By Edel Doherty, MD Beyond Business Travel
How happy are your travelling employees? Not only is this a reflection on productivity but also a selling point, or potentially a deterrent, for your company when recruiting.
Having recently won Business Woman of the Year 2019, a committed, proactive and positive team has never been more important to me. My team of over 25 staff have helped me to get the business to where we are today, and I continue to prioritise their experience, especially while travelling.
2017 research from Deloitte revealed that 83% of company executives believe that talent acquisition and retention is important or very important. As travel becomes a more common element of the working day and the overall employee experience, traveller happiness is paramount to talent acquisition and retention.
Company travel has increased in the past five years and continues to increase. According to Deloitte’s industry research, business travel spend is projected to reach $1.7 trillion dollars by 2022.
The ‘person-centric’ travel management approach puts people at the heart of the travel programme’s objectives. Instead of managing the programme from a cost-centric point of view, the programme is centred around keeping the travellers happy. Travellers are also employees and who is responsible for keeping employees happy?
If your business has internal Travel Managers, they essentially play the role of people managers and have more in common with HR than we think. This management role can have a far wider influence than ever anticipated. If your internal team are not prioritising traveller happiness this can develop into declining productivity over time.
When utilising the experienced expertise of a business travel company, most of these issues can be offloaded. At Beyond Business Travel, we are approaching our 10th year in business backed by a highly experienced travel team. Recently wining ‘Travel Agent of the Year’ at The Advantage Travel Partnership awards in London this September, we continually outperform the market by providing both cost effective travel solutions and premium travel experiences, supported by best in class customer service.
As travel becomes a bigger part of our work, and our clients work, the value of travel becomes more tangible. Thankfully we’re seeing a shift change in a higher price being placed on employee traveller happiness.
Read more: Business Travel IQ and Deloitte Industry Research