The survey, which included 500 frequent business travellers in the U.S. attempted to determine if investments in improving company culture has translated to business travel. Mezi released the results, which had some surprising results, emphasising the need for organisations to review their corporate travel policies and model. The report can be found here.
One of the key areas of the survey included identifying what respondents thought their company prioritised when it comes to corporate travel. Key findings showed 79% believed their company wanted save money and time over employee well-being or happiness at 21%. While 30% of people are excited about traveling for business, a whopping 50% of people feel stressed or indifferent about traveling for business, and one-third (37%) of people feel burnt out, frustrated or unmotivated returning to work from a business trip.
Source: Mezi
According to Mezi, the key is to strike a balance between looking after employees' needs, and the business's bottom line. This involves updating corporate travel policies to reflect the changing face of today's workplace.
Source: Mezi
Nearly one-third of people surveyed believe their corporate travel policy is ill-managed (27%), and the implications of an ill-managed travel policy and process are telling: 43% are more likely to have negative feelings toward business travel; 84% report returning from business travel feeling tired, burnt out, frustrated or unmotivated; and majority of people (56%) believe their corporate travel policy only moderately (at best) aligns with overall company culture.
A lack of formal process and outdated booking systems are major factors in ill-managed policies. When most employees are booking their business travel directly (43%) or don't have a formal process to follow (23%), they waste a significant amount of time and energy before they're even on the road for their next journey. A clear travel policy makes for a smoother, faster booking process. When there's no clear policy for hotel or car rental expectations, unnecessary waste of time and monetary resources may occur.
What employees wish their corporate travel policy included
Source: Mezi
Mezi suggests
As previously reported by the Blue Swan Daily (see report Artificial intelligence aims at the corporate traveller with the launch of Mezi for Business), Mezi recently launched its corporate arm, Mezi for Business. Utilising a product like this will assist in the booking process, help with on the ground services such as restaurant reservations, complete payment transactions, and even sort out flight changes, all allowing the using to focus on the business tasks at hand. Mezi also assists the traveller while on the road to make recommendations on things to do and sights to see in the area.
As work and life continue to merge and evolve, businesses must adapt the way they facilitate, plan, build and manage their corporate travel policies to accommodate today's workforce.