ByCATHERINE CHETWYND
THE CONSULTANT JO LLOYD, founding partner, Nina & Pinta
IN A TRAVELLER-CENTRIC POLICY, the prime focus is about getting travellers around the world in a way that allows them to be in good shape to do business – in the most convenient and safe way to support the purpose of the trip. It is not about driving down cost. It focuses on what the company defines as reasonable, and cost efficiencies are driven from that platform. To ensure policy is fit for purpose, organisations need to consult the people it impacts on; that is really important for its success. A recent Forbes article listed the top
eight reasons why employees leave com- panies. Three of these are: too many rules that were not sensible, not recognising employees’ accomplishments and not caring about people. This is all about work/life balance and contributes sig- nificantly to burnout. A travel policy
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addresses those points because of its impact on employees. That is why it is so important for everybody to be consulted, and even more important for organisations to act on what has been said. If it is not fol- lowed through, people get disenfranchised and frustrated. Travellers who feel they have direct influence on policy have a sense of ownership; they become ambassadors and that boosts compliance levels. To steer a balance between a B2B and
B2C relationships, travel managers need to understand the relationship between employee and suppliers – and the em- ployee needs to understand the corporate relationship with suppliers. In my experience, employees want
to do the right thing for the company because their career destiny is linked to that of the organisation, so being able to articulate to travellers why decisions have been made is really important. Knowing why travellers do not want to
support the suppliers of choice also helps with compliance – there is always a reason. If you achieve that then the B2C balance is less of a challenge. Communication takes resource and
focus, and is not to be underestimated. Some of the bigger firms have impressive engagement strategies and use technolo- gy such as Salesforce Chatter, closed groups on Facebook and their own platforms. They make it easy for the travelling community to interact with the travel team and with each other, so they can share experiences and findings as they move around the globe; and the travel team has an effective channel for communicating updates to policy and other new information. This keeps the programme alive and gives travel a profile within the organisation, which in turn helps with compliance. The easiest analogy is to suggest you treat travellers like your clients and make it easy for them to do business with you.
BBT May/June 2017 47
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