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Changing employee demographics are driving a paradigm shift in business travel. While the travel industry has largely been focused on the wants and needs of the millennial traveler for the past several years, future-looking organizations have expanded their focus on Gen Z. With Gen Z on track to make up roughly 30% of the U.S. workforce by 2030, meeting the expectations of these tech-savvy employees makes good business sense.

To learn more about this demographic-driven shift and how to future-proof your organization for the next era of business travel, Jeanne Dion, Vice President of the Value Teams at SAP ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ, spoke with SAP ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ Thought Leader Ralph Colunga, a thirty-year travel industry expert.

You can listen to this episode on our SAP ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ Conversations channel | | | | | | or read the transcript.

Embrace and Reexamine Your Technology

Organizations working to future-proof their T&E systems are continuously reexamining how they deploy technology. While millennials have adapted to technology, they still grew up balancing an analog and digital world. In contrast, Gen Z members (born from 1997 to 2012) expect access to technology to make their lives better, as will Alphas (starting with 2013), who will be entering the workforce by 2030. ¡°These are two generations that are very well in tune to technology,¡± says Colunga.

The acceleration of technology used in travel and expense management, such as AI, machine learning (ML), blockchain, and biometrics, is moving faster than anybody thought possible ¡ª and advanced technology resonates with the Gen Z audience. ¡°It¡¯s also saving companies millions of dollars in handling typical mundane tasks, reducing and eliminating human error,¡± Colunga explains. ¡°In our increasingly AI- and ML-driven world, organizations that embrace and understand the importance of data algorithms and the effective use of computation are the ones that will thrive.¡±

Gen Z Wants to Have a Say

Part of successfully managing business travel for Gen Z involves moving away from a command-and-control model to one that enables choices and empowers employees, says Colunga. The messaging is now ¡°sell, don¡¯t tell.¡± It¡¯s about selling the value proposition but allowing employees to make their business decisions based upon their business needs within the framework of your travel policies, he says.

For example, Gen Z often likes to have the option to extend travel before or after a business trip to take vacation, see friends or family, or explore their destination. They also might want to stay somewhere that feels more like a home than a hotel. Travel policies that accommodate this desire for flexibility around issues like booking dates and lodging appeal to Gen Z.

Three Ways to Future-Proof Your Travel Program

Colunga offers these three additional recommendations to future-proof your travel program to meet business goals and appeal to all generations.

1. Think bigger picture. Colunga urges travel managers to let go of trivial things that put them in the role of policing travelers. Instead, he recommends thinking strategically and looking deeply at how your organization can improve the experience for your travel community members. ¡°It¡¯s a matter of focusing on how do you serve them and serve them well? How do you sit down and understand that your role is to help provide them the tools that they need to allow them to be successful in business?¡± he says.
2. Align with your travel community. Keeping your ear to the ground will help you know what travelers need and want and deliver it more quickly. ¡°You have to keep your finger on the pulse of their expectations in this rapidly changing and really evolving business landscape,¡± Colunga notes. Again, he encourages travel managers to address Gen Z¡¯s interests, such as sustainability, but to also keep in mind that the goal is to improve your travel program to make sure it¡¯s meeting all the business needs that it possibly can.
3. Go forward with an innovative mindset. To enable your T&E programs to become more agile, Colunga recommends adjusting policies to the current business landscape and simplifying and automating processes with technology as much as you possibly can. Look for innovative ways to remove friction points for the employees and support ¡°an inclusive environment where employees feel like they¡¯re being heard and actually helping to make a difference in a positive way,¡± he says.

Why the Employee Experience Matters

It¡¯s a tight labor market, and attrition is costly. Improving the employee experience in any way, including with your travel program, can contribute to retention. One way to do this is to address Gen Z members¡¯ needs and wants. ¡°They¡¯re going to prefer to work for companies that align with their principles,¡± says Colunga.

¡°Most corporate travel programs are really geared toward the prior generations of travelers, and most companies are hanging on to policies and processes that were born from the kind of pre-digital timeframe,¡± explains Colunga. To get ahead of the crowd and appeal to all generations, embrace technology, empower employees, look at the big picture, align with your travel community, and move forward with an innovative mindset.

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