Companies Use Travel Savings to Fund New Return-to-Office Efforts

What does a company travel department do when faced with a 95 percent reduction in spending on business trips? Reinvent itself. Or at least, it can try, because the future of work may throw up complex challenges — and the billions in savings may help fund that reinvention.

International bans largely remain in place, with just 42 percent of companies allowing international travel, according to a recent Global Business Travel Association poll. But more than two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents said their offices had reopened.

The return to offices will be a pivotal moment. Many employees will not have seen each other for more than 18 months now, while most new recruits will have actually never met a colleague.

Consultancy EY, for example, currently has 312,250 staff and is pushing ahead with a “hub-and-spoke” model of offices. Its travel procurement team is a textbook example of how travel managers can evolve into new roles.

EY is using centrally located offices that connect to hundreds of satellite offices, and in some locations it’s collaborating with co-working firms like IWG’s Spaces. Staff have an average age of 28, and its company-wide surveys reveal they want to head back to these kinds of places.

“We work closely with EY on their hybrid work solutions,” said a spokesperson for IWG. “In Norway their hub office is located within a Spaces Building, and all employees have access to the global network of IWG locations empowering them to work where is convenient and closer to home.”

Offices Are Alive and Kicking. What Now?

It seems EY’s travel procurement team is almost moving away from travel in order to focus on how its people can best navigate the new world of human interaction. First, it is switching an in-house social network that employees used on business trips to an office-based social network app.

“We have access to great people that know alternative technologies within EY, whether blockchain, artificial intelligence or robotics. We were able to reconsider some of the products we brought to bear previously. Are they still fit for purpose, or do we need to adapt them,” said Karen Hutchings, global head of travel meetings and events, at an online event.

“Our reality is that travel will take some time to come back and will be slow, but where there was a need was how do we have people interacting in the office. So we quickly adapted our business travel social network tool to an office tool, which is in a test phase now. The team did a brilliant job reinventing ourselves,” she said.

Hutchings added her teams also doesn’t want travel to return to pre-pandemic levels of travel, as they want to support carbon reduction targets, which include becoming carbon negative this year and net zero in 2025. “It’s given us a great opportunity to look at new tools. It may seem terrible that you’ve got a 90 or 95 percent reduction spend reduction, (but) actually the interaction and changes we’ve been able to bring as a result has been a positive aspect.”

The consulting firm is meanwhile developing technology that makes recommendations on how staff should operate on a particular day, and where the optimal place is for them to work from.

“We don’t look at ‘EY at Work’ as what happens just when (employees) come into the office. It’s more how they operate, get work done, and so when they come to the office it needs to be seamless, frictionless, and we leverage technology to make sure people can find the right place,” said Trex Morris, EY’s global real estate leader, who was also speaking at the event.

“From new surveys, we know our people do want to come back to the office … building relationships will be fundamentally important,” he added. Its offices will also soon comprise 60 or 70 percent of meetings space, up from 40 percent prior to coronavirus.

Equal Opportunities

Another critical area for business will be ensuring staff don’t feel left out.

“Companies appreciate that those going into the office will need community and information interactions, so an in-office social network could facilitate those exchanges and link everyone together regardless of their location on the day … supporting equality with team members, regardless of location,” said Rowena Hennigan of consultancy RoRemote.

Building the right app also lets staff focus on their job, rather spending time figuring out if they need to travel to an office, which one, how to get there and who to meet.

“Having everything in one place, both on the app and in the space itself, allows people to worry less about their day-to-day tasks and lets them focus more on their human connection with others,” said David Smith, chief hospitality officer at Ease Hospitality, which is developing an app for its own tenants. “In my opinion, this is why we’re seeing more and more people return.”

But does the lack of travel pose a threat to travel buyers or travel managers? In the short term, it’s the opposite, one manager argues.

“The role is still key, if not more than before, because travel will be more complex than it used to be. Travel will be driven by the desire for colleagues to meet again and to get back to the office,” said Michael McSperrin, senior manager, global facilities and support services (property and travel) at recruitment firm AMS. “And for those who have moved out of the big cities into rural locations, will what was once considered a commute now be seen as business travel?”

EY’s transformation is likely to cause ripples across the wider corporate travel sector. There’s a strong correlation between what it develops internally and what it advises clients. It’s noted how businesses need to develop the technology behind dynamic planning tools that will support arranging a meeting with short notice, as an example, and considering where colleagues are, where they prefer to be physically, and matching everything with available offices.

“There is an opportunity for travel managers to reposition themselves alongside their workplace and facilities management colleagues as we start to open up around the world,” McSperrin added.

Sidenotes

The U.S. is certainly one place that’s opening up, thanks to a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that will likely be passed soon. It includes roads, bridges, rail and airports, but also broadband connectivity. In fact, $65 billion will be devoted to expanding high-speed internet access across the country.

“I tend to be an optimist, I think this bill’s going to pass. It’s just a matter of when,” said Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Senator, at the U.S. Travel Association’s Future of Travel Mobility conference on Tuesday. “It is now over in the House, the pressures are really building.”

Part of her optimism is based on those seismic pandemic changes to working habits, and there’s nothing like a potential decrease in worker productivity to boost a wide-scale internet roll-out. She’s also thinking about her own state too, which is going to extreme lengths to woo remote workers.

“People want to visit, and unplug and get away, but when they get back to their cabin, a lot of them want to plug back in and stream, or catch up on their work, no matter what they do, or where they might be,” she said.

“I want a good win for my state. I want to have the availability of funds for my state, for my airports, the modnerization of highways, for our rail, and particularly for what’s important for the travel industry is the deployment of broadband into rural America.”

Surely this is enough to sway even the most “remote” of hospitality brands to rethink their proposition? No one can be expected to switch off, can they? Cabin rental company Getaway isn’t biting.

“Getaway was founded on the principle that we all need more free time to disconnect from our busy lives and daily stresses and connect with who and what matters most,” a spokesperson told Skift. “We’re confident people will continue to want to disconnect and enjoy nature, especially as we become busier and more connected.”

Other breaking West Virginia news includes the imminent arrival of Virgin Hyperloop, which picked the state to test the “next generational way of how to move people or goods in a 600-mile-per hour capsule. We’re excited about that,” the senator enthused at the travel conference.

Life’s about to move a lot faster in rural America.

10-Second Corporate Travel Catch-Up

Who and what Skift has covered over the past week: AirAsia, American Express, Aviasales, Capital One Travel, carbon emissions, Hawaiian Airlines, Hertz, Hilton, IHG, JetBlue Airways, UK Air Passenger Duty, Qantas, WeWork, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

In Brief

SAP Concur Factors in Employee Feelings into Expenses

Travel and expense app SAP Concur has partnered with Qualtrics to launch its “Concur Experience Optimizer.” The company said it wants to help companies “improve employee experiences and confidently adapt travel and expense programs for the future of work.” The new tools will combine the “listening and analysis capabilities” of Qualtrics EmployeeXM with booking and expense data from the Concur Travel and Concur Expense apps to help companies design travel programs for the hybrid workplace and increase employee retention, the company said.

TripActions Blurs Leisure Boundaries Further With Loyalty Scheme

Corporate travel agency TripActions has launched a loyalty program for its Lemonade holiday booking platform. It’s now offering perks like luggage discounts, rideshare codes and airport security passes, and is including $25 back on the first personal trip booked, as well as offering monthly giveaways.

The Future of Work Briefing won’t be published next week, but keep an eye out for your next SkiftPro exclusive on November 12.