How to create the building blocks for a better travel policy.

Corporate Traveller’s data reveals:

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The Holy Grail for corporates is achieving compliance in their travel policy, but a one-size-fits-all approach to corporate travel management isn’t always in the best interests of the organisation and its travellers.

Increasingly, travel managers are challenged with balancing individual preferences and the wellbeing of their travelling staff with the cost-saving requirements of their organisation. Personalisation helps to deliver freedom within a framework in this environment, and can improve travel policy compliance across all levels of the organisation.

As a senior executive, the rigidity of a travel policy may not always make sense to you, in terms of helping you to achieve the company’s goals. Your travel policy may dictate that you avoid overnight accommodation by flying to short-haul destinations for meetings on the same day or perhaps staying at a hotel outside the CBD.

The short-term gains achieved by saving the cost of an overnight stay or expensive city accommodation are in fact

mitigated by the long-term impact on your wellbeing and ability to achieve your company’s goals, not to mention the unforeseen losses through time wasted in traffic trying to get to meetings because you’re stuck on the N3 for two

hours.

Why is a travel policy important?

Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater because your travel policy doesn’t suit you, consider the advantages of having one and how you can make your travel policy work for you and your organisation.

A travel policy is a solid foundation for a well-managed travel programme. It guides the “how” of business travel and can often help organisations answer the “why” by providing guidelines on whether travel is necessary to achieve the company’s goals.

Having a travel policy in place provides a standard for compliance, helps control costs, delivers savings and achieves successful risk management.

How to motivate a change in travel programme

1. Institute a regular annual reviewThe first step in motivating a change in travel programme is to institute an annual review of that travel programme, incorporating the views of your frequent travellers.

Companies should ideally review their travel policy annually, at the same time as they embark on their strategic planning. This is because corporate travel is one of the most essential tools in your arsenal to achieve the company’s strategic goals.

You’ll be surprised how much changes in a year within the world of travel management: Hotel rates increase, exchange rates fluctuate, visa regulations change. Your travellers have had a year to provide feedback on how the travel policy needs to change.

Your company and its goals also evolve, so your travel

management must too.

2. The numbers don’t lieLook at your data and use business intelligence to argue for a change in your travel policy. Your travel manager and Travel Management Company will have access to travel intelligence that can inform necessary changes in travel policy.

While your Managing Director may not believe your impassioned plea for staying downtown, the exorbitant taxi fare you’ve accumulated because of sitting in traffic for two hours provides insights into how your short-term savings are mitigated by additional, and unnecessary costs incurred.

You could even overlay other data sources, such as Salesforce, so you can make informed decisions, such as

whether your Sales Director and her team need flights that allow for last-minute changes without penalties. You’re hardly going to stop your top salespeople from making flight changes if their behaviour adds to your company’s success.

Furthermore, insights acquired from frequent-travelling staff can help shape your travel policy. Reviews on and ratings of preferred hotel suppliers can help to determine whether a particular department needs hotels with specific meeting facilities.

Data is also the key to personalisation. Your travellers should each have a digital profile which reveals their preferences, such as preferred airline seat, airline meal choice, desired hotel facilities like WiFi or gym.

Employee wellness and retention can be enhanced by collecting and analysing the travel preferences of staff and

applying these to your policy.

3. Draw on your TMC’s expertiseDid you know that booking domestic flights more than six months in advance is expensive? Or that the cheapest time to book African travel is between one and three days prior to travelling? How about that staying in accommodation outside the Cape Town CBD can impact the cost of your room night by up to 46%?

Your TMC is your greatest ally when it comes to crafting and implementing a travel policy that delivers you the most benefits. Why? Because they have the expertise and insights to analyse data and draw the right conclusions for your business. Once again, the numbers don’t lie.

When motivating for a change in your travel policy, go beyond the anecdotal and consult with your TMC for concrete insights that show how your travel policy should change.

A good travel policy helps achieve the sweet spot that is successfully achieving a company’s goals while reducing the travel friction of frequent-travelling staff.

And, if your travel policy isn’t fit for (your) purpose, there’s merit in reviewing it to achieve that balance.

