TRAVEL POLICY
Galimidi believes that the best way to ensure that
travellers follow policy is to make it mandatory for them while illustrating the benefits of booking in-policy, such as receiving extra ‘value contribution’ services from suppliers that make their journeys easier, make them more productive or save them time. He adds: “We all know this is a very challenging
process sometimes. In my opinion, a travel policy must always be mandatory. Buyers and travel managers should identify ways to increase, as much as possible, their traveller satisfaction levels.”
BOOSTING YOUR PROFILE At any time of strategic corporate change, there come great opportunities for the travel buyer to show their true value to their employer and come out of the shadows of more prominent corporate departments, by successfully managing these transitional periods. “This is how you move from being your company’s designated ‘travel person’ to being a leader within your or- ganisation,” says Festive Road’s Kilgannon. “Often travel managers complain that important decisions were made without their input. If you align with company goals, have a strong executive sponsor and have a structured programme of stakeholder engagement, this should not happen.” With the rapid adoption of more automated travel booking and reconciliation processes, it’s possible that an increasingly strategic role may be taken by travel buyers in the future. Travelport vice-president and regional managing director Simon Ferguson says buyers need to move away from “just being procurement-focused to having a more strategic focus”. This could allow them to “actively engage” with travellers to stay on budget and enhance the standing of their travel programme. “You need to focus on designing experiences,” he
says. “If you are just concentrating on compliance and procurement then your role could end up being done by a robot. “We need to help the role of the travel manager to
evolve – the travel team needs to be talked about in terms of being marketeers. Don’t think of yourselves as being in procurement; think about becoming marketeers.” Ferguson says the important questions travel buyers
need to ask are: “Can we move from just processing bookings, can we move to becoming mobility advisors and consultants? Can we help design fulfilling trip experiences and move up from concierge services into workplace and leisure planning?” Change is always on the way – whether it’s a shift in corporate goals or the introduction of new technology – those buyers who can create a flexible and robust approach to planning and communications will be best placed to illustrate their value to their organisations when it comes.
70 BBT January/February 2018 ALIGNMENT TIPS
Top tips for aligning travel policy with your organisation’s overall strategic goals:
• Establish regular lines of communication with major departments and cost centres within the organisation including finance, IT, human resources and communications.
• Try to identify and cultivate an ‘executive sponsor’ who can report the travel buyer’s opinions and concerns to the senior management when strategy is evolving.
• Engage travellers with regular internal communications including email updates as well as holding occasional drop-in sessions where they can share concerns or issues about travel policy or suppliers.
• Creating a conversation or ongoing dialogue between the travel department and travellers can help drive up compliance and ease the process of change when necessary.
• Travel creates a huge amount of rich data that can be used to showcase the impact of changes in company direction – this can be a powerful tool to make a buyer’s case for resources to senior management.
• Data can also be used to show travellers why travel policy has been changed – it may not placate them completely if you have to make an unpopular change, but it can illustrate through hard facts why the organisation is making the move.
• Categorise your travellers based on how often they are on the road – communicate more regularly with your most frequent travellers as securing their ‘buy in’ is vital during times of corporate change.
• Use the opportunity of change to show that a travel buyer can become a ‘leader’ within the company.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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