BTN 4Sight

Increasing Tech Focus

“We’ve seen a lot of brain drain in travel management and lost a lot of talent to other industries. If a travel manager has not left their company, then they ARE in a different role. They need to look at how their roles have become more connected with IT and obtain more tech and data skills: understand APIs, learn Tableau, Power BI. Travel managers may be asked to make these changes as part of bringing outsourced program elements in house—and they should step up to that challenge.”

Executive Director Global Strategy, T&E, Olympus Corp. Pat Batra

Finding a Cultural Fit

“Post-Covid, a lot of companies are struggling to hire the right people. But whether they hire for an internal position or outsource for that flexible resource, they are looking for strategic people to come in and challenge what’s gone before [so they can] take travel programs to the next level. The other thing we’re hearing is that companies don’t just want a skill set, they want a great cultural match and someone who is going to keep up to date with industry trends.”

Consultant, Festive Road
Louise Kilgannon

Seeking Complex Sets of Skills

“Travel managers more than ever need to apply skills across procurement (renegotiating contracts, supply/demand rates up and down and managing suppliers) and operations (day-to-day program logistics, few companies stopped travel altogether and the restrictions were hard to navigate). At the same time companies now expect them to liaise with security, risk, administration and strategic executives. Travel has become more complex after Covid, and companies are seeing how travel touches so many stakeholders in addition to travelers themselves.”

Founder, CTME Search Party Maria Chevalier

They Want Expertise, So They Say

“I was hired as the subject matter expert managing two full-time employees, neither of which were in place. I was supposed to hire them. My remit was travel, expense and corporate card. I decided to put up the travel role first. Once the job description went through HR and they defined the salary range for it, the position ended up paying more than mine as the manager. That wasn’t a good feeling. In my eyes, companies want tons of expertise, but they don’t necessarily value it or want to pay for it. I left that job ASAP.”