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Business Travel Travel Management

Decreasing Your Business Traveler’s Friction

Anyone who has traveled for business understands the additional strain that inevitably comes with it. It’s a race to catch up on emails and deadlines. And jet lag is always a nuisance. Unfortunately, a recent study suggests business traveler’s friction may have more serious consequences.  This study found that business travelers, who travel for more than two weeks out of the month, may have more anxiety and sleeping problems. They are also more likely to smoke, drink, and lead a sedentary lifestyle. This in turn could lead to associated chronic diseases. With emerging studies like this, it’s evident that travel does have an affect on your travelers. For their well being and your duty of care responsibility, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your travelers are happy and healthy.

Understanding business traveler’s hierarchy of needs to reduce traveler friction

hierarchy of business travelers needsAn interesting theory to understanding the strain on your business travelers, is thinking of traveler friction as a hierarchy of needs. From Scott Gillepsie, the idea is very similar to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The concept is simple. Business travelers cannot reach the increasing levels on the pyramid if their basic needs at the lower levels have not been met. Health and Safety are the base of the pyramid. First and foremost, your employees should feel safe while traveling. Such as having a hotel reservation and food stipends for their trip. The second level, Productivity, leads to Engagement. If they are safe and healthy, your employees can focus on their work and engage with others proactively. This leads to Impact at the top of the pyramid. Your business traveler can efficiently complete tasks, such as closing the account or resolving client issues.

Scott Gillepsie found that business travelers that have a higher travel friction, or stay lower on the pyramid, are usually less productive. Even with constant travel, they close deals less often. Ultimately costing the company more money in the long run. What’s the point, if an imbalanced travel policy is ultimately losing the company money as well as harming your employee’s wellbeing?

How to reduce business traveler friction, for the health of your employees

So what can companies do to ensure their business travelers are happy? Having a travel policy that’s not just bare bones is great starting point. Sometimes it comes down to the little perks.

    • Give them a chance to stay home. Yes, business trips are often great job experience, worth the investment and provide opportunities for employees to prove themselves. But capping travel after a certain amount of time may be good option if applicable for your company. Give your employees a chance to recuperate and enjoy time at home.
    • Give them the perks they want, when possible. If they have to travel, at least make it enjoyable and as comforting as possible. Let them keep the reward points. Give them economy seating if the plane trip is over 6 hours. Reimburse for TSA Pre-Check, lounge access or wifi access. Allow use of black car services if your traveler’s plane arrives after 9pm.
    • Talk to your travelers. You may think you know what they want, but it could be small details that you don’t realize.
    • Incentivise their health and fitness. Create a company-wide competition for working out and eating healthy. Keep them motivated.
    • Make expense reporting as easy as possible. Keep the travel-associated tasks as easy as possible to complete.
    • Provide time off for the additional time spent traveling and working outside of regular work hours.
    • Discourage late flights, early flights or weekend travel.
    • Encourage bleisure travel trips.
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Business Travel Travel Management

Why Duty Of Care For Universities Is The Real Reason To Mandate Travel

From study abroad students to professors on sabbatical; universities have their own ecosystem when is comes to travel management. Just think of it, potentially thousands of students, administrators, professors and contractors can be traveling on behalf of an academic institution at any one time. That’s why it’s so surprising to learn that many universities and colleges do not utilize travel management companies for their complex travel needs. Many know that mandating travel would help them stay organized and reduce travel costs. But unfortunately, finding the right TMC often becomes a ‘back-burner’ item. Additionally, as the global and political climate become more unpredictable, the responsibility of duty of care for universities is also growing. Can learning institutions really afford not have a mandated travel management program in this day and age?

Increase in travel risk requires more duty of care for universities

Duty of care responsibility and the travel risk management that is required to maintain it, is a large task for even small startups. The responsibility required by a university or college can be mind boggling. Whether it be theft, terrorism, disease, or weather; the risks associated with travel have always been around. And unfortunately, it appears to be increasing. iJET, a leader in integrated travel management, found that 98% of their alerts were issued in just the past five years. Additionally, 78% of travel managers plan on making risk management a higher priority this year. Risk, from pickpockets to something catastrophic, is a global issue that only seems to be growing. It is naive to think that universities and colleges of any size can adequately protect their students and employees without the assistance of a travel management program.

How a lack of duty of care lead to disaster

In 2007, Cara Munn was an active 15 year-old excited to attend a school trip to China. Her private boarding school, The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, lead a month-long excursion around the country. Part of the trip included a hike on Mount Panshan. We now know that the trip leaders never told the students to put on bug spray. She was also allowed to hike down the mountain unsupervised rather than take a cable car with the group. Ten days later, Munn was rushed to Beijing hospital with a high fever, headache and wooziness. She eventually was airlifted back to New York. Due to the hike without bug spray, Munn contracted tick-borne encephalitis. This viral infection caused by ticks commonly manifests as meningitis, encephalitis, or meningoencephalitis. Though Munn went on to finish high school and attended Trinity College, she has lost the ability to speak and some cognitive functions.

Ten years later, Hotchkiss School and the Munn family are still in the middle of a heated lawsuit. The Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled to uphold a $41.5 million verdict for the family. They found that the school lacked duty of care responsibility when they failed to warn or protect their students against the risk of a serious insect-borne disease. Though the case is now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the amount of time, money, stress and energy spent by the school has been insurmountable. And with the court cases appearing to favor the student, it’s becoming more and more apparent that education institutions need to have their duty of care and travel risk management protocol in place and in action should an incident arise.

The necessity of duty of care solutions for universities

Basically it comes down to one question. Can your institution afford to not have duty of care responsibility? Could you afford ten years worth of court fees like this example? What about the bad publicity and tarnished reputation that would come with it?

We’re lucky enough to live in a time where technology has made previously convoluted and confusing tasks simple and straightforward. Travel technology, like our AirPortal 360 Suite, provides support and guidance from the very beginning of your traveler’s process. Ensure they are booking within policy and easily keep track of their itinerary and preferences. Once they travel, monitor their progress and receive travel alerts around their location. Travel management and duty of care responsibility are more important now than ever, but luckily, our travel technology is easy to use and provides peace of mind. If you or your university is interested in learning more about travel management services, please contact us.

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