Sparrows Offshore : Group’s global travel team scoop top industry award

The outstanding performance and success of our global travel team has seen them be recognised as the Travel Team of the Year at the Business Travel Awards 2016.

The outstanding performance and success of our global travel team has seen them be recognised as the Travel Team of the Year at the Business Travel Awards 2016.

Judges praised the team, led by global travel manager Ryan Taylor, for their dedication in meeting challenges and implementing a complete change within the organisation in less than a year. They also praised the company for providing a comprehensive programme of safety and security measures for travellers.

More than 1,200 guests attended the ceremony at London's JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel on Monday 18 January, which was hosted by comedian Hugh Dennis. Other companies nominated in the same category included, British American Tobacco, Citi Group, Houses of Parliament - Chambers, The ITV procurement team, and Morgan Stanley.

The Sparrows team was recognised for its dedication in rapidly implementing a complete change in the way the firm handles all aspects of the movement of its staff around the globe. A focus on minimising required journeys and costs has been balanced with the needs of customers to have experts available to provide our specialist expertise anywhere in the world.

The logistics of travel has been centralised and the team manage all crew change travel, hotel bookings, visa and immigration support, car rental arrangements and ferry bookings.

In addition, a strong focus was placed on duty of care with e-learning courses on traveller safety and health advice provided for all employees visiting different countries.

The team was strongly praised for its role in keeping staff informed throughout the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and easing any concerns employees may have had during the period.

Sparrows Group Commercial Director, Andrew Glen said: 'The team has worked exceptionally hard to achieve the objectives and travellers are constantly sending in positive messages with regards to how their travel is managed. Each individual has worked extremely long hours to support the implementations and also to create crew schedules that meet our customers' expectations for all crew changes.

'The award is a fitting tribute to the team's achievements and recognises the hard work that has gone into the creation of a well-managed operation that ensures we can efficiently mobilise people to our customers.

'We would like to thank our travel partners ATPI and International SOS who have worked tirelessly with us to deliver the service we have been recognised for.'