The most expensive months to travel are January, July and December, while May and November are the

cheapest months.

The cheapest time to book domestic travel is in fact between

one and two months prior to travel.

Three to four weeks prior to travelling is the most expensive

time to book international travel.

The clear lesson learnt from analysing the data? Enforcing a 21-day advance purchase for all destinations could actually be detrimental to your efforts to achieve cost savings.

Something additional to consider is that if your company has a negotiated rate with a particular airline, your rate discounts may only apply to higher airfares, and not on cheaper rates. This could mean your company is paying substantially more than the cheapest available ticket price.

And the same could be said for negotiated hotel rates due to the way in which hotels manage their yield. A static corporate rate is not a great option as you cannot take advantage of lower last-minute prices.

If you consider that one hotel in Dubai changes their rates up to 14 times a day depending on the availability of their rooms and the market, being locked into one static rate means you could miss out on great savings.

Partnering with a TMC like Corporate Traveller, that has volume deals in place thanks to its buying power, not only

delivers these insights, but also takes the pressure off you as a corporate to meet your supplier target.

You have the flexibility to choose the best option at the time of quotation, and are not forced into using a particular airline or hotel chain that doesn’t provide you with enough flexibility to travel according to the needs of your business.

Armed with these insights from and expertise of your TMC, you’re in a strong position to shape your corporate travel policy in the way that makes the most sense.

4. Highlight the impact of travel friction

Ask any manager what their number one challenge is,

and they’ll tell you it’s recruiting and retaining good staff.

Team builds, incentives, even free lunches at the onsite

cafeteria – these are all ways in which companies invest

millions in motivating staff and improving their working

conditions. The negative impact of frequent business travel

on the wellbeing and morale of a traveller rarely gets any

airtime.

The father of the term ‘Travel Friction’, Scott Gillespie,

explains the phenomenon as the “accumulated wear and

tear of travelling, not just by the occasional poor on-trip

experience.

“Travel Friction is caused by too many nights away from home, too many time zones crossed, too many sleepless nights in a strange bed, too many wake-up calls at 4am to catch a 7am flight.”

Although Travel Friction has been a genuine risk for staff recruitment and retention for some time, its associated risk of burn out is not something on which companies have traditionally focused.

Little thought is given when shaping a travel policy on how it could impact the company negatively, through loss in productivity and, worse the influence it has on a top performer’s decision to leave that company.

If the current travel policy is contributing to your traveller friction, you have cause to motivate for change by highlighting the long-term negative impact on your staff and the company’s ability to achieve its goals.

As a C-Level team member, you inform the travel budgets and manage the company’s road warriors. You should be asking your TMC to track and identify those travellers at risk, based on nights away from home, the number of trips, distance and flight hours.

Your next step should be to motivate for a short survey sent to every traveller who is identified as being at risk of burnout due to Travel Friction. Ask them how they feel about doing the same amount of travel over the next year, as well as what they want to improve their ability and be more productive on the road, e.g. airport lounge access, better hotels, premium-economy seating.

Their feedback will assist you in motivating for a change in travel policy, taking into account the productivity and wellbeing of the traveller.

It’s important to note that the travel policy of any organisation is a guideline, not an absolute. In the world of travel management, rules are there to be shaped around what makes the most sense at the time for the organisation and its employees. Travel is there to enable a company’s staff to achieve its strategic goals, not to hinder them. In other words, if it’s broke… fix it.

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Want to learn more about travel policy and how to create one that will help your company achieve its goals and improve the wellbeing of your staff?

Contact Corporate Traveller on 0877 40 5090 or visit corporatetraveller.co.za

Corporate Traveller specialises in providing business travel management for medium and large sized corporates. We offer a boutique approach based on the perfect blend of expertise and technology to ensure your travel is right for your business. For almost 20 years Corporate Traveller has worked with businesses just like yours. We’re here to help you grow by making the business of travel easier. Building personal relationships with our clients and offering best in class service sets us apart from other travel management companies. Corporate Traveller is part of the Flight Centre Travel Group, one of the largest groups in the world. When you partner with us, you partner with South Africa’s most experienced and trusted

travel team.

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