When faced with the highly complex impacts that the COVID-19 situation brings, travel managers should think of their approach in terms of a "respond-prepare-return" framework.
We've all had our fix of duty-of-care webinars and "how to manage travel through a crisis" talks. That's done. The "respond" phase of COVID-19 for corporate travel, where we focused on getting people home and safe, is pretty much complete.
But what comes next in the "prepare" phase? If you're already in that "prepare" phase, then congratulations, stop reading, take five minutes back and keep going! But if you're not already there, or don't know where to start, then please read ahead. Getting this next phase right is your most important program moment of 2020.
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A complete grounding of travel globally for this amount of time is like nothing we've ever seen before, but travel managers are a resilient bunch, and we've handled many situations over the years that can help inform our response and plan for the return.
Your company needs you now more than ever. In my time leading the AstraZeneca global travel team, we would always joke that we needed a bigger travel team when people were not traveling! So I understand the pressure you presently face if you're managing a travel program. At a bare minimum, you need to be getting your company ready for what "great" looks like when traveling returns as an option to enable business.
We've been guiding our clients through a very detailed framework to help them prepare for the return of their travel program. So, here's a few highlights of the framework, using our managed travel model, to help you think this through.
Demand management
The most critical item. If you don't get this right, everything else falls over. You will need to assess the equation: Company Confidence x Traveler Confidence x Government Permission = Permissible Travel.
This alignment is needed to allow even just one trip to happen. If you haven't sat with your executives before now, please do. Work out together what matters most as travel returns. How quickly or conservatively do they want to return? Many may be concerned about the floodgates opening and losing control of spend and the types of travel undertaken. Pair this with what is "permissible travel," and then travel can recommence.
Policy
Create a collaborative "extraordinary COVID-19 travel policy," working with HR, legal, security and other key stakeholders to make this happen. Keep this high-level; one page max. Don't try to cover every scenario; it's impossible.
Instead, look to answer questions like "is it safe to travel?" and "who is allowed to travel, and for what reasons?" And to be clear, the words "essential travel only" don't cut it! Everyone's view of "essential" differs.
Service
Work with your travel management company, online booking tool and platform provider to understand how they will manage your new policy requirements at the point of sale. These requirements need to be scalable, so we recommend working at an industry level to agree to several components, then check the boxes for the ones that are right for your company.
Supplier
When will they be open for business? Will they be operating at agreed minimum standards? No one has these answers yet. We need to work together as an industry and with governing bodies to work this out instead of every travel manager hounding their suppliers for answers.
Payment and expense
You shouldn't need any changes, other than potentially to restrict expense categories to what's agreed as "safe." There could be an opportunity here to use payment "swipe" data to support traveler tracking.
Data
What new data points do you need? Can your current data provider deliver these? What can you learn from your debrief to the "respond" stage: Did you have data issues? What needs fixing?
Safety and well-being
Now a foundational element. What new health status data might need tracking pre-, on- and post-trip?
Engagement
Never has great engagement been more important. Listen to travelers. Ask them what they are worried about and what they need in place, then make it happen.
Don't attempt all this alone. Bring together your stakeholders, and keep them close and involved. (Your response and your career prospects will benefit!) And think about your executives when it comes to engagement too. Listen to them and deliver what they need to support a return, and keep them informed along the way with concise insights.
Team
Be the managed service owner and proactively lead your business to a return. Think about what additional knowledge, skillsets or bandwidth you need to be this owner.
Breaking down the "prepare" phase into these components will help you to stay on top of what you need to do. It's a lot, but it's also the bare minimum. The work you do now will help you maintain what you have and be ready for the new normal. It may also expose some flaws - or, indeed, opportunities. Across our clients, we have seen a mix of these. Now's the time to work this out, not when you're inundated when travel does return.
I'll close with one important thought: They say you don't truly know the value of something until it's no longer there. Well, the ability to travel is currently gone. So now is the time to assess its true value.
For years companies have grappled with calculating the return on their investment in travel. It has always landed in the "too difficult" bucket, and life continues with travel remaining a firm cost-only line on the P&L. Never before have you started from a zero-based budget position.
You now have the opportunity to think beyond the pause and build back up what type of travel matters most and consider what will bring the most return when you're considering the effect on people, planet and profit.
Now is your time to shine. You've got this, and we're all here to cheerlead you along the way.
* This article originally appeared on BTN