GUEST BLOG: SHOULD BUSINESS TRAVEL MANAGERS TAKE “PERMANXIETY” SERIOUSLY?

“Permanxiety” is the latest buzzword in the global travel sector. It describes the near-constant state of anxiety felt by travellers; about everything from terrorism to racial tension, Trumpism to technology, and culture wars to climate change. And, according to global travel intelligence platform Skift (who coined the term) there’s a burgeoning belief that it could soon become the world’s new shared social experience.

Traveller anxiety: the new normal?

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) more than half of business travellers feel that, nowadays, any destination could be high-risk, almost half are worried about terrorist attacks abroad, and over 20% classify North American and Western European countries as only “somewhat safe”.

Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives reports that a third of travel managers are seeing a rise in enquiries about business traveller safety.

Despite these worries, the global travel industry is booming: the GBTA anticipates a rise of more than 6% in corporate travel spend this year and the World Tourism Organisation predicts that, by 2030, five million people will be crossing international borders for leisure, business or other purposes - every single day.

In short, travellers are travelling more. But they are also worrying more about their travels.

Managing worries

Business travel risk management isn’t just about planning for emergencies, it’s also about reducing anxiety, or even 'permanxiety', for travellers. It’s about identifying and mitigating risks associated with every stage of a trip overseas, and helping travellers feel informed about, and supported during, real-time threats.

From pre-travel reports, training and intelligence gathering, to in-country travel tracking and real-time risk alerts, there’s no end of risk management products available to help prepare, inform and locate travellers overseas, and to reduce anxiety.

It’s all about providing access to these products in the most efficient way.  

Meeting expectations

In a recent GBTA survey, 44% of business travellers said they expected their employers to use tools like GPS to locate them in an emergency overseas. And at least two-thirds would expect their company to proactively contact them within two hours of an adverse event abroad.

There is an increasing hunger in the corporate travel sector for joined-up risk mitigation products that provide services like these, in the context of comprehensive risk management programmes; tailored to support travelling employees and meet duty of care obligations. All accessible in one place.

Employers should be able to harness integrated technology that enables them to anticipate employees’ medical and security threats abroad; to know exactly where employees are in relation to threats; and to counteract the dangers. They should be able to prepare staff for every eventuality, giving them access to one-source medical and security advice and emergency assistance, whenever they need it. And they should be able to reduce the anxieties and risks of not having these measures in place.

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate assistance services at CEGA, a Charles Taylor Company and provider of global assistance, travel risk and claims management services.

CEGA and Solace Global Risk are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service INtrinsic at the Business Travel Show on February 20^th and 21^st 2019, Stand B340.  Travel bookers, buyers and managers can register for a free pass here: https://www.businesstravelshow.com/register

www.cegagroup.com       www.solaceglobal.com

GUEST BLOG: Four steps for managing business travel effectively

According to the Global Business Travel Association, spend on business travel is expected to grow 6%  in 2018, ending an ‘era of uncertainty’ for corporates with regards to budgets. This is hardly surprising when you consider that for every $1 spent on business travel, a company can realise $12.50 in incremental revenue. Firms are keen to use business travel to grow and expand.

However, with this increase, comes more pressure for those booking and managing trips. Research from Collinson Group, owner of Priority Pass, found that 65% of HR professionals at large companies anticipate the process of sending employees abroad will become more complicated from a Duty of Care perspective.

Employers have an obligation to provide a safe, secure and positive environment for staff to work in, both in and out of the office. Here are our key tips to manage business travel effectively:

Creating and communicating business travel guidelines 

While rough guidelines for business travel do exist, many companies have no standard approach when it comes to Duty of Care requirements. In fact, less than half of HR professionals (47% at large corporates / 40% at SMEs) issue staff with clear cut business travel guidelines. Unfortunately, even when these are issued to employees, they sometimes fall below the required mark. A third (36%) of business travellers described the information their company issued them with as “standardised” and not related to specific business travel needs. Firms should have a coherent risk management strategy in place and ensure these are relevant to the travel needs of individual members of staff.

Conducting effective risk assessments 

Risk assessments should be a fundamental part of Duty of Care, yet 53% of large corporates and 25% of SMEs only conduct risk assessments associated with employee travel if the employee is going to an area deemed “high risk”. Some of the reasons for this will relate to experience and/or budget considerations. But not having a proper risk assessment and contingency plan in place could mean that businesses are leaving staff – and themselves – exposed to unnecessary travel risks. Companies should consider using the services of third party risk partners, such as online portals providing real-time health and security information, to help support these processes.

