How a top biotech company in the Bay Area improves employee satisfaction and engagement with a managed travel program.
INDUSTRY | TECH
Challenge
Shuttle and ferry routes didn’t include all commuters. Travel managers lacked reporting tools.
Solution
Free rides home during of-peak shuttle hours with Lyft Codes. Business Portal reports give visibility into employee ride habits and organizational spend.
Impact
- 6,000 Business Profiles activated
- Improved pick up time to 4 mins from 30
- Spend on rideshare grew from $100k/year to $100k/month—while reducing spend by 25% YOY
A ‘Best Place to Work’ helps employees get to work—and earn personal rewards while they travel for business.
A leading biotech company headquartered in San Francisco Bay Area is in the business of improving people’s lives through biotechnology innovation. The enterprise considers the employee experience to be an initiative integral to delivering on its mission—and to competing for top talent and market share. As an expression of that priority, the company takes seriously the business travel options that it makes available to its employees.
The Challenge
A distributed workforce has varying business travel needs, and this Fortune 500’s team of 14,000 employees is no exception. Many commute across the Bay Area’s nine counties every day, and frequently travel for work and attend corporate events late at night.
The Forbes-recognized Best Place to Work offers transportation solutions as diverse as its team’s travel needs—including 77 vanpools and two private ferries. Annual ridership for the corporate shuttle program exceeded 1.25M in 2017 alone.
Still, many employees often traveled out of policy—and many lived outside the parameters of established routes. Separate travel and transportation teams lacked the tools and support to drive employee engagement, ensure duty of care, and improve program savings.
“Because our employees are in a rapidly shifting industry, it’s important they focus on their work—not travel logistics. Lyft Business is such a valuable addition to our transportation options.”
— Senior Manager
US Travel Program
The Opportunity
The biotech organization recognized its opportunity to drive business forward through a managed ground transportation program. “By improving the employee travel experience, we attract and retain top talent—and empower our workforce to produce their best work.”
The solution
According to the senior travel manager, Lyft Business was selected because of the cultural fit between the two companies. “Both companies depend on the quality of our people to produce quality products.”
The company now offers ride credits for commuters during off-peak hours, and for employees traveling to company events. Frequent travelers use Business Profiles.
TOP BENEFITS INCLUDE
Engaged employees
High adoption shows employees love receiving personal rewards when they travel for work—and Business Profiles’ auto-expense capabilities. Monthly surprise and delight rewards, and perks with top airlines like Delta and JetBlue, make business travel even more rewarding.
"Over 6,000 employees enjoy a pleasant, efficient, easy-to-use way to get where they need to go with an platform they used before the program launched."
An upgraded transportation management experience
The travel manager equips the transportation program for success with reporting tools, a dedicated account management team, and 24/7 trust and safety support.
"Compliance is effortless, and I’m confident my employees are safe."
Driving business forward
By creating a consistent travel experience, travelers could focus on high value tasks—not transportation logistics.
"Working with Lyft was a no brainer — fast implementation, positive feedback from the employees, and really has simplified our ground travel, and reduced our costs."
Looking ahead
The travel manager anticipates higher employee engagement with the Lyft Business Rewards Program, which offers $5 of personal ride credit for every five business rides.
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