BBT FORUM REPORT
WORDS MAT THEW PARSONS
BRIDGING THE GAP
Ideas for taking travel programmes to the next level were considered at the BBT Forum, with expert advice on building fairer policies
“ACTING HAS BECOME a baseline expectation,” said ClimateCare’s Rachael Treharne in her opening keynote at the BBT Forum, held at the Millennium Hotel London Knightsbridge in November. In her role as carbon portfolio management executive, Treharne empha- sised that large organsations are becoming aware that the effects of global warming will impact their business models. She cited Coca-Cola as one example, with its worries about potential water shortages. As well as corporate pressure, younger generations coming into the workforce are voicing their concerns: “Values are shifting… and companies that don’t offer alternatives to travel are not aligning with those values.” Her message reinforced how travel
programmes need to reduce their environ- mental impact – but how? Cue the day’s first session, “How sustainable is your travel programme?” Moderator Chris Pouney called on his panel to provide practical examples. Samantha McKnight, business sales manager at LNER, made the case for rail, where operators were rolling out older stock for more efficient, electric trains. “But the biggest challenge is when buyers ask for data and tools to track impact,” she admitted.
Millennium Hotel, Knightsbridge
A travel manager on the panel also argued that as well as a lack of data, he questioned how environmental it was to have so many empty trains operating: “I can get on a ten-carriage train in the middle of the day with four people in each carriage. The rail industry is so obsessed with timetables and offering more trains.” Cait Hewitt, deputy director at the
Aviation Environment Federation, added: “If the carbon cost of travel was internalised with all modes of transport, we’d be having a different discussion.”
One solution to drive a needed cultural shift was for the travel policy to state that every trip is visible to the whole organisation on an intranet – which the travel manager said he had seen set up at another company. He added that car-pooling and car-sharing was also a “great way forward”.
TIME TO TALK
The second subject on the agenda reprised the main 2018 BBT Forum topic – mental health and wellbeing. The panel was quizzed as to what had changed since then, following 12 months of much industry debate across conference and exhibitions. Matthew Holman, founder of Simpila Healthy
Simpila’s Matthew Holman
Solutions, said while travel policies were increasingly factoring in wellbeing, he asked buyers in the room: “Are you listening to what the traveller wants?” Following his own research, he revealed
80 per cent of travellers with mental health issues never tell their employer. Fellow panellist Chris Ulph head of global marketing at FairFly, highlighted the plat- form’s new “Wellness” tool. When asked why an airfare re-shopping platform was relevant to wellbeing, Ulph replied: “The data we take in shows us different layers of insight into aspects of a trip, and how it impacts travel- lers. So this solution is now about providing data to companies.”
As an example, he said the tool could flag up gruelling travel patterns for a particular traveller, then rebook flights that could allow for upgrades or better timings to give that person time to recuperate at lounges, or offer better connection times. Meanwhile, Andrew Neilson, procurement expert at Twisted Orange, recounted his own experiences with mental health issues and travel. Recalling his role at a previous em- ployer, he said: “I’m a typical bloke. I thought nothing could touch me. My issues were not caused by my employers, they were caused by me. I felt I had to be seen working hard. “But if I put my hand up and asked for
help it would have been the end of my career. I was offered occupational health support more as a threat.”
“But if I put my v
ccu
more as a threat. As a result,
As a result, he called on the buyers in the room to “go back to your execs andom to “ tell them what we talked about… too much is swept under the rug”.
tell them wh much is swe
BBT editoditor Matthew Parsons will moderate the “Make traveller wellbeing a reality in your business” session at the Business Travel Show on 26 February.
moder we b Supported by: Joint sponsors:
20
JANUARY/FEBRUARY
2020
buyingbusinesstravel.com
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