TRAVEL BOOKERS
contents of a company travel policy, and also the reasons why it needs to be followed. For example, at AMS, anyone given permission to
book on behalf of others (a permission which is reviewed annually) undergoes webinar training. Meanwhile, at Lush, Taylor says the travel team “work directly with the stakeholders and their teams by regular pop-up travel sessions in key office locations”. From a TMC perspective, Blue Cube developed an eight-module training course for clients’ travel bookers, including PAs and EAs, “detailing the insights and nuances of booking travel”, says Deadman. Ensuring proper training is in place helps PAs carry
out travel booking, and also resist attempts by others in the team to plan routes outside of policy. “All staff are aware of the travel and expenses policy,” says Gower. That means “if someone was asking me to book something that was over and above their entitlement, I would ask them to provide email approval from their manager, and the department that was paying for the travel, with a reason as to why this was being allowed.” The second element is support. At AMS, McSperrin opts for a “shared workload model” where – in addition to PAs – there is a remote back-office team that “have become our internal experts on travel”. The team books trips for the “layer of senior management immediately below the executive team” who might not have assistants themselves (alongside other administrative tasks) and acts as a source of internal expertise for others in the business. More recently, the company has created a chatbot called TRAVIS that helps to resolve frequently asked questions, while reducing the burden on the team. Having internal expertise for travel bookers in one form or another is vital, believes Heinrich. “Every company should have one ‘champion’ where all PAs and EAs can go to with travel-related questions. As soon as they’ve got a problem that champion can take responsi- bility for the queries people have.”
TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS Finally, travel managers need to ensure that any central- ised booking systems help to keep bookers within policy. “OBTs can ensure that company policy is followed to the letter and where a company policy is not hard-mandated, the visual guilt factor can often lead to increased savings,” says James Stevenson, vice-president and general manager UK at American Express Global Business Travel. OBTs prepopulated with the parameters of a company
travel policy can really help, adds Fello’s Buckley. “It’s not just a case of the ‘computer says no’ but if someone books outside of policy it will provide an alternative option and explain why they should take that. It will also ask you to add hotel to an air booking or if not adding a hotel it will ask why, and then that notification goes to a travel manager. A few days before the trip they’ll be prompted to book a hotel or at least advise us as to which hotel booking has been made so we can track it in the system.” In this way the same technology and digitisation that created the challenges around business travel booking is also doing its bit to help provide solutions, too.
84 MARCH/APRIL 2019
THREE TIPS FOR TRAVEL BOOKERS
can be as simple as a piece of paper for travellers to fill out. For example, “I devised a form for staff to submit when requesting rail tickets so I know I have all the information I need before processing,” says Helen Gower, global executive assistant at Jordans.
1 2
Check all documentation required is valid and in date. “Make sure the executive’s passport is
valid and not about to expire,” says Josh Wertheimer, executive assistant at Clarity Capital. “Certain coun- tries also require vaccination forms and visas, and don’t forget travel insurance.”
3
Use the archives. Look at similar journeys booked within the company to see what
insights can be gleaned from PAs or EAs who have planned the same type of trip. “They may have already done much of the fact-finding labour for you, and they may have made blunders you will want to avoid,” says Wertheimer.
Develop your own tool for gathering all the nec- essary information on each travel booking. That
OBTs CAN
ENSURE THAT COMPANY POLICY IS FOLLOWED TO THE LETTER
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