The following blog is adapted from a Taking off with TAMS webinar hosted by Serko’s VP Sales, Mike Daly. Mike was joined by Martha Ferguson (Director of Global Travel Services) and Kristen Reeves (Global Commodity Manager, Travel, Group Meetings & Corporate Card Programs at MKS Instruments) to discuss navigating non-employee travel.
The problem
Currently, we’re facing a fragmented ecosystem in travel and expense management with numerous stakeholders – airlines, hotels, rental car companies, TMCs, technology providers, payment processors – and the corporate buyers who drive the ecosystem. The pieces are scattered, and businesses are scrambling to put them together.
As a result, we’ve seen a significant increase in bookings made outside of corporate systems, producing large amounts of untracked spending. We’re talking roughly 1 in 4 airline tickets, 60% of hotels, and about 34% of car rentals.
The issue is that in an industry very accustomed to traditional processes for managing travel and expenses (T&E), there’s a reluctance to adopt new technologies - due to implementation costs, perceived complexities, and a myriad of other issues that pop up along the way. Yet automation of these processes is integral to the efficacy of non-employee travel to combat the fragmented ecosystem.
The challenge
Let’s focus on a case example of non-employee travel - candidate travel. This encompasses large organizations managing campus recruiting, needing to transport themselves or their candidates to various interviews, office headquarters, etc.
Naturally, manually organizing such travel presents numerous challenges:
Uncertainty
The contingent nature of candidate recruitment makes for a lot of difficulty in manual travel bookings. Constant changes due to students being recruited by multiple companies at a time; last minute adjustments required for events due to student cancellations or professors withdrawing permissions; these things do not bode well for confirmed arrangements.
“These university students and business school students are not only vying for positions at our firm, they're also being touted by other companies as well… So we might find out at the last minute that somebody changed their mind and they went somewhere else… then we have another slot to fill.” - Martha Ferguson.
Logistical concerns
Ensuring suitable hotel accommodations, especially in cities like New York and San Francisco where safety is a priority, but also proximity to the organizations’ offices.
Additionally, some hotels demand rooming lists while invitations are sent out only two weeks before events. So, with last-minute changes inevitable, it’s vital to choose hotels based on their flexibility to work with them on fluctuating requirements.
Privacy
Candidate privacy is paramount to hiring managers and their organizations, yet many businesses struggle to implement seamless processes that maintain confidentiality of candidate information from the recruiting team. Some even lack these processes entirely.
“One big issue is that during the hiring process, HR is not allowed to ask for personal information like date of birth, gender, those kinds of things, so our candidate travel process needed to take into account how we capture and pass that information on to the travel agent in a safe and secure manner without it being accessible by our HR recruiting team.” - Kristen Reeves - MKS Instruments.
Efficiency
The manual process of sending lists of potential travelers to the TMC, followed by back-and-forth communication and approvals is too laborious. Even existing guest travel solutions don’t mitigate workload, as they realistically still require a full-time employee to manage non-employee bookings - highlighting the necessity of automation.
What could a perfect non-employee travel solution look like?
- A more customizable online solution that streamlines the process from start to finish - a platform where recruiters can input basic information, then seamlessly transfers to the traveler for personal details submission to the TMC.
- Integration with expense management, automatically pulling transactions and allowing for final review by the recruiter.
- Automated communication and approvals with the TMC.
- Incorporates travel restrictions and rules.
- Mimics a personal reservation booking tool - shifting the power to the candidate.
How Zeno Concierge offers a solution
Zeno exists to offer control over all corporate travel and expense management in one centralized platform. Here’s why it’s your answer to outdated manual processes:
Self-service saves time
Zeno Concierge frees up teams from acting as travel coordinators and lets guests make their own plans within company travel and expense policy. The autonomy also protects guest privacy by eliminating the need for a third party.
Spend control gives clarity
By specifying spend and travel policies upfront, guests know exactly what can be booked, and what can’t. The result is more clarity and control.
Centralized payments simplify processes
Set up flight and accommodation payments so guests don’t need to fund these costs themselves.
Reimbursements are a breeze
Guests can easily upload and submit their receipts. Once approved, reimbursements can be made automatically into their bank accounts.
It’s the control travel managers want, with an easy, intuitive interface employees love. If you’d like to know more, visit Zeno Concierge to book a demo or get in contact.
