How do TMC help make business travellers responsible?

More than ever, today companies need to reassess their travel policies so as to find the right balance between cost, sustainability and security and meet their CSR commitments.

To achieve this balance, companies are seeking to rationalise business travel. Therefore, travel managers need to help employees ask themselves the right questions. Being informed about impacts, improving the quality of decisions or questioning the sense of a journey are essential topics to consider for ensuring employees' responsibility.

Therefore, the aim of TMC is to help companies set up a responsible travel policy and encourage employees to behave virtuously. How can we help employees be responsible? What tools help raise awareness? FCM takes stock.

Reinforcing the employee's role in a CSR approach

Since mobility has an impact on the three aspects of CSR, it is essential for employees to be aware of its impact and the vital role they play in implementing their company's overall strategy on this subject. With this in mind, in 2020 the AFTM, created the Traveller's Social Responsibility concept. The intention is to transfer CSR principles to business travellers so that they understand and are fully committed to the new travel policies being put in place.

76% of companies surveyed by SAP Concur are aware of the need to make changes to the sustainability of business travel, but only 17% believe that it will be possible to do so.

To that end, the travel manager's role will be to guide and support business travellers in making more responsible choices. The challenge will be to make them feel involved. The more the business traveller has access to information regarding its impacts, the more he or she will take it into account in his or her decisions. Here, the educational dimension is the key. This can be ensured through workshops, seminars or training courses.

Advice

  • Define clear policies and guidelines for business travel. Setting up a clear and understandable travel policy is the basis for efficient business travel management. It will be necessary to communicate with employees and ensure that they apply it.
  • Help travellers make their bookings. To make the right choices, employees need to be guided and advised throughout the booking process. Consider implementing tools that present the direct impact of their choices on the carbon footprint.
  • Value employees. Whether it is a simple thank you or an annual bonus, it is important to encourage employees in their efforts and motivate them even more to comply with the travel policy.

In addition to developing online booking platforms, TMC are proposing new offers so that travellers are able to measure the ecological impact of their journey, in particular with the help of reporting and carbon assessment tools. The company will be able to use its data as a key performance indicator and continue to raise awareness among its employees.

Making travellers responsible to ensure their safety

When travelling, you are your own best friend... and your own worst enemy!" - Xavier Carn, Security Director of International SOS & Control Risks.

One of the first questions employees should ask themselves before agreeing to travel to a country at risk is whether there are any alternatives. Many business travellers are not yet aware of their own security. There are two keys for dealing with this: information and training. The aim is to make employees aware of the risks involved when travelling so they do not underestimate the journey. This raises the question of explaining business travel and its essential nature rationally.

 

Furthermore, growing security concerns and legal obligations require companies to exercise an additional duty of care with regard to travellers. The first, and by far the most important, step is to inform the employee. Good knowledge of the risks on site, preparation of the trip and the behaviour to adopt in the event of being threatened are just some of the training measures that form the basis for protecting the business traveller.

 

More and more TMC are organising customised sessions according to the company's needs. Some of them even decide to form partnerships with service providers specialising in risk analysis, such as Geos, SSF or Amarante. These service providers can intervene at several levels: economic intelligence information, country-specific information, special operations, or emergency repatriation.

 

The acceleration of digital technology means that technological advances now make it possible to develop Travel Risk Management tools. Geolocation or tracking apps allow an employee to be located in real-time.

In addition to meeting current challenges, in particular those relating to sustainability, the idea of making travellers more responsible is in line with a new demand from employees to be more involved in their travel. The aim is to give them the freedom to choose, whilst also guiding their behaviour.