Balancing travel policy compliance with the traveler experience

 

The modern-day business traveler is evolving. Their expectations are changing as a result of remote working and world events. What was valued in previous years may not be a business traveler’s priority this year or next.

According to a recent survey from Concur, 96% of global business travelers are willing to travel for business over the next 12 months. How companies meet the new and evolving needs of their travelers while promoting travel policy compliance will be a careful balancing act.

For businesses, delivering the same travel policy each year and expecting the same level of compliance and traveler satisfaction may be a challenge.

Employees have come to expect more flexible working conditions and flexible travel programs to better integrate business travel with their personal lives. According to Concur’s research, new benefits that business travelers now expect from their employers include the ability to choose direct flights (52%), stay in four- to five-star hotels (41%), and select premium seating, like first or business class (39%).

Businesses that invest in evolving their travel policies to support the objectives of productivity, comfort, safety, and wellbeing may find the perfect balance between policy compliance, travel experience, and employee engagement.

Modern-day traveler

Hybrid working models have provided people with flexibility and as such, created a new level of expectation for the end-to-end traveler experience. Employees are more likely to prioritize their comfort, safety, convenience, and brand loyalty over their employer’s goal of savings and compliance.

Duty of care is more important than ever, with safety continuing to be a priority for business travelers and travel managers. Corporate Travel Management’s (CTM’s) 2021 Business Travel Survey demonstrated that traveler risk, safety, and wellbeing were the top priorities for travel programs in 2022.

Where travel services were once selected by price, on-time performance, seat pitch, and luggage allowance, today’s travelers want to understand the supplier safety and cleanliness measures of hotels, airlines, and airports at the time of booking. Preferred suppliers must today be able to meet the requested standards of companies as well as the expectations and preferences of the business traveler to drive ongoing compliance.

A 2022 report from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) indicated that heavy workloads and unused vacation days mean employees plan to make the most of their upcoming business travel, with 89% of global business travelers surveyed saying they will add personal vacation time to their business trips in the next 12 months. Travelers are increasingly blending work and leisure and, as such, seeking flexibility with travel arrangements, dates, and schedules.

Recruitment and retention

With many people currently reconsidering their career paths, corporate travel policies are increasingly positioned as a key differentiator for retaining and recruiting talent. Since travel policy and experiences directly impact the quality of the employee experience, there’s great strategic value for human resource managers to have visibility into travel policies and a strong relationship with their company’s travel managers, or the department that manages travel.

The effects that a travel program has on employee recruitment and retention are often overlooked. According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), 79% of North American business travelers, 83% of European business travelers and 81% across the Asia-Pacific region indicated that their business travel experience impacts their overall job satisfaction. In North America, 59% of travelers say that a company’s travel policy is an important factor when considering a new job.

Traveler-focused programs lead the way in addressing ancillary travel services such as dining and parking in their travel policy. Those that have ancillary services included in their policy are also often likely to have traveler satisfaction programs that allow them to measure their employee’s travel experience. Categories that are measured might be air, hotel, ground transfers, dining, parking, and bleisure travel. A report conducted by GBTA¹ found on average 60% of buyers who measure such categories say they drive significant traveler satisfaction. Over half of the companies that measure the effectiveness of their traveler satisfaction program do so through cost savings and policy compliance.

It is important to keep a company’s culture and business goals in mind while setting policies that help the traveler achieve their business goals when traveling. Policies should support the company’s overall goals while also enabling employees to be the most productive, safe, and comfortable they can be while traveling for work.

Understanding your employee’s travel needs, whether via traveler surveys or traveler-focused programs, will enable a business to deliver a carefully crafted travel program with a flexible policy that promotes compliance and delivers a positive traveler experience.

References

[1] GBTA – Traveler satisfaction outlook: Are companies focused on what matters? 2019