WITH so many new tech-based solutions out there supporting the hybrid-and-remote work model, it’s not unwarranted for corporate employees to be concerned over certain old-school processes in their workplace. According to a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Amadeus Cytric Solution, employees’ greatest complaint comes from having to pay out of their own pocket for travel – a situation that can be overcome by the deployment of virtual cards and other integrated solutions.
If you’re an employee who has had to travel for business or work, think about the process of planning, booking, and paying for that trip. While a reimbursement mechanism is almost always in place, the steps in between – budgeting, payments, and receipts – can be significantly condensed with the help of technology like apps and company-owned virtual cards.
Keep in mind, these expenses are amplified with employees of much larger corporations.
The study was based on a survey of 525 senior decision makers involved in travel and expense (T&E) management for large corporations (revenue ranging from $100 million-$5 billion and 1,000+ to 20,000+ employees). Carried out between July and August this year, the survey covered nine markets – Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Nordics, Spain, UK & Ireland and the US & Canada.
The findings managed to shed some light on the current corporate climate:
- Global leaders recognize that for their businesses to succeed, they must design processes that support their workforce in a hybrid world of work.
- Accelerating the digital transformation of T&E will be essential to improving the employee experience and achieving corporate goals next year.
- In terms of automation, 80% of respondents agree that T&E is more digitized compared to other processes in their companies. It’s a significant boost compared to a figure of 67% in 2020.
However, current T&E management are still faced with a few challenges:
- 34% cited managing compliance for travel, like visas and work permits, as a challenge.
- 31% claimed privacy and security as a main challenge today
- 30% argued that manual processes put a strain on employees’ productivity, (which likely overlaps with compliance issues from third parties)
- On average, only 37% of systems integrate with organizations’ T&E solutions, leading to sub-optimal performance and poor employee experience
Overall, there’s an overwhelming desire from the industry to do better in this space, especially with the nature of employment fundamentally changing over the last couple of years. 70% said there was also a desire to improve the end-to-end experience for T&E and improve the way teams collaborate when they plan travel.
While awareness of the need to modernise T&E processes is at a high, the current practices in place leave a lot to be desired.
In a somewhat surprising revelation, only 41% of finance and travel management decision makers responded that they audit all expense claims – the rest are open to fraud, human error, and compliance concerns.
As far as solutions are concerned, 82% of participants agree that improving T&E processes is key to reducing cost and increasing efficiency in business operations. More importantly, 79% of corporate leaders believe that enhancing T&E is critical to improving the employee experience.
In terms of “who pays first” when making business trips, 76% of leaders say virtual payments have the most valued functionality in an end-to-end travel and expense management platform, while 50% believe that one of the biggest advantages of virtual payments is better visibility and control over travel spend.
48% say virtual payments are helping them reduce the risk of fraud while 46% said the tools improved VAT recovery processes.
All in all, it’s safe to say that the solutions are already in the market and waiting to be deployed by these large businesses, who could also spearhead new-and-improved T&E practices in the industry.
