“There’s a misconception by some people that, with very little travel going on within an organisation, the travel team must be sitting there twiddling their thumbs, but that’s absolutely not the case,” said Emma Jones, director of global travel at Willis Towers Watson, at ITM’s recent virtual event.
Having come to the fore at the onset of the pandemic, travel managers continued to enjoy elevated status within their organisations as the crisis developed. They again took the lead as organisations implemented new policies and procedures to make travel programmes fit for purpose in a new environment. But as business travel recovery stalls, what now?
It’s unfortunate that some travel managers should find themselves questioned in this regard, and Jones’ sentiment is not uncommon. A recent ITM poll of its members found nearly half (48 per cent) feel increased pressure to justify the travel function within their organisation.
On the flipside, the survey of 144 travel buyers in September also showed 49 per cent expect c-suite engagement to increase in 2021 and 51 per cent believe it would stay the same. None of the respondents feel their involvement with the upper echelons of their organisations will decline in 2021.
Meanwhile, ITM chief executive Scott Davies says travel managers remain largely unaffected by job cuts, just as they were less prone to being furloughed than staff at suppliers and TMCs in the midst of the pandemic. Of those travel managers that have left their roles, many have chosen to do so, says Davies.
The travel function is undoubtedly still deemed indispensable by the c-suite. Travel teams’ work in repatriating staff and rethinking programmes before wider travel recovery is clearly recognised, but now there is a shift in focus.
“This is a great time to stand up and be counted,” advised Jones. “The c-suite really understands what we’re doing, but I would really encourage people to build stakeholder engagement at this time.”
Jones continued: “It’s all about value and visibility: visibility of us individually, as the team, as the TMC, and then the value that we bring. It’s about making sure we prioritise everything we do to bring value back to the business. You’ve got to have a consultative approach and highlight ways in which you can support business goals.”
She says the travel function has always worked closely with risk, HR and legal, “but not to the scale we are now engaging today”. The downturn has also presented the opportunity to implement previously disregarded procedures, including a travel approval tool.
Jones is also among a growing number of travel managers responsible for integrating meetings management in her role. Should travel managers diversify? “Yes, I think they should," she said. "Meetings is under my remit and it’s going to accelerate during this time because there are so many overlaps [with travel]. Alignment is going to be key.”
Asked what they are doing to showcase their value, respondents to ITM’s poll provided wide-ranging responses: hosting traveller forums, increasing transparency, quantifying ROI, implementing 'welcome back' traveller surveys, sharing traveller experiences, revising policy, better utilising data and, like Jones, supporting meetings. Increasing stakeholder engagement, however, was the most popular answer.
As the survey’s executive summary said: “Whilst there is no doubt that 2020 has and continues to be exceptionally challenging, there have been several opportunities which our buyers identified. These mostly sat with the opportunity to revisit and reset their programme/policy, but also in raising the profile of the travel team and increasing engagement with internal departments.”
Value and visibility are indeed the watchwords, as Jones says.