John McCallion
As more and more millennials are entering the workplace, the demographic make-up has changed considerably. Ranging from age 18 to 34, they are the biggest generation since the Baby Boomers. This is the generation that grew up alongside the internet and they are much more buttoned-up on the guided culture of the digital world than any other group.
For companies who are hiring an increasing number of millennials, they are finding that they need to engage with them in a way that's not been an issue before. This means familiarising with corporate software systems and ensuring that they're using the appropriate channels particularly when it comes to travel booking. Maintaining compliance is likely to be the biggest headaches for the business travel industry over the coming years. Corporations need to find a way to balance the choice of booking formats that is now available to travellers, alongside the "official" guidelines when it comes to retaining value for money, compliance controls and ensuring duty of care for its employees.
How can this be achieved?
Companies have a duty to ensure that their staff is fully aware of the booking policies. For travel managers within an organisation they need to educate and win over their employees on the importance of keeping in line with their policies.
Companies need to identify how travellers prefer to book their travel, with the rise of mobile bookings particularly amongst millennials — there is a need to address the process and ease of use of the current systems. Providing employees with easy to use booking options that are linked to a global distribution system can help employees and business remain compliant.
Employees need to be fully informed in order to understand the requirements of the companies' travel and procurement guidelines. For the most part employees are already getting the better deal, as there is a lot of hard work and commercial negotiation that goes into agreeing the best possible corporate rate. Therefore, booking within the companies own system is often the easiest solution as the information lives and is updated in one place. One of the key factors of remaining compliant is that companies have to maintain the duty of care of all its employees. When you're booking under a corporate system, the information that is provided could prove crucial if you were caught up in any type of situation.
In spite of industries today witnessing one of the biggest changes to its workplace in recent years in terms of technology, companies need to ensure its workforce understand the procedures put in place to ensure the business is not out of compliance. Through effective communication and the gradual digitisation of traditional booking tools — millennials will soon be familiarised with the process and it'll be as second nature as securing last minute tickets via a Eurostar mobile app.