Credit: JWCannon Creative
Rafael Rosario
Global Travel Manager
Bloomberg LLP
BTN has named Rafael Rosario a 2023 Best Practitioner for his work in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in a corporate travel program. The Bloomberg program shows three pillars of DE&I activities, which open better service channels to travelers who need accommodation, bring DE&I alignment to supplier sourcing and drive conversations around perceptions of business travel for different types of travelers, and breaking down barriers to others' lived experiences.
"One of the goals we established as a travel and expense team back in 2022 was to find the way to collaborate with our DE&I team and see how we can both align," Rosario said.
Chief among Rosario's achievements in DE&I is Bloomberg's system to identify, disclose with limitations and serve travelers who have unique needs. Travel challenges can range from temporary injuries or life situations like new motherhood to permanent traits like being tall to serious health conditions that may require an accommodation when traveling or other issues like neuro- or physical diversity.
Travelers at Bloomberg are informed of the program and the systems now in place to formalize and give agents access to a traffic light-type system that indicates the kind of accommodation required. Travelers opt into the program, where their information is stored in a secure system outside of the travel profile that previously was used to indicate Covid-19 vaccination status. Rosario has reconfigured the system to address DE&I needs. Dedicated agents are given access regionally to serve their local travelers; about 450 of Bloomberg's 11,000-plus travelers have a record in the system.
"It's not like we are telling [these travelers] to share this information or making them do it," Rosario said. "These are issues they need to share so they can have productive trips, and Bloomberg can provide real duty of care for them. We do this because we really do care about travelers, and it's the right thing to do. I think our travelers know that, too."
He added that as a travel manager, he has worked to understand these types of individual needs for years, but only now has the technology in place to manage it at scale.
Rosario has also worked across business units to align with Bloomberg Philanthropy to source travel contracts that enable him to offer special deals with preferred Bloomberg suppliers during periods in which Bloomberg is honoring a specific culture or group. For example, booking with a certain hotel group during Women's History Month may earn a small sum for a women's non-profit organization that month and Bloomberg Philanthropy may be positioned to match the donation. For Philanthropy events, the unit works with the travel team to source suppliers who are able to enhance the subject of the event with special deals or donation values.
And finally, Rosario has created a quarterly podcast in which he invites diverse travelers to talk about their experiences while on the road traveling for Bloomberg. Opening these conversations, he said, breaks through barriers and allows other travelers to bring more community and caring to their co-workers.
Together, these DE&I pillars work toward more holistic well-being goals at Bloomberg, said Rosario. "We want people to feel that they are being taken care of when traveling on behalf of Bloomberg," he said. "This is also rolling out into the well-being program that we're trying to build as a company. I discovered in talking to all the different businesses that the new generation coming into the workplace and the younger employees who are traveling every week—they want to continue their lifestyles when they are on the road. And—not just fitness—but other types of activities that allow them to have lifestyle choices when they travel." Bloomberg is keying into these issues and is working to deliver.