, because in the 21st century, new skills arise as quickly as others fade away, and success is less about what individuals already know and more about adapting individuals’ knowledge and skills according to the new context. As to developing marketing skills, I will join Marie Forleo’s B-School which is an online business school offering marketing courses.

In terms of soft skills that I need to focus on, I plan to join Business Chicks, a businesswomen’s networking organization in Australia, because Business Chicks provides their members with ongoing training about business management skills as well as unlimited networking opportunities. If I am a member of Business Chicks, I will be able to write articles for their magazine Latte and gain sufficient publicity for my employability brand. (Interestingly, the real difference between a talented wannabe and a talented celebrity is publicity.) Further, this is a good way to practice my verbal and written communication skills.

Clearly, these are my future plans of activity:

  1. Create an account on LinkedIn Learning;
  2. Join Marie Forleo’s B-School;
  3. Become a member of Business Chicks.working holiday
  • Customer satisfaction is the oxygen of a business.

My workplace uses a loyalty tracking system to measure customer satisfaction, i.e., customers complete a survey on the Hibiscus Tree’s social media page (WeChat account). Although this survey is optional, approximately 41% of this restaurant’s customers are happy to do this survey because the business has been working hard to build positive relationships with customers via social media. More than 85% of the customers have given the Hibiscus Tree 5 stars on WeChat; therefore, it is clear that most customers are happy with the products and services offered by this Chinese restaurant. Apart from that, the business owner has claimed the Hibiscus Tree on Google My Business; hence, customers can write Google reviews on the Internet as well. Currently, there are 9 Google reviews written by random customers (the restaurant does not ask customers to write Google reviews, so these reviews were written by customers who proactively wanted to write Google reviews). The average rating on Google is 4.8 stars; thus, it is obvious that the majority of our customers are very satisfied with the products and services provided by the Hibiscus Tree. The business owner of the Hibiscus Tree responds to every single customer’s comment and review. When it comes to negative comments or reviews, the business owner would follow up personally and try their best to make the customers happy. The best strategy in this regard is to turn a complaint into a sale, e.g., when a customer complains about something, the business owner actually gives the customer a voucher as an apology and compensation; as a result, the customer would be grateful and will spend more money with the restaurant in the future. It is manifest that this system works very well for the organization because customers know the business owner actually cares about them.

Staff satisfaction is also paramount because when staff members are satisfied, the organization is able to build a positive and supportive culture. At the Hibiscus Tree, there is a reward system: The business owner has realized that not everyone has the same needs and wants & not every employee is motivated by financial rewards only. Though financial rewards are important, many employees need to be motivated by other factors as well. More exactly, everyone has the need for a sense of belonging, companionship and love. Thus, team building activities such as End of Financial Year celebration can be a significant part of the reward system in this restaurant. What’s more, recognition, titles and promotion are key signs of appreciation, too – all of these also motivate staff members. This system has significantly reduced staff turnover and has encouraged every employee to work hard.

 “My working holiday is very productive.”

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