BBT Forums London & Dublin
Senior travel buyers and experts gathered for in-depth debates around travel policy issues
HE BBT FORUM EVENTS, entitled ‘Policy & Programme: Defined, Designed, Aligned’, were held at the Grange City hotel in London and the Carlton Hotel Dublin Airport. The opening keynote was delivered by
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British American Tobacco (BAT) global category manager Caroline Blackmore. She gave an insight into the culture of BAT and how it’s reflected in the travel programme. “We’re a leading company that’s success-
ful worldwide and in a controversial in- dustry we act with responsibility and with integrity,” said Blackmore. “But there can be a stigma attached to our company, despite our strong corporate reputation, so we work hard to attract and retain good talent. We are lucky at BAT that they look after us, which is shown in our travel policy.” She described a policy that is generous – busi- ness class over three hours, for example – but with lowest available, restricted fares booked 14-21 days in advance and via the travel management company (TMC). She said her main focus is compliance,
which “in turn will drive cost savings”, giving this example: “By raising ATP [advance ticket purchasing] compliance in the Americas to just 80 per cent, my negotiated rates would have saved a very significant amount of money... that’s just air – how much would we have saved if my travellers booked all hotel stays through the TMC?”
GOAL SCORING Sessions moderated by HRS managing director Jon West looked at defining goals and objectives when creating a travel policy that is fit for purpose. West cited research from a recent GBTA report that found only 21 per cent of travellers are in a mandated
Supported by: Joint sponsors:
programme, with almost half unmanaged. “If you have a large number of your trav- ellers unmanaged, the question is: why bother having a policy at all?” said West. One European buyer in the banking
sector said: “A policy should control cost but in an era where we operate with duty- of-care as a high priority, cost should not be at the top of your list. We have that approach in our organisation where safety has no cost. Lufthansa sales director Andreas Koster
said the airline works with buyers to “in- dividualise” their air programmes, noting that every company operates differently, both “culturally and financially”. One buyer commented on the “mindset” between small companies and large com- panies. “I’ve been in smaller companies where travellers are given more responsi- bility to book what they like if they know the budgets,” he said. “The ridiculousness that comes out of some policies that are over-managed is probably why it can be hard to get buy-in at board level.”
CONSTANT IMPROVEMENT BCD Travel’s Tony McGetrick said the basics of building a policy “should start with aligning the corporate and travel- ler objectives for any organisation. If we took our top 50 performing companies and look at their policies, they would probably be all quite similar... but there are some that realise you must change it to reflect your business and make it a living document which is con- stantly reviewed.” This prompted debate about how often
policy should be reviewed and updated, with differing opinions, but several buyers cited an annual review as ideal. However,
a challenge for many is finding time and resources to do this. Another session, moderated by Nina &
Pinta’s Jo Lloyd, looked at implementation and communication. Buyers spoke about the advantage of using social network tools such as Yammer and Chatter to communicate with frequent travellers. Some reported a jump in compliance after engaging with travellers through these channels. One buyer said: “We thought about
how we could get closer to the travellers – a challenge as we operate in 90 coun- tries. We set up a business travel group on Chatter, and engaged with our marketing and comms team, who offered advice on how to get more interaction and involvement in the group. One year later we have more than 60,000 users and one of the most used Chatter groups in the company. For us it is now an essential tool.” While many agreed the two-way com-
munications on company social network platforms are beneficial, some delegates warned that negative feedback and “travel trolls” are a challenge. Inform Logistics MD founder Ian Flint
led a discussion around key performance indicators and benchmarking policy against best practice, and other issues raised included behavioural economics, managing local versus global policies in multinational organisations, and improv- ing the approvals process.
For information about attending BBT Forums, contact events manager Emma Gordon at
egordon@panaceamedia.com
n See policy top tips, ACTE column p95 Event location sponsor:
20 BBT November/December 2016
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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