SAP Concur’s Dr. Carl Jones, Vice President and Head of Travel, Asia Pacific Japan and Greater China (pic above), believes that based on the recently-concluded travel survey commissioned by SAP Concur, corporate travel heads needed to now prioritise on 4 areas.
“Consider the fact that your travellers wanted to travel safely. You do need to think about updating your travel and expense policies as a result. It’s important that you as an organisation help your employees choose safe options. And ultimately, you need to be fulfilling your duty of care.”
He said this during SAP Concur’s Webinar series entitled ‘The CxO Perspective: Reopening the Skies – Get Ready for Safer Business Travel’ live-streamed recently, which he moderated.
Also participating during the Webinar were Conrad Clifford, Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific at International Air Transport Association (IATA); Sanghamitra Bose, General Manager Singapore and Thailand at American Express Global Business Travel; Nicola Winchester, Head Global Corporate Card, APAC Travel, Meetings & Events Lead for EY Asia Pacific; and Peter Koh, Asia Strategic Sourcing Manager, Travel & Professional Services for Corning Singapore.
Dr. Jones also shared what he considered one of the best frameworks around permissible travel from an organisation called FESTIVE ROAD, which put forwards a framework in 3 major pieces.
“One is governmental approval, so whether your government of origin allows you out and your government of destination allows you in. The second element is the employers’ appetite for what we would really have said previously was essential travel. The third is the employees themselves; whether they feel they wish to go on. And I think the 3 combine around the framework for what is permissible travel.”
Responding to a question on whether travel costs would increase, American Express’s Bose stated that while the costs of travel programmes would certainly change, she was unsure whether they would increase or not.
“Definitely, the areas that an organisation would invest in would be different from what it was before COVID. We think there would be a far greater need for information and consultative advice, rather than simply booking a ticket. Duty of care may take precedence over cost of programme, so in the short term, your costs may go up, just so that you are able to better manage duty of care,” she expounded.
From SAP Concur’s perspective, Jones agreed, noting that several of its clients have come to it wanting to transform their programmes slightly around pre-trip approvals. “The offset of costs of not travelling and the use of alternative technologies is going to more than compensate for the incremental increase in the costs in travel.
Jones also shared his experience with advising companies on trying to minimise or have the most efficient methodology around procurement of services. “One of the best ways to do that is to take this time to take a step back; to look at your processes, and try and streamline them – to look at a single travel management company or a single piece of technology, and try to bring those elements across to your programme and make sure your programme captures them.”
Speaking about touchless financial transactions in the wake of COVID-19, EY’s Winchester believes that people want to be as touchless as possible. “I recognise that with technology comes investments, but the industry really needs to invest in this in a big way, and make sure they’re ramping up the ability for people to be touchless with their programmes.
From an air travel perspective, Clifford from IATA believes that more than ever, airports will become clean environments. “I think there will be a testing regime pre-departure, and that probably means that the airport area will be cordoned off specifically for passengers who have been tested, so you’ll see quite a different experience. There will be more regimentation around queueing control and boarding control, and to ensure social distancing.”