Speaker 1 00:00:08 Hello, and welcome to this episode of Your Window Seat, where we at Travel Incorporated, discuss the topics that you care about most in this ever changing business travel industry. I'm Tracy Carillo, your host for today's topic, traveler Wellness, what this means for the Future of Business Travel Programs. I'm joined today by corporate wellness expert edit Satchel, who has designed programs across the globe, including members of Fortune 500 as they restructure their travel programs and encourage higher traveler centricity. She's a personal wellness coach, career accelerator, and published author, editor. We are so glad to have you join us today. Welcome,
Speaker 2 00:00:49 Tracy. It's wonderful to be here with you as always. You know, I came from the travel industry, so I love the travel industry. I love to talk to people who are, you know, working actively and are very visible just like yourself in the travel industry. So it's wonderful to be here with you.
Speaker 1 00:01:06 What better way to get started than having you share what is really meant by traveler wellness?
Speaker 2 00:01:13 So I get the question get, I get the question quite a lot, right? People ask me like, do you organize yoga retreats? And then I laugh, I smile, right? And I have to tell you, as much as yoga retreats are super important, right? But really traveler wellness, the travel wellness is all about preparation and protection through healthy habits. Yes, self care, yes, healthy nutrition mindset, which is the emotional wellness, the physical wellness, right? It's all about bringing and, you know, in your life and in your traveling life, the balance between the health and wellness and everything else that you need to be successful when you are traveling.
Speaker 1 00:01:54 So, clearly wellness as it relates to business travel takes on two areas of focus. Certainly what the traveler can do before, during, after their trip. But very much it's the responsibility of the corporations and how they care for their travelers and how they may approach a new way of reviewing policy and making things a little bit more comfortable for their travelers. Can we start off by talking about the travel management program and what you're seeing in the industry?
Speaker 2 00:02:25 So today, what's happening, what I see, um, there is that new trend. So we are trying to make that travel policy, the travel manage management programs, more traveler friendly, more people friendly. So we are focusing on creating those policies that give us the comfort, the travelers, right, the comfort, uh, support, the emotional wellness support, the physical wellness and everything else that they need to be able to, to be fully productive, to be energized and creative, innovative when they conduct business on behalf of the employer or the company they represent, right?
Speaker 1 00:03:06 It's important for our listeners who are trying to restructure their program on what they need to be considering to be much more traveler centric or traveler friendly with their policies. I read recently on a business travel news survey that 62% of travel manager surveys said they were spending more time on traveler wellness than ever before. What do you think is driving
Speaker 2 00:03:29 That? I've been working on this for quite some time, and, um, there was a huge need always, always, always for emotional witness and in our personal life, in our, uh, uh, let's say business life or career, but also during travel. You see travel is identified as one of the top sources of stress and anxiety. And there are two reasons, two main reasons for that, stress and anxiety when we travel. The number one is you, you know what? We are stressed out because we want to be on time. We don't want to, uh, you know, miss the flight. We don't want our luggage to be lost, right? And the second reason for business traveler, the, the source of stress and anxiety is the reason I'm thinking about, oh my God, I have at that important meeting I want to do. Well, I need to sign a million dollar contract, right?
Speaker 2 00:04:19 Those are the reasons why we're stressed and you know, we feel that anxiety as well. So the emotional wellness is critical for that, and that's why we, I mean, travel managers are now starting to pay attention a little bit more because it's directly connected to the performance of our employees, right? And I want to say the need always existed, but we didn't talk about it too much. That's one of the reasons. But the other reason why is look, what's happening in the, um, recruitment space. Companies now are looking to provide more benefits to their employees, right? Especially to attract new talent. New talent has now a choice. <laugh>, we are saying, it's said, it's the market of the employees. It's not, not the market of the employers, right? So new employees, newcomers have a choice, the new talent. So they of course look at the benefit and they compare the travel policies as well.
Speaker 1 00:05:19 You presented at the recent Global Business Travelers Association conference in San Diego. One phrase you mentioned that I absolutely love is the traveler, is the company's business card. I can't tell you how much that resonates with me. How do you approach shifts in policy to support a healthier travel itinerary that will end up improving in the presentation and that return on investment, uh, in that absolute representation of the company?
Speaker 2 00:05:50 Tracy, you are amazing. You remember what I said at the conference, <laugh>, I can't remember what I said, but yes, I I like to use that phrase. I love it too. <laugh>. Uh, you know, I have to tell you, um, what's very important is to, to focus on creating the traveler centric policy. And this is what we were talking in the GBT as well. And you know, it may not be done straight away, but we need to take a few, uh, steps for debt too, right? But I like to talk about just simple examples for debts. What does it really mean? The travel, the traveler centric policy? Because we are investing into our people, people who are traveling, right? You know what allow them, one of the simple example is allow them to, um, to fly to the destination and day before, instead of changing or making them fly at five in the morning.
Speaker 2 00:06:42 Number two, let's say what it is, is let's align and let's think about it for a second. Let's align our company sales goals with the travelers wellness goals. So think about it. If you have, who is traveling most frequently? People who bring revenue to the company, those are the high performers, right? Those are our, the most sort of important assets we need to invest in, in them, right? And if we give them a a million dollar sales goal for the next year, how much money out of that million dollar do we invest in their health and wellness, in their comfort when they travel? Let's say, you know, half of a percent how, you know, 0.5%, it's, you may think it's nothing, right, but it's $5,000 when you do the math correctly. So are we investing that? And you know, I'm not talking about making this very expensive and so on, but I just, let's pause for a second and think about it, right? How are we aligning those sales goals with the travelers health and wellness goals?
