The Knowledge > Corporate case study
How to... IMPROVE POLICY COMPLIANCE
Don’t let all the hard work of putting together a good travel programme be undone by maverick travellers. Gillian Upton profiles one public sector business whose travellers play by the rules
Matthew Griffin HEAD OF BUSINESS SERVICES, DEPARTMENT FOR WORK & PENSIONS (DWP) Matthew joined DWP in 2009, with overall responsibility for the Department for Work and Pension’s Business Services, which includes the business travel category. He oversees and leads the direction of the category’s strategy development and policy implementation. It's a high profile role with a remit across the department which undertakes 100million miles travelled per annum, providing travel services to the department’s 100,000 employees. Matthew has 14 years' supply chain experience in both the private and public sectors (WS Atkins, Omar Group, Portakabin and Yorkshire Electricity), working in consultancy, manu- facturing, utilities and now the public sector.
MOST travel managers understand that the hardest thing to change is people’s behaviour, but when potential savings of ten per cent are at stake then that can really drive a project. The Government’s Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) asked their supplier, Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) to propose a number of practical changes to booking travel, specifically incorporating online technology. CWT work mainly in rail travel, and 90 per cent of DWP’s spend on rail travel is concentrated through them. DWP’s travel programme was generally in good shape but expenditure on business travel was less good. The hard work of looking at how to cut travel costs began around 18 months ago, but the Coalition Government’s overriding priority to reduce the deficit pushed the issue into the spotlight. Matthew Griffin drove the project and
has been recognised by his peers for the work achieved. DWP is now in the vanguard of the public sector, alongside the Home Office and HMRC. DWP has around 110,000 staff and although we’re talking mega numbers – a travel spend in excess of £67million and some 6,000 regular and largely domestic travellers – the actions the business took are pertinent to any size of business, including those at the SME end of the scale. Read on for how DWP tackled compliance issues head on.
Step 1 Griffin was a relative newcomer to public sector as he was previously with supply chain consultancy WS Atkins. The scope of the role at DWP excited him and he joined DWP’s Leeds office in March 2009. In his first month, Griffin set tough targets to cut travel costs and concen- trated on demand management. “I wanted to really push the envelope and start the ball rolling,” he says. “It was a bit of a shock to everybody but they’ve grown to love me, a bit!” Compliance was a clear issue as the
travel policy hadn’t been revised for a couple of years and the online booking
tool was hardly used. On the plus side, transactions were running efficiently and smoothly. The big money waster was first class rail travel. “I’d never travelled first class,” says Griffin. “How can you justify spending £300 in first class when you can do the same journey for less than £100?”
Step 2 Work began with top down communication, creating a forum of representatives from each of the 15 different parts of the business (eg Jobcentre Plus, the Pensions, Disability & Carers Service and other agencies), and including the finance community. “It was a massive communications project over three months, all on our intranet, plus messages on our booking tool, booker network and by email communications,” explains Griffin. “If something’s right and you explain why you’re doing it, travellers will follow suit,” he firmly believes. “Communication is key. Messages
were going out before we launched it saying, ‘Be prepared’.“ The message linked policy changes to the importance of business travel’s contribution to a wider cost avoidance strategy. As the project progressed, robust MI helped maintain the momentum of change.
Step 3 A new, strengthened travel policy was introduced on July 1, detailed on the business travel website. To drive greater compliance, it outlined the importance of travel avoidance, value for money, pre-trip approval and mandated the use of DWP contracts. First class rail was banned on journeys
of under two hours and restricted at other times to save an estimated £10million per annum. This was a huge cultural change as certain grade employees were entitled to such travel. First class travel pre-trip approval was also introduced. There was some initial resistance to
the change, chiefly from travellers complaining that they wouldn’t be able to work on the train. The sizeable 40 per cent of travel soaked up by first class rail in 2009 dropped to a mere two per cent within a month. At the same time, there was a ban on flights for single journeys of less than 300 miles. Griffin notes that they’ve achieved higher productivity levels despite the longer train journeys.
Step 4 The biggest change was mandating the use of
thetrainline.com on July 1, which previously had an adoption level of 24 per cent. “We’ve
6 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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