Business Travel News - October 26, 2009 - (Page 8)

NEWS Nokia Policy Balances Work,Life,Savings PROFILES IN TRAVEL MANAGEMENT Nokia in June rolled out a new global travel policy focused on striking the proper employee work/life balance while also significantly paring travel spending. Through the first nine months of 2009, Nokia cut its overall travel expenditures in half year over year to E100 million. Yet, the Finnish mobile telecommunications and device maker plans to take its behavioral change and savings initiatives even further. In the past several weeks, the Nokia travel team launched an internal business consulting process to take a “deep dive” into cost center, department and individual travel purchasing behaviors, said global sourcing director for travel Paul Perry. The travel management team of six, which uses TRX’s TravelTrax data management platform globally, has built a methodology, templates and consistent strategies to act as consultants to cost center managers and controllers. The team studies units’ travel habits and spending, identifies changes and tracks and measures cost savings and avoidance. “It’s a little different for a sourcing group,” according to Perry. “It’s not traditional sourcing at all. It’s more consumption management than spend management. We feel like the time is right. The atmosphere in the company and in the economy is driving this, and we would be remiss in our duties if we didn’t take advantage of the situation and make this contribution.” The Nokia travel team is piloting the initiative with four internal organizations, including the 300employee global indirect sourcing group to which it belongs. In 2010, the company will give business units and other members of the global strategic souring team travel consulting process templates and tools, buoyed by a multimedia marketing campaign, to initiate companywide strategies to change travel behavior that fit best with each department’s goals. “They can take that money out of their travel spend and do something else with it,” Perry said. “If you are in marketing, you can do another campaign. If you are in indirect sourcing, you can look at some additional training or an additional tool that you wouldn’t have implemented otherwise because you didn’t have the budget.” The consulting project is the third step in Nokia’s business travel change management process, which began in mid-2008. After analyzing the company’s travel program, senior management opt“Now, we’ve empowered people to question that and say, you know what, I realize you’ve scheduled that meeting on Monday in Finland, but my kids have a ball game on Saturday, and I don’t want to leave town on Saturday to arrive Sunday for a Monday meeting. Can’t we do this over Halo, or make the meeting on a Wednesday or two or three weeks from now? I can book in advance, save some money and be there when it “It’s not traditional works for my work/life balance,” Perry said. sourcing at all. It’s To build the groundwork for the more consumption changes that were to come, in June 2008, management than Nokia hired a U.K.-based marketing agency spend management. to develop an integrated multimedia We feel like the awareness campaign. In September 2008, Nokia began its time is right. ” three-month multimedia blitz with emNOKIA’S PAUL PERRY ployees that aimed to demonstrate the Global sourcing director for travel company’s business travel statistics, and its effect on health and safety, work/life balIn June 2009, Nokia went live with its new glob- ance, productivity, the environment and the comal travel policy. Like most travel policies, it empha- pany’s bottom line. Included in the campaign were screen saver sizes preferred supplier compliance, approval processes and class of travel limitations, but the messages, newsletters, blogs and videos of execunderlying credo of Nokia’s policy is that “business utives endorsing the program. Also, in the company’s “Grounded” program, travel should not be the de facto method of achieving your business objectives, but if you must trav- about a half-dozen Nokia managers from differel then you have the ability to do so and to make ent countries and departments agreed to not travel for 30 days, and instead use travel alternatives to responsible travel decisions,” Perry said. complete their business objectives. These managers then blogged about their experiences and COMPANY: NOKIA highlighted the available alternatives to getting HEADQUARTERS: ESPOO, FINLAND on a plane, including the company’s 39 Halo video2008 COMPANYWIDE T&E: €200 MILLION conferencing suites. Perry and the travel team also hosted five live The more restrictive policy has severely limited events in Beijing, Helsinki, London and New York, the amount of premium class travel. Economy class in which the marketing agency developed an inis the approved method of travel. Premium econ- formational program using live actors and an airomy can be approved for overseas flights of more port atmosphere. During the events, the compathan five hours. Less than 200 company employ- ny showed employee-made videos demonstrating ees are authorized to fly business class, Perry said, what business travel means to their roles and how adding that more than 40 percent of the compa- a change in behavior can positively impact their work/life balance and the company. For example, ny’s workforce travels. one employee in a video explained When developing the new polihow preferred airline compliance cy, the travel team also wanted to Access the could generate E1 million in savings make changes based on the com- 2009 Corporate Travel 100 see btnonline.com/ct100 and how their department could pany’s commitment to employee work/life balance. The travel team gathered input make better use of the money. “People receive messages in different ways,” and advice from 20 to 30 frequent travelers and senior managers from various departments around Perry said. “Some people learn by hearing. Some the world, including corporate security, human re- people learn by seeing. We tried to provide as many sources and sales and marketing. Perry said some different ways of passing this information as posemployees felt they were forced to travel, and the sible, so the message would get out.” policy overhaul was an avenue to address that. — Seth Harris ed against banning travel or issuing directives to reduce trips, which the managers saw as merely a short-term fix. Instead, Nokia built a program that would fundamentally change the way business travel was viewed internally and would bring a positive longterm impact to Nokia’s bottom line. Monday, October 26, 2009 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.btnonline.com/ct100 http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - October 26, 2009

Business Travel News - October 26, 2009
Contents
Inside Track: NBTA forecasts price declines
Washington Wire: UAL, US Airways face safety fines
Profiles In Travel Mgmt.: Nokia changes behavior
Forum: Will Tate: Category management rocks
EuroBTN: One-on-one with Sabre’s Tom Klein
Car & Ground: Buyers adjust refueling policy
Destinations: Beijing Convention Center to open

Business Travel News - October 26, 2009