Research shows that a third of consumers consider health and wellbeing as essential. We expect this number to continue to increase as people reset and refocus their goals with the new year. It’s, of course, always been important for employers to prioritize their employees' wellbeing, whether they’re in the office, working remotely, or traveling for work, but now expectations are rising.
Businesses should therefore be extra mindful of the travel policies they have in place for employees on business trips and during relocations. How can you simplify the whole process for your employee to reduce stress and keep them engaged? Which solutions can you utilize to assess advancing risks? We’ve collated a toolkit to help you meet all your corporate and employee needs.
As part of your duty of care to your employees, it’s important to be aware of any risks to their health and wellbeing while they’re traveling for business. However, you must also be mindful of their privacy, especially with the hyper-focus on GDPR and data protection in recent years.
So, how can you protect your employees without breaching these? Real-time monitoring technology helps employers stay up to date on any location risks and accommodation. Also, IoT technology creates check-in and out transparency, providing non-invasive ways to ensure employee safety.
Allowing employees to have greater flexibility over their travel itinerary can help to alleviate stress and improve their travel experience. With a less rigid itinerary, employees can fit in other tasks around their duties. Maybe your employee exercises every morning and wants to keep up their routine. Or, maybe they need to take some time to rest in between meetings, as travel can be overwhelming and tiring. Maybe they want to visit a certain restaurant for lunch or see the local sights in and around their business to make their trip a blended travel experience.
You may also choose to grant employees extra days for their trip. This can be especially useful when they’ve had to travel far and need some time to recover. Or, to satisfy rising employee demand for bleisure travel. Research shows that 50% of employees feel bleisure opportunities aren’t likely or are unsure if their work would allow this, but bleisure may be the key to boosting employee engagement.
Your employee will likely spend most of their first day traveling to their destination, so if you want them to be on top form for their meeting or business event, they need a place where they can fully recuperate. Quality housing is essential for this. Provide a comfortable space that they can treat like a home away from home.
If they plan to catch up on daily work while on the business trip, ensure you book a property that can provide them with a separate space for this. Boundaries are important on business trips, especially when it comes to dividing rest and work time.
Exercise plays a huge part in our overall wellbeing. If your employee has been sitting on a plane or in a car for hours, they may feel the need to stretch their legs and get their heart racing.
How can travel managers help employees reach their exercise goals while traveling so they stay fit and healthy? Make it easy for employees by choosing housing that has gym facilities, or, at the very least, has ample room in the apartment for the employee to work out. If this isn’t possible, think about providing day passes to a gym in the local area.
87% of employees believe that actions from their employers would help their mental wellbeing. Ensure employees are fully aware and have access to travel policies and a dedicated team member who they can contact should they need physical or mental support while on the road.
When employees are in a different country or time zone, it can be hard to always be on hand for support. Instead, look for accommodation with great customer service, such as an around-the-clock communication channel. This means when you’re unavailable, employees can solve housing issues or queries directly with the supplier.
Business travel can be stressful. Studies show that one of the highest contributing factors to business travel stress is flight delays and cancellations. On top of this, employees have to juggle travel expenses, being in a foreign country or state, trying to adhere to local customs, finding their booked accommodation, and much more.
Adopt tools that can help employees simplify their trip and remove any unnecessary stress. For example, the mobile app Expensify makes recording and claiming travel expenses a breeze. Employees won’t have to keep hold of multiple paper receipts as the tech tool uses automated receipt tracking.
With this wellbeing toolkit up your sleeves, you’ll not only be able to protect your employees’ wellbeing while they’re traveling for business, but also give them an elevated business travel experience that can help keep them excited and engaged in their role.
3Sixty, the business travel industry’s most secure and intuitive accommodation platform, helps employees to book and manage their stay in over one million quality, cost-effective rooms and properties around the world.
Provide support to your employees even when they’re in a different time zone with housing options that provide 24/7 guest customer service.