Attending meetings, giving reports, and closing deals is stressful enough on its own. However, piling the hassle of business travel onto such regular duties can negatively impact even the most easy-going and productive employees. Luckily, you aren’t powerless to make their business travel experience better.
While you can’t travel instead of them, you can institute policies that greatly ease the stresses of your colleagues’ business travels. Here are some of the most effective ones!
Provide Pre-Travel Support
Ensuring your traveling team members have access to all the information they need to navigate the trip and safely reach their destination sets them up for success. Take away the guesswork by providing them with clear itineraries and objectives so they can prepare and tackle the challenge more readily.
You’ll also want to outline what documents or prerequisites business travelers need to secure. For example, traveling abroad means they’ll need a valid passport and possibly a visa. Travel to some parts of the world may mandate vaccinations or other preparations as well. So, make sure employees are aware and have enough time to take care of these essentials comfortably.
Allow for a Degree of Free Agency
Having a defined travel policy is crucial for consistency, cost control, and risk management. Even so, leaving room for autonomous decisions positively impacts traveler well-being and reduces stress.
Flight options are a good example. Employees should feel free to book flights at preferred times, choose their seats, and even the ticket class, provided it’s a long flight and the budget permits it.
Likewise, they should be able to choose a hotel or other accommodation as long as they fall under the company’s pre-approved options.
Introduce Flexible Schedules
While we all strive for smooth sailing, chances are high that your employees will hit a few snags during their travels. Issues like delayed flights or unpredictable weather can cause delays and stress them out, especially if they’re on a tight schedule.
The solution is to create flexible itineraries. If flying or traveling abroad, try to schedule meetings and other work obligations the day after arrival. Allow for some buffer time, even for shorter stays, to help employees prepare, destress, and do everything on time.
Ensure Adequate Communication Access
Whether it’s downloading files from a shared cloud server before a big presentation or checking in with loved ones back home, business travelers are a lot less stressed when they have proper cybersecurity tools safeguarding their online browsing and network access.
eSIMs have emerged as a convenient means for business travelers to stay connected. An eSIM chip is most likely already in their phone, so all that’s left is to partner with a dependable eSIM service and pick a plan that works in their area, like eSIM Vietnam.
This way, your employees can get reliable local connectivity without having to deal with physical SIM cards. Naturally, this will cut down on roaming costs and make sure they can communicate easily with colleagues or family members at all times.
We’re sure you already know what a VPN is, so it would only make sense to equip your employees with one whenever they travel and work remotely. A VPN will ensure that all the business files and systems that employees access will be protected from unauthorized snooping.
Make the Post-Travel Adjustment Period Easier
No matter how well executed they are, frequent business trips take a toll on travelers’ mental and physical health. Approach lessening its impact from two sides.
Your travel policy should outline a quarterly business trip limit for one person. The resulting increase in stability will boost morale and reduce burnout risk. On the other hand, returning business travelers should ease into their regular responsibilities. Ideally, they should receive some PTO to recover and get their domestic affairs in order. If that’s not an option, consider lightening their workload for a few days.
Stress-free Business Travel Is Guaranteed
While traveling for business can get stressful and exhausting, applying the above tips can significantly reduce its effect on your employees and business. Besides that, don’t forget to talk to your workers and regularly ask them how they’re feeling. People should always come before business deals. After all, those valuable deals are almost impossible to get without happy and engaged workers.