Understanding today’s travel trends can help you carve out your own program’s guidelines
If you think you’ve created the perfect, enduring, forever travel policy for your company, you might want to put away the hammer and chisel and deal with reality – and the reality is, travel policies have never been written in stone. Too many factors are blowing in the wind; traveler preferences shift, suppliers come and go, new technologies sprout. And yes, your company’s strategic travel objective may be different tomorrow than it is today.
Change in travel policy is inevitable. The real question isn’t whether updates are needed, but how will you account for all the competing interests and still meet objectives for the company's travel investment. So in carving out a new direction for your current policy, it pays to consider trends that are shaping travel today.
One emerging trend is a greater focus on what type of travel is most appropriate, according to John Dale, senior vice president, Americas, BCD Travel. Companies should support travel that generates revenue, he says, but carefully evaluate occasions when travel is required for internal meetings.
“BCD Travel is working with our travel consulting arm Advito as well as Cisco to address this issue,” Dale says. “With significant advances in technology that enhance collaboration, it can be more efficient and convenient to hold some internal meetings via video conferencing rather than spending money and time on travel,” he advises.
He also points to the growing practice of setting travel budgets rather than policing particular attributes. “Instead of telling their travelers how to spend company money when traveling, some companies are now setting trip budgets for how much they can spend.” Corporate travel managers should tie costs to the company’s business mission and make allowances accordingly for individual travelers, Dale says. “If the traveler saves money, he or she could receive a benefit as a reward.”
Self-booking through suppliers’ direct channels is one trend that concerns Dale. The practice creates challenges for policy administration, duty of care and traveler support during trips.
“Unmanaged self-booking can make it harder for corporate travel managers to know where their people are so they can provide assistance if needed,” Dale says. He advises companies that allow their business travelers self-booking to consider adding a policy to ensure that they forward those bookings to the TMC to be included in trip itineraries. This captures trip details for duty of care, on-trip support and spending analysis.
Another policy change gaining ground in some quarters is greater reliance on the approval process. “We’re seeing more clients adopt a more structured travel approval process as part of their travel policy,” says Mike Cameron, CEO of Christopherson Business Travel. “This may only include their immediate supervisor for certain trips and a higher-level approval for trips that meet certain cost and/or risk criteria.”
Risks & Rewards Among the most compelling trends is a renewed focus on safety. “Over the past couple of months, we’ve seen an increase in concern around business traveler safety,” says Rodolfo Elizondo, vice president/head of global business consulting, American Express Global Business Travel.
In a recent study conducted by GBT in conjunction with ACTE, 37 percent of travel managers surveyed were confronted by an increase in inquiries, given the rise of more sophisticated security threats. In response to growing demand, corporate travel companies have made progress in establishing practices and policies to promote traveler safety, including duty of care to ensure continuity of access to travelers throughout their trips.
Not surprisingly, the most significant trends in travel policy stem from continued advancements in technology. According to Egencia’s recent 4th Edition Business Travel and Technology Survey, some two-thirds (66 percent) of global business travelers want to manage and book their business travel on every mobile device. And 50 percent of global respondents said they prefer avoiding human interaction on the road unless they are having a problem.
“We continue to see a rabid appetite for technology solutions to solve today’s corporate travel needs,” says Mark Hollyhead, COO of Egencia. “From an increased desire for personal data and enhanced product experiences for travelers to real-time support tools for policy holders, there’s no question that TMCs are expected to invest in highly configurable solutions and a terrific user experience.”
Another technology-driven development is the growing popularity of the shared economy. “This has shaped the way business travelers are making decisions when booking their travel and has sparked increased competition among providers,” Elizondo says.
“However,” he adds, “travelers are at times unaware of the disadvantages of doing so, opposed to booking through a company’s travel policy.” He notes that among these disadvantages are the lack of ownership of responsibility if something goes wrong, the different regulations associated within a specific region and the lack of consistency between individual properties or vehicles.
“It’s up to travel managers to make sure that their employees are aware of the ways the sharing economy affects a current travel policy, including through potential lost savings,” he cautions.
Increased attention to meeting management is an important part of business travel that often gets overlooked, says Gabe Rizzi, president of Travel Leaders Corporate. “A simple meeting usually isn’t planned by a meeting planner, and it is hard for those people to pull off a smooth event – it’s not their area of expertise.” To address the need for non-meeting professionals to plan meetings, Travel Leaders corporate recently introduced a “Simple Meetings Optimizer” that anyone can use.