Speaker 1 00:07:48 So you mentioned it doesn't have to cost much to make them very important changes. Um, what are some of those examples, and I'm not talking about across the board for all of their travelers, but you talk specifically about the high performers or those that are bringing in revenue the most for the company. What are some of the options or recommendations for consideration that you bring up in your seminars, in your training sessions?
Speaker 2 00:08:12 Yes, like we said, the, the travel policy, the changes don't have to cost you a lot. I like to talk about the fact that they shouldn't cost you anything to be honest, <laugh>, um, I'll give you an example. So take a look at those travelers. People who travel the most frequently, look at their locations, look at the airports they are going to, right? And you know what? I'm not saying you have to invest in the business class if you are traveling from the East coast to the West coast and put the money there, like those, you know, the air tickets are so expensive. Now, these days, I'm not talking about investing into, into that, but you know what, instead of it, if they have a connecting flight, we can put some extra money towards access to the business lounge where they can refresh, rejuvenate, uh, take a break.
Speaker 2 00:08:56 You know, when you think about it, how much money do they spend at the airport to buy a glass of wine to buy a, you know, meal? Sometimes we like to treat ourselves with a, with a dessert as well, right? All of this is provided in the business lounge. So when you do the math, you know, how many times do they travel? How many times do they purchase, what kind of food they buy, and how much money they're spending on that food? That's as much, you know, you can spend for paying for the business lunch, which actually gives you more because you're saving money on the internet and, uh, and other, you know, uh, amenities which are available to you there. So think about that.
Speaker 1 00:09:32 And you had mentioned retention, um, of employees. And I know that is a, a huge, uh, component for a lot of human resources divisions on how can we put together a travel policy that may have a, a be received better by, by our recruits. So for example, if, um, in that travel policy, there are some, if you pick the lowest rate, but you can upgrade to the, uh, next economy class of service to have a little extra leg room or components like that, how is that being received by the traveler? Um, and, and cause I can't imagine that that extra 50, $75 for that ticket, when you're looking at $7,800 tickets these days, it's going to make that much difference to the company when it makes a significant difference to the person in the seat.
Speaker 2 00:10:20 It does indeed make a significant difference. Because you know what? The BTN survey also shows that travel managers are responsible for the traveler satisfaction. This, by far, will improve the traveler's satisfaction, right? But what I like to say, uh, if we are upgrading to the next sort of class, moving from the economy class or sometimes the back of the plane, I like to call the cargo class, right? The front of the plane. Think about that, um, from the health and wellness, the employee, the traveling employee satisfaction, and it will definitely do the trick. But you know, what's important? What's important really is to ask them what traveler wellness means to them to ask them what would they like to see in the travel policy? How can we make that travel travel policy better for them? Without that kind of feedback, we may be guessing, we may think what's good for us, maybe good for them, but it may not be the case, right?
Speaker 1 00:11:20 I love that because I, I think everybody's a little, um, sensitive about too many surveys going out or am I asking the right questions? But if you really think about what the objective is of that survey, and it's about understanding what your travelers are requesting, being reasonable, and making sure they're heard after they receive that, um, after you analyze that survey and, and you come back to them and saying, we heard you, we, we understand some of your, uh, concerns and some of your opportunities here, and we've made the following changes when we, we talk about retention, that goes so far when employees feel that they're really being listened to. So great, great suggestion. What are some best practices on how to get started? So I'm a travel manager. I'm being tasked traveler satisfaction, as you mentioned in that survey. I have a seat at the table so I can bring ideas. How do I get started? So I'm bringing the right value, socializing the right message to actually get movement with the executive team.
Speaker 2 00:12:22 So the very first step is to find an ally, someone who supports you. And most frequently that person will be someone from hr. Because when you think about what are the goals of HR to keep their employee healthy and well and happy, right? Those are your goals too. But for you, those are the traveling employees, right? So think about someone who has, where you can share common goals. HR for sure, right? Start with them, talk to them. How can you support them? Uh, what's very important is if you want to change your travel policy, ask them to add a question at their exit interview. When employees are leaving, how, what do you think about the travel policy? You know, that doesn't cost you anything to do it, right? But it's a first step to help you make those changes that you need. We talked about asking your existing travelers, the top performers, those people who travel all the time, ask them what do they want, analyze the response, but also analyze the trends.
Speaker 2 00:13:25 Look at where do they spend the money? Do they spend the money on the train, on the plane, in the hotel, but also in the hotel room. So if those are the cases, then you can think about solutions. So we can help the company to save money, but maybe perhaps negotiating a little bit different deal with the supplier, with the hotel. We know everybody, we always get that free breakfast. What about the free snack in the room? The free bottle of water in the room, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that costs us a lot of money. Sometimes $5 a piece is a lot <laugh>, but this is where you can also, when you negotiate it with the suppliers, you can definitely look at that. So look at the trends and then when you are ready, go to your stakeholders, key stakeholders, identify them, but also focus and start with someone who supports you. It may be your manager, the manager of your manager, and so on and so on. So look for allies,
Speaker 1 00:14:21 <laugh>, this has been such an incredible conversation, Dave. Um, there is so much movement that is going to be taking places within our industry on this topic over the next few years.
Speaker 2 00:14:31 Tracy, thank you so much for having me. I love it. I love the conversation, and thanks again for having me today.
Speaker 3 00:14:38 Thank you for joining us today on this episode of your window seat. To learn more about Travel Incorporated, you can find us on our
[email protected] inc.com, or follow us on any of our social channels. We look forward to the next episode, and as always, a travel incorporated travel safe.
