Recently, we hit the road and attended the Global Business Travel Association Convention (GBTA) in Dallas. Our goal? To understand the concerns of travel managers so we can adapt our product offerings to address today’s most pressing business travel challenges — and stay ahead of the curve on future needs. We noticed several strong themes at this year’s GBTA conference and want to share what we learned.
Overall, speakers and attendees at the convention seemed to agree on several key points:
- Business travel is back in a big way.
- More companies are adopting virtual cards to manage travel expenses.
- The employee experience is taking center stage in business travel and payment.
Let’s dive a little deeper into each theme.
Business travel is on the rise
Mastercard’s team shared some research on anticipated growth in business travel spend. They found that companies are on track to increase travel spend dramatically, continuing the trend we already see today. (See chart below.)
Mastercard research shared at GBTA, also available in the August 2023 Navigating Global Business Travel report
The research also found that reducing travel spend would increase employee churn and decrease revenue by 10% each. Since business travel ROI and employee satisfaction are on everyone’s mind, it’s easy to see how travel is critical for business health and performance.
Travel, after all, is still about building and retaining valuable relationships. While people might think twice about travel now, thanks to technology like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom, many people still see more value in conducting business in person. Past research has shown that eight in ten executives prefer in-person meetings. Even in today’s virtual world, there are many reasons why face-to-face interactions benefit business relationships, including interpersonal bonding and building the kind of trust that powers effective collaboration.
Another finding shared at GBTA revealed a trend that will help businesses reduce out-of-policy spending — and simplify the expense report process. In the next five years, 91% of travel managers plan to link employee corporate cards to customized spending limits. By setting spending limits and approved types of spend on virtual corporate cards before employees head out on the road, companies can ensure that the purchases made are within policy and budget.
The shift to virtual cards
Speakers at GBTA cited several motives behind the move to virtual corporate cards for travel expenses:
- Saving time reconciling spend
- Preventing fraud
- Simplifying pre-trip planning
Companies at GBTA were happy to share their productivity gains thanks to the use of virtual cards. Virtual cards provide spending insights that aren’t possible with other payment technology. One speaker shared that their company gained 25 minutes of productivity for every booking, as they no longer need to call hotels and double-check expenses or manually send in credit card authorizations.
With fraud prevention and compliance top of mind for finance with more dispersed teams than ever, companies referenced transparency as a critical element in choosing virtual cards. Virtual cards are flexible and easy to issue. Companies can set spending limits and distribute payment cards to contractors and non-employees. This gives finance teams insights into who is making purchases and what they are buying.
Virtual cards also make business expenses easier for employees. Pre-approved budgets allow employees to book and pay for flights, cars, and hotels faster and more securely while automatically capturing receipts. This means cardholders save time submitting reports and are free to focus on more creative and strategic work. On the back end, your budgets are accurately updated, and finance can close the books without hassling employees for receipts.
How are companies using virtual corporate cards?
During several educational sessions at GBTA, companies shared that they use virtual cards to alleviate multiple challenges they once faced in business travel. One frequent use case was virtual cards for non-employee spending, especially for contractors and recruiting candidates. Companies can significantly reduce the threat of fraud by controlling who has access to corporate cards and setting spending limits. In addition, they give non-employees peace of mind: with virtual cards, they won’t need to use their personal card to do the job.
Companies are also using virtual cards for one-off spend that doesn’t reoccur, for example, event travel and accommodation, testing out a new business tool subscription, or setting up a home office. By setting up customized spending limits in advance, organizations can keep spending within policy and understand the purpose of every dollar spent, saving major time on reconciliation.
Employee experience takes center stage
It’s clear that employee retention and satisfaction are growing priorities in business. Understanding the employee experience is a priority for organizations in 2024 because a great experience helps companies attract and retain their talent. What role does business travel play? Travel has a crystal clear impact on overall employee satisfaction — in North America alone, 79 percent of business travelers say their business travel experience impacts overall job satisfaction.
There was a strong focus on employee well-being and satisfaction at GBTA. Companies seek technology that simplifies planning, booking, on-trip, and post-trip for business travelers. We know if a technology experience isn’t easy for employees, they aren’t going to use it.
Ease and experience aren’t only for travelers, however. Finance employees benefit, too. Emerging technology reduces the need for admins and finance teams to do repetitive manual work or hunt for answers. because they want to attract and retain talent. Providing convenient, helpful experiences through technology supports this goal.
However, there are still several challenges. One event poll asked corporate travelers what their top pain points were. They identified expenses, the booking experience (how to book), and on-trip disruptions as the top opportunities for improvement. An all-in-one mobile travel companion app is one solution that can make travelers’ lives easier before and during their trip. Virtual cards assigned to travelers can easily be updated to facilitate last-minute changes to travel plans, putting employees at ease.
The top four pain points for travel managers were data, cost of travel, travel experience, and travel policy (including travelers out of policy). Virtual corporate cards help teams ensure their travelers are staying within policy limits when it comes to travel expenses.
Travel policies were another recurring difficulty. Several speakers had the following advice: streamline, streamline, streamline. Travelers don’t have the bandwidth to scour FAQs and extensive documents to find answers, but they aren’t willing to wait for answers either. As one speaker put it, “Less is more if you want your policy to get read.”
Aside from these challenges, there were plenty of positive trends in focus at GBTA — especially around the employee experience. Organizations are beginning to factor employee well-being and satisfaction into business travel. The easier companies make booking, payment, and reconciliation, the happier employees will be across the board. And technology providers like Emburse are working to make that happen.
Ready to enable smarter spending at your organization? Learn more about how Emburse simplifies expense management.