Managing employees’ whereabouts 

When an employee requires assistance, you want to ensure a rapid response whilst also ensuring costs don’t spiral. There are different approaches to keep an eye on employees’ whereabouts when they’re travelling; companies need to find what works for them. For example, while travel tracking tools are often used by large corporates, they can be expensive and for many smaller companies, this will not be a sensible option. Instead, they should opt to micro-manage the tracking of their employees’ travel directly and on an individual basis. 

Providing a seamless travel experience

As well as keeping staff safe and fulfilling their Duty of Care responsibilities, employers need to ensure they focus on giving employees the best ‘customer experience’ possible – and not neglecting the importance of their social and emotional needs. Half (51%) of business travellers cite being away from home and family as the most challenging aspect of travelling abroad. Amongst other top concerns was access to consistent Wi-Fi (49%), being away from the office (38%) and the impact of travel on productivity (36%). What may feel like modest benefits to some, can make a real difference to staff effectiveness and their morale, while making them feel more valued and open to spending time away from home. For business travellers, the lounge in an airport or transportation hub is something of a sanctuary; a place for downtime and to relax, to stay connected with friends, colleagues and family members, as they prepare for travel.

Businesses need to ensure they are consolidating their approach to Duty of Care and ensure they are working with the right third party providers to achieve this. The reality is that if approached correctly, business travel can be highly rewarding, motivating for employees and drive extensive business gains.

This blog has been written by Jon White, Marketing Director, Travel Experiences, Collinson Group. The full findings from Collinson Group’s ‘Taking Care of Business Travel’ research can be found here.  If you want to find out more, please visit the Priority Pass team at the Business Travel Show, Stand B322.

GUEST BLOG: Duty of Care in an Off-Channel Booking World

Travel risk management has become an exponentially more complex task over the past several years, as more corporate travel activity is booked outside of a company’s official booking channels.  With the growth of easy-to-use mobile apps from suppliers and online travel agencies (OTAs), the proliferation of travel supplier incentives to book direct, and the sheer lack of critical travel inventory via corporate booking tools (CBTs), many corporate travellers simply find it most convenient to book outside their travel management company (TMC) or CBT.

A recent GBTA survey of European companies shows that roughly seven out of 10 travellers booked travel outside their company’s booking tool in the past year, with well over 25% anticipating using supplier and online travel agencies more often in the future (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Off-channel booking activity trends
Source:  GBTA Foundation, How Traveller Booking Behaviour Impacts Safety, Nov. 2017

The lack of consistent data integration for these off-channel bookings compromises a company’s ability to meet duty of care requirements -- but it doesn’t have to be that way.

As more stakeholders in the corporate travel ecosystem come to terms with the fact that these off-channel bookings aren’t going away anytime soon, leading duty of care service providers are finding ways to solve the challenge of data integration, making it easier and more efficient for them to provide risk management services to their clients.  In turn, this makes life much simpler for the corporate travel managers who are on the front lines of duty of care management.

Additionally, many companies are taking the matter into their own hands, taking advantage of new technology and tools like Traxo CONNECT that help them directly aggregate itinerary data for bookings their employees make directly with suppliers or online travel agencies.  As a complement to (not replacement for) a company’s existing risk management service, these tools enable corporate travel managers to have critical employee location information handy at their fingertips -- which can make a tremendous difference in an emergency, when every second is precious.

Beyond technology, developing a robust, flexible, and easy-to-understand corporate travel policy is paramount.  Heavy-handed policies with complex rules and severe penalties only serve to alienate employees and build a culture of distrust.  To the contrary, engaging employees in policy development gives them agency in their own safety and security, and ensures higher compliance with policy -- even when they book outside official channels. With over half of respondents to a recent Business Travel News survey indicating their companies either didn’t offer risk training, or weren’t certain if they do, there is ample opportunity to improve duty of care coverage through basic policy education.

Taking a multi-pronged approach to risk management offers the most efficient solution for addressing the challenge of off-channel booking data integration.  Corporate travel managers should push their TMCs and duty of care vendors to leverage existing technology to capture this data, as well as explore new services for direct data aggregation they can deploy internally.  Rounding out technology with a cohesive, traveller-friendly policy ties everything together, ensuring your employees are true participants in their own traveller safety.

This blog was posted by Matt Griffin, SVP of Product for Traxo, who are exhibiting at the Business Travel Show next month. Please register for your free visitor pass at http://www.businesstravelshow.com/