Situation
Employees at an internationally-focused federal agency had expressed a growing discontent with work-related air travel, citing complications, inflexibility, and unforgiving processes and regulations. Additionally, travel policies and restrictions were regulated at both a government- and agency-wide level, causing inconsistencies. According to employees, these unnecessarily stringent and inconsistent travel policies were negatively affecting the travel experience.
At the same time, travel managers at the agency cited concerns about the cost of airfare, particularly cost increases with any changes to the current travel policies. To address these issues, the agency engaged Censeo to evaluate its travel program and identify opportunities to reduce costs and enhance the travel experience for employees.
Approach
Censeo began by analyzing travel patterns across the organization, and evaluating the experiences of travelers to determine the issues resulting in the most hardship for travelers. Censeo identified the underlying drivers for the most significant issues, and evaluated various options to directly target and improve each pain point.
To evaluate various policy and practice options, Censeo benchmarked the client’s policies against the policies and practices of similar federal organizations. Censeo then estimated the cost impact of potential policy changes.
To ensure that the policy changes would not increase the agency’s costs, Censeo also analyzed and identified savings opportunities related to the booking channel used, fare type purchased, and rate paid by travelers.