There is growing recognition across today’s businesses that contented, satisfied employees perform better and that this reflects positively on the balance sheet. This revelation has re-framed the way corporates think about employee welfare and the ripple effects can be seen influencing travel policies across the globe.
This more enlightened approach reflects well on company culture. Increasingly we see that aligning travel policy to corporate culture secures not just talent, but also a respected position in the supply chain. Businesses are now looking for suppliers that reflect their ethics and priorities, not least because these choices have a direct impact on reputation.
In addition, employees want to work for businesses that reflect their ideals. This doesn’t just apply to millennials, although they were at the forefront of making employment choices on this basis. Now, people of all ages want to work for an organisation that is concerned not only about its employees, but about how its activities impact on the wider world. After all, business is global and so are the corporate and social responsibilities it carries.
With the increasing use of machine learning and AI comes a greater focus on human talent, because introducing greater automation for repetitive, mundane tasks, opens up opportunities for employees to take on more interesting and innovative work.
Aligning travel policy to corporate culture secures not just talent, but also a respected position in the supply chain.
Talent retention is key and the desire for work life balance applies across the generations.
“Our research showed that everybody wanted meaningful, challenging work, high levels of freedom and autonomy, and the opportunity to progress and develop” says head of the talent assessment and leadership expertise centre at ZS (formerly Hay Group) Tania Lennon. For many, work life balance is about being able to get the job done to the best standard in the smallest amount of time, leaving people free to enjoy their personal time; and business travel plays a key part in this. Travellers don’t want to waste time waiting at the airport, they want the best flight times so that they can reduce the days they spend away from home. Removing friction points and enabling travellers to maximise productivity on the move, often by embracing smart technology is high on the agenda.
When UBS re-wrote its global travel strategy, the bank’s executive director, global travel lead Mark Cuschieri, reviewed it internally and externally over 12 months to see how the bank was keeping pace with changes in the industry and to futureproof the programme. A major investment in technology provided fast, simple, flexible IT access from any app or device, from anywhere. Parity was critical, not just in price but also user experience. “We believe our corporate travellers are consumers and should be treated as such,” says Cuschieri.
Acknowledging business travellers as consumers, is also to acknowledge the holistic human. It is to realise that you get more from people when you understand and accommodate their drivers, both professional and personal.
“Human capital is going to be a much better source of economic and competitive advantage for companies than tangible assets, but they need to be able to deploy them more effectively than they have in the past by focusing people on those things they can do more efficiently than machines.” says Lennon.