How Travel Affects Retention and Turnover

A Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) report, Leveraging Data to Improve Traveler Experience, which was conducted alongside the Airlines Reporting Corporation, details the importance of travel as it influences employee retention and turnover rates. Through a survey that was taken by 114 travel consumers from the United States and Canada in May 2019, the study found that business class seating, improved tech, traveler-friendly policies, time off for travel, improved travel program customer service, and more had ties to reduced turnover and increased retention rates.

80 percent of people believed business class seating and improved tech would contribute to lower turnover and higher retention rates, which was the highest percentage in the study; 53 percent found that more relaxed rules would lead to lower turnover and higher retention rates, which was the lowest percentage found.

The above data illustrates that, exemplified by even the weakest measurement of 53 percent, investment in a quality travel program is widely seen as ultimately saving a company time and money incurred from hiring and training new employees. With a quality travel program, retention increases and turnover decreases. Nevertheless, there is plenty of room to collect more data on the phenomenon.

Most data used on measuring the travel experience are with regards to prices and compliances. Also, approximately three-fourths of all people said that traveler-centric data is not shared with shareholders, which leaves out important discussion on data like that collected in the recent GBTA report. A lot of related data, however, exists; many human resources departments have collected similar information in an effort to update profiles.

All the while, travel programs, including travel management companies, are looking to get and learn from information on the traveler experience. With data like that collected by GBTA, it is clear that employee satisfaction, as seen through retention and turnover rates, is greatly affected by the quality of a company’s existing travel program. Furthermore, using that data can improve the quality of travel programs in addition to improving overall employee satisfaction.