{"id":5406,"date":"2022-05-06T09:23:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T09:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itilite.com\/?p=5406"},"modified":"2024-03-12T09:58:24","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T09:58:24","slug":"embedding-care-experience-business-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itilite.com\/blog\/embedding-care-experience-business-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Embedding Care and Experience in Business Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Finally, the world of travel is back, and since the road to recovery has been uneven, business travel has changed radically. During our recent ITILITE Top Drawer Talks in partnership with ETHRWorld, Ashish Kishore, Advisor at ITILITE, shared, \u201cCare has taken center stage in the world of business travel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As care becomes centric to the post-pandemic workplace, the needle moves closer to designing personalized experiences for employees at every touchpoint in their professional lives. The approach to care is shifting from the primitive one-size-fits-all approach to a more affirmative and proactive process in all work matters, including business travel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although business travel is an integral aspect of work-life, it can also be the cause of worry and anxiety owing to intense planning and expense management needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, agile organizations have mitigated all negative emotions from travel by replacing manual processes with tech-led automated platforms. By digitizing the process – from itinerary planning to receiving reimbursements, employees are empowered to deal with each step effortlessly and create savings at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent fireside chat between Ashish Kishore, Advisor at ITILITE, and Hitesh Budhbhatti, General Manager, Bennett Coleman & Company, Ltd., they reflected upon the key practices in business travel aligned with the care and support needs of the employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the key reflections from the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revival of Corporate Travel: The Recovery Curve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most significant change influencing our perspective about the return of corporate travel is the rising vaccination rates. Hitesh mentions, \u201cWith the reducing potency of the COVID-19 virus, opening office spaces, easing travel restrictions, and of course, increasing vaccinations, many organizations are now proactively figuring out the future of work\u2014which includes the role of business travel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding on to the recovery path of business travel, Hitesh adds, \u201c It\u2019s been over two years of lost personal connection, especially with the potential customers. Hence, corporates are looking to get back to business travel to regain that lost advantage in a short period of time.\u201d He further adds that core industries and functions like manufacturing, agriculture, and marketing are readily making travel a part of business as compared to the non-core functions, which are still evaluating whether to go back to offline meetings or continue with online meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another trend that our speakers observed during this session was the changing expectations of employees with respect to travel. There’s a change in the behavior of employees, especially who are working remotely, and their expectation is that duty of care should be extended where they are currently working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another key observation that Hitesh shared is the requisite of simplified travel policies<\/a> and that employers are looking out for customized travel processes according to various needs of the business as well as the employees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Embedding Digital and Data into Planning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Corporates will have to quickly adapt to the expectations of the world of work and workers to the many changes in the business travel. While unpredictability will continue to be a part of business travel, organizations would have to play their part well and smartly by leveraging technologies and processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quoting an example from his organization, Hitesh shared that previously at BCCL, the travel desk was operated in a traditional manner. People were deployed to take care of the travel desk, and all travel requirements like airline tickets, guest houses, hotels, trains, cabs, etc., were routed through the travelers after the approval by the managers. The process was complex and came with a lot of challenges. The two-fold challenges that were posed by the manual process included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n