FRICTION burned

More companies are paying attention to the relationship between travel policy and staff retention, writes Neal Baldwin, who examines the latest thinking on traveller experience Buyers are aware of traveller friction, but what has been difficult until now

Ask any big-name celebrity agent the number one rule for success and the answer comes through loud and clear: ‘Don’t upset the talent!’

When you’ve got someone on the books making you big money it makes sense to keep them happy, even if it does throw up some seriously unusual demands.

God forbid handling Madonna’s travel arrangements, for example – she’s rumoured to insist any hotel suite she stays in is always equipped with a new bed, while ageing rocker Rod Stewart has a ‘darkening team’ to ensure his room can be sufficiently blacked out before he’ll check in. And then there’s Justin Timberlake, who likes housekeeping staff to disinfect doorknobs every two hours.

Of course, there is no places for such divas in the world of business. But the idea that staff perform best when they are well looked after isn’t anything new.

By its very nature, travelling a lot for work can be tiring and soul-destroying. Executives may miss out on leisure time and significant family events, endure long, uncomfortable journeys in economy class, and suffer the physiological effects of disrupted sleep. It’s a recipe for physical and mental burnout that creates employees who aren't fit for the job – or worse, who quits in search of an easier life.

Scott Gillespie, Managing Partner at Ohiobased travel benchmarking specialist tclara, coined the phrase ‘traveller friction’ five years ago in a bid to identify and measure the stresses associated with business travel trips and help companies reduce staff turnover.

Two studies developed in conjunction with ARC and American Express Global Business Travel ( Traveller Friction - Insights from US Road Warriors [2016] and The hidden expense of cost-focused travel programmes [2017]), have served to keep the issue front of mind by highlighting that survey participants – in this case seasoned US travellers – tend to view their employer through the prism of its corporate travel policy. A little flexibility in the rules – even if that proves slightly more expensive – boosts outcomes and goes a long way to remove gripes.

Gillespie has since developed a way to measure ‘friction’ by applying point scores to individual elements of a trip. A whole host of elements are factored into the equation. For example, hotel quality, aircraft cabin class and flight length, and post-trip recovery time are all high priorities when it comes to keeping workers happy and rested, while policy rules such as allowing use of hotel laundry services gets a lower ranking.

“This test gives us a way to quantify how one policy might compare against another,” he says. “Everything can be factored in – from travel to more dangerous regions of the world, to items that cause traveller frustration, such as the length of time it takes to have expenses reimbursed.”

However, benchmarking the pinch points in a travel policy is only a small part of the battle. Gillespie says companies still struggle to understand where the issue and its cost fits in their own organisation. While trip outcome has an obvious effect on the bottom line, employee wellness is typically seen as the domain of human resources. Meanwhile, travel procurement – and especially the desire to save cash – sits somewhere else.

“I get a sense that buyers are aware of traveller friction, especially given the increased focus on duty of care. But what has been difficult until now has been demonstrating the economic incentives for them to take action,” he explains.

“In terms of staff retention I suggest a simple test: companies should look back four years to find the employees spending more than 35 nights on the road each year, and then ask the HR department how many of these staff have left the business. If this ‘attrition rate’ is high then the TMC should be adjusting the policy.

“What’s too high? HR experts say the cost of replacing a mid-level executive is twice their annual salary. Losing people is expensive.

“Measuring trip outcomes is a more  difficult concept, especially on a return-oninvestment kind of way. How long do you wait to see the rewards? How many trips went in to getting the deal? Getting staff to self-assess how they have done and what percentage of their trips were effective can be useful, but looking at staff retention is easier. Happier staff just perform better.”

In Gillespie’s home market of the US, he claims to know of no more than five businesses actively applying any kind of metrics to their staff attrition rate. And all of them are blue chip companies such as banks and software firms that need to retain highlyspecialised staff.