Steps to SuccessWhen it comes time to create or revise travel policy, there are some logical steps to follow. First, Rizzi advises having a strong travel management company to partner with.
“A knowledgeable TMC can save you time, money and trouble,” he says. “Their experience allows travel and compliance managers to focus on the most important parts of their job. And the buying power of a TMC can be enormously helpful to the bottom line.”
He also says it’s essential to talk to travelers and analyze the factors that take them out of program compliance. He advises asking questions; for example, Why is there leakage? Why are travelers booking direct? Is the booking tool too complicated?
“Most lack of compliance has to do with a hotel,” Rizzi asks. “Do you have the right properties?” Or maybe direct flights aren’t allowed, he adds, but a direct flight puts the employee in front of the customer well-rested and ready to go, so perhaps that’s a better investment than a cheaper red-eye flight.
“Also don’t forget that policy needs to correspond with traveler behavior,” he says. He cites a situation where a company’s daily meal allowances are based on their location in a small town, but if travel is to New York City, employees will be out of compliance very quickly.
Build in some flexibility, advises Hollyhead. “Being overly restrictive in travel policy can backfire,” he says. “We encourage organizations to remember the purpose of business travel is to generate or develop their business. Meeting and refining the formula to meet the needs of the C-Suite, the budget holder and the traveler should always be the goal.”
Analyzing data to look forward should be an important part of the agenda, Hollyhead adds. He notes that incremental changes designed to meet necessary goals are much easier to absorb organizationally – and for travelers to adopt – than top-down policy changes.
Dale advocates placing an emphasis on early booking. He says most policies urge travelers to buy tickets as soon as they know about a trip. But the tendency for many travelers is to book later, often directly with suppliers.
“Travel managers should work to change that dynamic by reminding their business travelers there are not only cost advantages, but also other benefits to booking earlier through proper channels,” he says. “Using sanctioned channels offers duty of care protection in case of emergencies, as well as support services that may be needed while on the road.”
Keep It Simple Throughout the process, simplicity should be a guiding principle. “Too many rules and restrictions create unnecessary friction and don’t create enough value to justify the traveler’s desire to comply,” Cameron says. If the travel policy can save the company money while making it easy for the travelers to comply, he notes, then it will create the buy-in required to get the consolidated travel spend benefits.
Ultimately a successful travel program hinges on clear and regular communication, Hollyhead says. “Fostering an open dialog will give you insight into the pain points different teams commonly encounter.” He encourages travel managers to test new ways of working and use samplings of types of travelers at regular intervals.
Some travel managers are going so far as to rethink how their policies are presented so that they are more creative, or at least more understandable. While it’s important that travel policies are thorough and robust, Elizondo maintains they must also be easy to maneuver so that target audiences are able to understand them.
“We are seeing companies shift to single-page infographics, short videos and internal social media to keep employees informed while also becoming more aligned with the communication trends of today’s travelers,” he says.
For Elizondo, balance, communication and enforcement are the keys to effective travel policy. “When creating, revising or implementing travel policy, managers should make sure that their policies are addressing all touch points of travel and expense,” he says. “At the same time they should be easily digestible, conveniently accessible and in line with company culture.”
It’s also essential for travel policy to reflect the diverse needs of traveling employees. Creating the best possible traveler experience fosters both compliance and productivity, further driving the program’s overall success.
As examples of this traveler-centric approach, Elizondo cites nonstop flights, the option to fly premium economy on domestic flights and the ability to fly business class on longer flights, as well as easier expense reporting. “Think about the different ways a traveler would be able to be productive on a trip and the flexibility that will need to be accommodated,” he says. “Overall, the goal is to keep the traveler at the forefront of your efforts and make sure that your travel program is traveler friendly.”
In addition, the use of incentives can be a motivator. Rizzi says that while it’s easy enough for companies to say to their employees, ‘Follow this travel policy because I said so,’ this approach is not effective in every corporate culture. “We’re finding that employers have far greater compliance when they offer their travelers a reward for booking within their policy,” he says.
Whatever measures are taken, they should not be developed in isolation. Hollyhead advises travel managers to resist the urge to tackle travel change management on their own. “Lean on and challenge your TMC to think about what partnering means in a world where technology, fast disruption and high expectations are the new normal,” he says.
“Don’t be alone in crafting a travel policy,” Rizzi advises. “Take advantage of a TMC’s expertise to craft an engaging policy.” He says this is not something a company should do by itself. And in the process of crafting policy, try to maintain a positive approach.
“Remember that a good travel policy will engage business travelers,” Rizzi says. “It should not penalize them.”