It's never been as clear as now that what travellers value most is time and the work/life balance. In traveller surveys sometimes up to 30% of employees say they want to travel less and cite those reasons as the main drivers.
Management can't ignore that employees are only human and can think for themselves. Travellers see what's happening to our planet on the news, they have children they want to provide for and they want to contribute to make things better.
This is good news because employees would have more time for their private life and in the office where they can generally be more productive. Travelling less means cost savings for the company and the climate impact is reduced.
What a perfect opportunity for travel managers to work on the goal of decreasing travel in the company and working with others to do something for colleagues and the environment. Travellers, travel managers and management all want the same thing and it's a win-win situation.
But there is a paradox. There is still a high demand internally to travel. If we didn't have the technology there is available now then there would be more physical movement but now that good quality video technology is available, and at a cheaper price, companies should be questioning why the mindset hasn't changed.
New ways of working and old ways of thinking
There's always necessary travel as it relates to sales and turnover and it's also natural to want to control costs.
Unnecessary travel is evident when the majority of meetings are between staff. Often employees are unnecessarily travelling in from various sites to meet face to face, particularly in industries such as banking, insurance and services. They're afraid to change their behaviour and think the business will suffer if they don't take the trip.
In addition our workforce is more distributed, with people often working from different locations. This also drives up travel spend and internal meetings.
Companies need to change to be competitive but when the video experience is bad it's easy to revert back to the old-fashioned way of thinking and to travel. Often there aren't enough alternative-to-travel solutions available in companies or the current technology, perhaps a poor quality microphone or screen, is not good enough to facilitate a change.
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Not all meetings require travel ©vmIt's good to invest in a trip for the first instance but people can be more aware and efficient of alternative options after.
Changing the culture
A shift is happening now and it is a big and dramatic change. The travel manager may be moving more into the meetings space and needs the competence and understanding of when a trip should happen. That's more important than worrying why someone spent £10 more on a hotel.
But identifying necessary and unnecessary travel is not black and white. It needs to become part of the company culture where a physical meeting becomes something that is deemed important and valued.
Travel managers might not actually be able to do much but put forward the case and help set the policy as it requires the department managers and staff to get behind this new way of working. The most important player is the organiser of the meeting. They start the process of people thinking 'who will handle the daycare?', 'when will I get home?' etc. To turn this around, the process has to start with the question 'why did they ask for a physical meeting?'.
Meeting the demand for less travel
Currently companies don't meet the demand for less travel with the right technology solutions. If everyone is thinking about cost, time and the environment then video conferencing (VC) should become part of company culture and, subsequently, the travel and meetings policy. There is a big shift in technology in the VC marketplace where technology is offered as a service. It's easier to use and a lot cheaper than before.
Often companies have invested in technology but it's old and locked into one system that does not work with other platforms. Only with flexible, high quality systems can you start to challenge travel as it's important they run smoothly and for the attendees to see emotions and reactions. It can't be Skype or Facetime; the technology has to be more serious than that.
Buying VC technology is like buying cloud-based services from an external provider that takes care of your internal and external virtual meeting needs. It's an operating decision for management. Employees can be more efficient with the right technology.
How travel managers can become meetings managers
- Become a travel and meetings manager. To get started on a project like this buyers need to get a mandate to cover the meetings area.
- Identify the potential decrease in travel. Conduct an assessment and find the percentage of travellers that do not want to travel. You can see the number and length of meetings and who met with who and then compare that to the number of trips taken and where they travelled to. Comparing these is a good base to start from when building the case for management and to start challenging what's happening in the programme.
- Identify the needs of your travellers. Traveller surveys provide valuable information from your 'head people'. Surveys I've carried out have typically had a 50-70% response rate. People want to be involved and see that things are getting better as it impacts their daily lives.
- Set a communications plan. This is essential when implementing video. Think about the documentation and education of managers and staff down to even the small tasks like putting the meeting into Outlook and what is bookable.
- Implement a new mind-set. Some form of pre-trip approval is needed, whether hard or soft, as choosing when a meeting occurs is a bigger decision that the traveller cannot decide alone. One of the biggest tasks is to talk to line managers as they have to have the guts to say 'no'. It is complex to implement a new mind-set unless management is using the technology and then it is natural that the team follows.