“Communicating travel policy is difficult because it often involves sending a message to people who don’t necessarily want to hear it”
Energy and shipping Pippa Strasser-Ganderton
EVERY SECTOR HAS ITS OWN TRAVEL PROFILE and its own approach to traveller communications. Pippa Strasser-Ganderton is head of account management for shipping and energy at ATPI, which has a substantial number of clients in both sectors. Both have shore-based personnel who are treated like other traditional transient travellers and receive direct contact from the TMC, but there is also a high volume of crew travel. Strasser-Ganderton explains that the TMC team is not necessarily in direct contact with crew members. “An in-between person – an HR administrator or group co-ordinator – is responsible for the duty-of-care and logistics to
maintain the right number of crew on a rig at any one time.” These crew co-ordinators manage the flow of communication so are in constant contact with the TMC team and will pass on travel details to the actual traveller. Strasser-Ganderton says that most energy and shipping companies also engage a duty-of-care company, so responsibility for communication is usually agreed during a three-way conversation among the client, its duty-of-care provider and the TMC. The three agree who is responsible for what communication and where any data feed comes from. She says that “arguably the best place in an organisation is HR because they should have up-to-date information on all their travellers”.
out that the words used or the order in which items are presented influence how a communication is received and acted upon. For example, communicating the distance from a station to a hotel in steps rather than in yardage incentivises the traveller to walk to the property because they see instantly how this will contribute to their 10,000-steps-a-day. Microsoft’s Fidler is aiming for consistency in her worldwide communications with the software giant’s travellers, but Haxne at Amex argues that awareness of local cultures is important. He says: “Stick and carrot will work in the UK but you just need a stick in Japan – you just mandate, push down and everyone does it.” He believes communicat- ing travel policy is difficult because it often involves sending a message to people who don’t necessarily want to hear it. Elswood foresees a holistic approach to communication and engagement: “There’s no one out there doing it now but I can see that in the future we will use a whole variety of things to measure the success of communication – revenue, absenteeism, traveller well-being.”
The view from IT Julia Fidler
JULIA FIDLER IS PART OF THE MICROSOFT PROCUREMENT TEAM. She used to be group manager of strategic sourcing for travel, but earlier this year she became responsible for global employee engagement and user experience. She hasn’t abandoned travel but explains that a lot of regional travel responsibility has been outsourced so that the
global team can focus on core issues such as communications, data and new technology. This reflects a new view at Microsoft about what should be done in-house and what by specialist outsourced providers. It also reveals a philosophy that employee communication is an opportunity to further employee engagement rather than just transmit information.
58 BBT September/October 2016
Fidler is now focused on creating a programme that facilitates exchange between travellers and the travel department. Data on everything from journey planning to journey outcomes is being evaluated to identify pain points and create a programme which enhances the ‘voice of the customer’. She says: “We want to hear what people love, benefit and appreciate as well as what causes stress – we learn from both areas.”
She explains that “policy has become significantly less important in our company. We have gone through a programme of travel policy simplification and replaced it with an engagement model, influencing and helping people make mature decisions. Ultimately we should not get in the way of people doing business. “Policy still exists but in its simplicity there is an opportunity to make sensible decisions. People do the right thing for business and client and within their own budget area. If guidance is simple, clear and to the point, people are much more likely to adhere to it.” Microsoft’s ‘policy simplification’ has been introduced on a global basis. To ensure that this engagement does happen, Fidler has had to identify purpose, style and language to build it in a way that’s sustainable.
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