Business Travel March-April-2021

ARRIVALS
UP FRONT
THE KNOWLEDGE
How to...
reimagine your business travel
Like companies all over the world, Willis
Towers Watson has been rethinking its
workplace in light of the pandemic and
quickly recognised that the changes
would also require a reimagining of its
business travel.
THE BACKGROUND
Willis Towers Watson, a global
advisory, broking and solutions
company, has 45,000
employees of whom 28,000
were travelling pre-pandemic.
Much of that travel was US
domestic, intra Europe and intra Asia, with
frequent travel between London and New
York and other key financial hubs. The
company’s 2019 T&E spend was around
$250 million. Three years ago it
consolidated its travel to American Express
GBT in 50 countries. An internal review of
the company’s workplace had already
identified a shift in the role of the office
from a place to work to a place to meet.
Collaborating closely with colleagues leading
this project, Procurement Director Emma
Jones set up a team to embark on a
simultaneous review of the company’s
approach to business travel.
THE PROCESS
Starting from the place of zero travel, they
engaged with colleagues from across
different parts of the business and across
the company’s global offices to gain an
understanding of why they were travelling,
how frequently, and how
that travel impacted the
success of the business.
“We needed to identify
those in-person
interactions that drive
the greatest returns and
add value back into the
business and those
If the appetite isn't
there, and the timing
isn't right, you're not going
to achieve the level of buy-in
you need”
which could be done virtually with no
impact on revenue,” says Jones. “We also
needed to consider what the impact of any
travel would have on colleague wellbeing,
our cost base and sustainability, with a
reduction in CO2 one of the main
objectives.” The key to all of this, she
explains, was to truly understand “the
business of our business” by identifying the
different functions and personas within the
company and understanding how and why
they interact.
At the same time, Jones and her team
consulted with their TMC and buyer focus
groups to gauge what approach other
businesses were taking and also adopted
elements of a Purposeful Travel Framework
being developed by consultants Festive
Road.
THE CHALLENGE
“It’s always critical to have
advocates to help drive
your message forward.
The earlier you can have
conversations to
explain and spread
the message the
better," says Jones.
"We probably would
have liked to have
started those
conversations a bit
earlier and, in
hindsight, we could
have engaged with
more people, for
sure. The timing is absolutely crucial.”
Jones admits she was lucky because she
was able to “almost piggy back” on to the
work being done on the return to office,
which already had strong stakeholder
engagement. “We were able to take some of
this narrative and mould and adapt it. But if
the appetite isn’t there, and the timing isn’t
right, you’re not going to achieve the level of
buy-in you need.”
THE RESULT
It’s still a work in progress,
but the ultimate goal is to
establish a clear set of
guidelines that appeal to
all of the business
segments, shaping how
people will interact - both internally and
externally - and making it completely
transparent for managers, budget holders
and colleagues to recognise what
permissible travel will look like. “As the
value of travel becomes more visible as an
enabler to the success of the business, the
travel team naturally becomes an adviser to
the business,” adds Jones. “It changes the
dynamic quite considerably and there is a
huge opportunity for the travel
management function to be elevated.”
8 THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM