If you are a human resources manager in a major multinational stuck for ways to help the growing number of overseas workers integrate into the Irish way of life, corporate bike tours could be just the thing.
Dublin Bike Tours is developing a niche in organising guided bicycle tours, day-long bicycle picnics and treasure hunts around Dublin that are proving popular with the corporate sector, particularly those companies with a high contingent of foreign workers. "It was actually raining when we first tried a half-day bicycle tour, but everyone loved it," says Ms Bernice Howe, event organiser for Ericsson's Dublin-based international training centre, which trains new employees from all over Europe. Ericsson has already taken a number of excursions with the company.
According to Mr Damien O Tuama, Dublin Bike Tours director, cycle tours offer advantages to HR departments seeking to build relationships with new personnel. "Cycle tours are great for people new to Dublin and as a way of breaking the ice between new workers in a company. You can chat to people on the way and its all very cultural," he says.
Mr O Tuama (28), a geology and environmental engineering graduate, established Dublin Bike Tours in 1998 with Ms Keara Robins, a petroleum engineer who had just returned from abroad. Based in the grounds of Hardings Hotel in Fishamble Street, opposite Christchurch, they have one other full-time employee and a total of 50 bicycles. A self-confessing cycling fanatic and chairman of the Dublin Cycling Campaign, Mr O Tuama says the duo was keen to run a bicycle business in the city.
The initial business plan was aimed at the independent travel market but a chance suggestion from an associate who had taken part in an Ericsson training course prompted a letter to the firm outlining what Dublin Bike Tours could offer. That was followed by a presentation which resulted early last year in the first of a series of Ericsson groups taking part in outings.
Corporate clients now include Shell, Coca-Cola Europe, Spencer-Stuart Executive Recruitment and Gothaer Insurance. The company has also been capitalising, through tour operators, on the incentive group market whereby foreign companies send employees to Dublin and lay on accommodation, entertainment and activities for them as a reward for job performance.
The company organises bicycle tours for group sizes ranging from 10 to 70 people; excursions can vary from standard two to three hour tours of Dublin city to full-day trips in the Dublin area, including the Wicklow mountains. Dublin Bike Tours is one of a number of small businesses looking to tap into the demands for team-building activities and events for big corporations.
However, the attractions of bike trips are not confined to those relatively new to the capital. "The ratio of overseas workers to domestic workers on our trips is actually about 50-50, which means that a lot of Dublin workers will end up seeing parts of Dublin they've never seen before," he says.
And what about the challenges of turning a hobby into a business? "The one thing about a small business is that you develop a whole range of skills, from finance to marketing to fixing derailleurs. It's quite different to working in a much bigger organisation where you have a speciality," says Mr O Tuama.
He adds: "There's nothing more focusing than seeing your own bank balance and needing to grow."
The "red tape" involved in establishing the business has been eased with assistance from the Dublin City Enterprise Board in the shape of grant aid as well as business training from FAS and the Dublin Institute of Technology.
And you do not have to be Sean Kelly or Stephen Roche to participate in the company's outings. Tours are tailored to meet the needs of customers but in general terms, according to Mr O Tuama, are "very relaxed and easy-going with lots of stops".
www.dublinbiketours.com
