Future-Proof Your Travel Programme, Without Compromising on Duty of Care

Published: 18 June 2019

Updated: 20 September 2019

This year’s Business Travel Show featured presentations and panel discussions with experts from across the industry. We’ve collated our highlights for those who missed the event.

Whether you’re dealing with lost luggage, flight cancellations, medical emergencies or visa woes, it’s vitally important to have an up-to-date policy in place that protects your employees whether they are travelling nationally or internationally.

A panel of experts spoke to a packed crowd in the Future Forum at this year’s Business Travel Show and shared their top tips to help future-proof travel programmes with a duty of care in mind.

In December 2018, SAP Concur surveyed 7,400 part-time and full-time employees who travelled for business and found that almost 23% of British travellers were involved in or close to a critical incident while away for work over the past year. The survey also revealed that 21% of British business travellers who were involved in or close to an incident felt their concerns were dismissed by employers¹.

With a strong travel policy in place – one that your employees know well – you shouldn’t have the same problem, here are the key takaways:

“Have a good travel policy that attracts the best in the business,” says Emma Maslen of SAP Concur. Employees are looking for choices and they know what they want. Knowing that you’ve got their back when they’re on the road is important.
“Prepare for the common things,” says Claire McKinnon of Healix International. “Look at the top 10 destinations and see what common problems occur in those places. Prepare for issues.”
“You need to look for products or services that give travel managers some control and give travellers some control over their trip,” suggests Uber’s Tim Burgess. “If you’re able to access GPS data and location data, you automatically have more control. You can’t manage what you can’t control.”

“Look at what’s in your policy right now,” advises Caroline French of Inmarsat Global. “How can you adapt it to make it future-proof? Once it’s updated, regularly revisit, refresh and review.”