Corporate travel is recovering, but it isn’t quite business as usual. Company travel and expense (T&E) policies are evolving to reflect a new work landscape and diverse employee needs. Many factors are driving these changes:
- Ongoing pandemic health and safety concerns
- A growing hybrid-workplace sector
- Blurred lines between personal and professional travel
- A renewed focus on lessening burnout while increasing retention
- An emphasis on corporate sustainability and diversity
- Overall business travel budget concerns
If you manage travel for your organisation, you’re on the front lines of these changes. Being hyper-aware of what employees want and need when they’re on the road can help facilitate the success of your company’s travel programme. This means going beyond the basics and ensuring that employees have what they need to feel healthy and productive while travelling.
4 ways to keep traveller well-being front and centre
While it’s not possible to predict every bump in the road, travel managers can employ several strategies to improve traveller well-being:
- Keep safety and security top of mind. To make sure employees feel prepared, it’s imperative to keep tabs on the differing rates of recovery by area. You should also work with company leadership to align on safe travel policies.
- Provide access to healthy eating choices and stress reducers. Try adding perks like a meal programme or implementing a travel-specific wellness programme to give employees on business trips opportunities to care for their bodies.
- Allow for choice and flexibility across your corporate travel programme. Adding alternative accommodation options, like home-style rentals, and building in time for bleisure are easy ways to allow business travellers to tailor work trips to personal needs.
- Take the guesswork out of transportation. This can be a typical travel headache. Giving employees the option to access ridesharing, public transportation or car rentals can help them feel supported as they move about for work.
Understanding your travellers’ needs at all stages of their journeys allows you to start building a more effective travel policy. While they’re trying to balance business outcomes with personal well-being, you can help remove stress and distractions so they feel healthy, focused and ready to tackle the tasks at hand.