Back here in the UK, building some flexibility into travel policy has continued to gain traction, particularly as the financial crisis fades into the past. Reed & Mackay Chief Executive, Fred Stratford, says he’s noticed a shift back to business class flights as companies target retention and recruitment.

“If you’re a reasonably regular traveller it impacts on your life. With business class people think ‘wow, they’re actually valuing me as an individual’ and we’ve seen companies take it to HR and change their policies.

“Companies are asking ‘are our travellers happy?’ When they feel valued they feel more inclined to fly off on a Sunday afternoon or come back late on a Friday night. It’s also about the message it sends: ‘we expect you to work hard but we reward you for doing so’. Staff are so valuable, particularly in professional services. It’s time consuming and expensive to recruit. If travellers are looked after their psyche changes.”

All in the data

With duty of care now high on the corporate agenda, the real issue for TMCS is how they can actively influence corporate travel policies to reduce friction points while also meeting their clients’ requirements to save money.

Dan Raine, Global Director Consulting and Business Intelligence, HRG Consulting, says the secret is getting closer to HR departments – and being able to offer helpful evidence of friction and its effects.

“About a year ago we built a measurement tool that allows us to delve into the data we have on travellers – where they’ve been, how long they flew, where they stayed – which allows us to identify the staff that might be at risk of burnout,” he explains.

“TMCS have to become better at explaining the benefits of how having flexible policy guidelines can work. That means increasing the consumerisation of the offering by adding choice. Often line managers approve bookings anyway, so let’s give them the KPIS to show why a particular staff member deserves special treatment. Keeping policy simple is what clients want, but one-size-fitsall isn’t the best way.”

Emilie Moutou, UK Consulting Senior Manager at American Express GBT, adds: “Looking at flight dates and times, working hours, overnights and weekends, you can measure the balance of working and travelling time versus personal time.”

Moutou continues: “Other indicators include frequency of travel, destinations, cabin class allowance and hotel comfort levels. All these can be monitored and used to determine ‘stress’ factors, or even ‘physical’ factors, in percentages, that can then help identify the travellers at risk. With this knowledge, key stakeholders can be engaged, and objectives can be set to minimise these risks.”

Measure for measure

Clarity Travel is another TMC taking a technologically-driven approach – this time with IBM’S Watson analytics system. The powerful tool is being developed to measure consumer sentiment of travel brands and services from

sites across the internet, and this data is then merged with trip feedback gathered from travellers via a simple app questionnaire.

Darren Williams, Head of MI and Data at Clarity Travel, says: “We’ll be able to provide real insight into a brand or particular hotel property by tracking how they are being spoken about. If we see standards going up or down, we can pass that message on and shift policy, which is good for travellers.

“We can also monitor feedback from individual members of staff. If we see their responses about trip satisfaction go down over a period of time, we can ask ‘is this a problem with the services offered or is this person de-motivated and struggling at work?’,” he explains.

While this use of data sounds revolutionary, Williams believes it will soon be a standard part of TMCS' ever-diversifying offering.

“Our industry has access to huge amounts of information. Just like providing MI is now an accepted service, TMCS will have to evolve and provide this sort of insight. Rather than just being about saving clients a few quid on hotels we will be about helping them use their whole budgets better and saving them from losing staff,” says Williams.

Raj Sachdave, Managing Partner at recentlylaunched TMC and supplier consultancy Black Box Partnerships, predicts an even bolder computer-aided vision to help companies manage performance and welfare.

“I can see a world where procurement, recruitment and HR are completely collaborative. We already know that the way a company presents its benefits like gym membership helps recruit and retain staff,” he says.

“In the future the use of data and artificial intelligence will help businesses look after employees and monitor performance. Algorithms will be able to see how and where you have travelled and what the results were to create a travel policy tailored to you.

“We could even link to personnel records. Has an employee just divorced and is that affecting performance, for example? There are obvious privacy concerns, but if staff want to be looked after by organisations then sharing this data may be worth it.”

In the future AI will see how and where you travelled and what the results were in order to create a policy tailored to you”