B
usiness travel and global mobility have historically been two very distinct disciplines. Today, influences such as the environmental impact of frequent business trips, cost and
the focus on employee experience are blurring the lines between the two domains. Average length of stays for business travel are increasing as trips become less frequent; while for global mobility, traditional three-to-five year assignments have become less popular as overall volumes of new, shorter assignment types have increased. Employee demands and the rise of the workation,
work from anywhere, international remote and hybrid models are also fuelling this crossover. A recent survey of 2,000 business travellers in the UK, United States, Canada and Australia commissioned for World Travel Protection found 34% of business travellers want the flexibility to work from any location. Almost one in five (17%) identify as being an ‘anywhere’ worker. The data raise a number of issues: not least, compliance. Over one in ten (13%) plan to work from a different country for at least a month or more, while 12% are planning a ‘hush’ or ‘quiet vacation’ where they work remotely without informing their employer. A second issue is retention and attrition where
workplace flexibility is increasingly valued. On this point, 13% say they would quit if this option was not possible, rising to 17% among those aged 18-34. Interestingly, a quarter of employers surveyed said this flexibility is actively encouraged; a point Marianne Curphey explores in this issue on the latest thinking and practice on hybrid working. So, what are the considerations for those looking to
align business travel and mobility policies and practice more closely as global people become increasingly relevant in today’s workplace?
BUSINESS MOBILITY? A NEW ERA The merging of business travel and global mobility is playing out in organisation transformations around the world, as well as in parts of the mobility supply chain, perhaps most obviously in the serviced apartment sector. Its popularity and growth have mirrored these trends in extended business trips and shorter assignment lengths. Contributions and commentary from serviced accommodation operators, employers and intermediaries – including global distribution platforms and technology companies – explored the implications of this alignment in conversations at events over the summer, especially from the perspective of booking and user experience. The launch of Ariosi’s latest ‘Global Serviced
Apartment Industry Report’ (GSAIR) and corporate accommodation platform AltoVita’s Smart, Safe, Sustainable Summit 2024 both offered practical insight into their challenges and opportunities. Karen Hutchings, former head of travel at EY and
founder of consultancy Cobb & Hutch, told GSAIR. “Serviced apartments will become more significant for travel managers over the next ten years. Mobility is the bedrock of the serviced apartments’ business, but many travel companies are already using them for transient travel too.” Panellist at the AltoVita event, Souhilla Taarabit,
is group head of corporate travel services at Dubai- headquartered conglomerate Aal-Futtaim. She described how the company’s shift to outsourcing travel management created gaps in provision, as well as highlighted synergies between the business travel and relocation teams’ responsibilities, and had led to a more unified approach. “Do we as the corporate services team manage the
issues of the relocation team when they are dealing with their travel suppliers?” Souhilla Taarabit explained. “Or does that remove us from the focus we are supposed to have on our business travel community? This is where we started to think about combining travel and relocation. “Although we are at the very initial stage and
exploring what is happening in the industry, I would say that we are in a very comfortable space because we have decided already to make the move to have travel under HR operations and not, like most other companies, of say, under procurement or finance. So travel is already under the same umbrella with relocation under HR operations. When we decide to make the move, things are going to move quite fast for us.” For fellow speaker Diogo Matos, global mobility
services manager at chemical company, Solvay, he has developed a global business services team as part of Solvay’s transformation and restructure. It was driven in part by the company’s international assignment volume declining from around 200 to 70 and expansion of business travellers “to create global mobility 2.0” that raises service levels to internal clients.
TECHNOLOGY A TURNKEY SOLUTION? For companies like Aal-Futtaim and Solvay developing their global people approaches, the latest GSAIR report explores to what extent the serviced apartment sector can capitalise on this opportunity currently. It means getting the sector’s technology and distribution offer right so both operators and customers get the best
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GLOBAL MOBILITY
BUSINE SS TRAVEL
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