EY’s Nicola Winchester on sustainable travel growth

Modern travel technology provides major benefits to growing companies with global workforces.

For the eleventh episode of The Travel Is a Human Emotion Podcast, Spotnana VP of Marketing Justin Schuster spoke with Nicola Winchester, Global Travel, Meetings, and Events Leader at EY, about how the consulting group’s travel program has evolved over time.

Winchester discussed the importance of sustainability to EY, how EY approaches new travel technology, and the importance of traveler satisfaction to EY’s global workforce of nearly 400,000 employees.

Sustainability as a core priority

Over the pandemic, sustainability became a key corporate goal for EY as a whole and a major focus for EY’s travel program.

EY’s business travel accounts for 63% of the company’s scope 3 emissions, and Winchester’s team is working on a plan to reduce carbon emissions over the next five years.

“Our people are our asset,” said Winchester. “As a result of that, it means that our people need to be where our clients are. Travel is a big factor in that… We are working at the moment with various internal [departments], such as our responsible business team, to make sure that goals are now being set to take us to where we need to be by 2030.”

EY has implemented several initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint, including tracking granular emissions data for top city pairs where rail is a viable option to help travelers make greener travel choices.

“Our part as the travel, meetings, and events team is making sure that we’ve got the right data coming in,” said Winchester. “[This requires] moving away from the averages that a lot of organizations have been using, to making sure we’re getting much more accurate data… [so we] go down to a really granular level in our business.”

Leveraging modern travel tech

EY has embraced new travel technology tools to enhance traveler experience and provide more robust data on the impact of travel.

In 2022, EY launched a custom-built approval solution that is now rolled out in 58 countries. The tool provides travelers with suggestions at the point of sale, allowing EY’s travel managers to nudge traveler behavior toward choices that meet corporate travel policy goals.

“If I look at Poland as a great example, our rail adoption went up by about 70 percent just from implementation of the approval tool,” said Winchester. “We really do push hard to steer people to making the right choices. That’s really important for us as an organization.”

EY recruits many college graduates, as well, making guest travel important, particularly in the U.S. 

Winchester is currently piloting a third-party guest travel tool to help streamline the travel experience for un-profiled college graduates, by using virtual cards to eliminate the need for reimbursements.

Winchester views experimenting with new technology as vital to improving the experience of EY’s travelers.

“You have to be open minded [that] technology or a tool may not be something that has been designed for [your] purpose, but can you repurpose it,” said Winchester. “We’re better off having something that’s 80 percent [effective] that we can iterate on, rather than trying to wait for something that’s perfect… we really want to make this a great experience.”

Content and traveler experience

Winchester noted the importance of providing comprehensive content options to EY’s global workforce, which is an extremely complex process due to the company’s presence in more than 150 countries.

“The content fragmentation piece or segmentation – whichever way you want to look at it – we haven’t nailed this yet. We’re trying to do our best with it as an organization, which is I think what all organizations are trying to do. This is going to be something that I think will continue to evolve. I have to say, though, I think the industry is getting there.”

She finds that understanding the capabilities and goals of travel providers in different countries is helpful to ensuring EY’s travel program meets the needs of its travelers.

“We want the experience to feel seamless,” said Winchester. “There are some exciting opportunities with what’s doable now with things like next-gen AI.”

With travel representing such an important part of the experience for EY’s workforce, Winchester sees a deep connection between travel satisfaction and employee retention. 

If technology can make life better for travelers, then it creates a more positive work environment and strengthens the service that EY provides to its clients.

“When somebody’s traveling the smallest thing can create an emotional reaction, either positive or negative… that emotional relationship is critical to what we do as a service provider in our business. It’s critical to the success of us as a team and how we’re viewed within our business and at an industry level.”