Business trips are a phenomenal way for your team to build better relationships with clients and colleagues; these face-to-face interactions foster collaboration and productivity. However, a poorly planned business trip might do more harm than good, eating up budgets and draining employee energy and motivation while yielding minimal returns. To maximize your team’s business travel, you’ll need a strategic approach considering logistics and employee well-being.
Plan More Meetings and Events
Business travel is often a major expense for companies. It’s vital to make every trip worthwhile for everyone involved. A good rule of thumb is to schedule an hour of meetings, conferences, or other events for each hour of travel required to get to your destination. So, if travelers need to fly five hours to get to their destination, at least five hours of business meetings and activities should be lined up throughout the trip.
Make Meetings and Events Memorable
If you’re traveling long distances to see clients or colleagues in person, try not to confine these meeting sessions to standard conference rooms. This is the opportunity to make a great impression and foster stronger relationships. Make the experience memorable by selecting a unique meeting venue. Consider lunch at a local brewery, connecting at a savvy new co-working space, or booking a social club while you’re in town. A good location can make all the difference in keeping attendees engaged and socially involved, which makes for a more memorable occasion.
Set Aside Time For Team Building and Free Time
Every business trip needs to balance the fine line between a jam-packed schedule and time for leisure. Allow corporate travelers some time in the itinerary to explore whatever city they’re in. This is also a good opportunity to carve out time for team-building activities. Allotting this time shows appreciation for your employees and gives them time to recharge after a hard day’s work.
Encourage Bleisure Travel
Work/life balance and flexibility are extremely important to today’s workforce, which is largely made up of Millennials and Gen Z employees. Consider allowing your team to turn a standard business trip into a bleisure trip. A bleisure trip is an extended stay in a destination following a corporate excursion to enjoy leisurely activities. Team members are likely to return recharged and ready to tackle workplace challenges with fresh ideas and more motivation.
Book Shoulder Night Stays
Booking accommodations outside of peak travel days can curb expenses. Hotels often offer lower rates for early weekdays or Sundays compared to high-demand days like Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Shoulder night stays may also mean there is more availability at popular hotels or openings for room upgrades.
Leverage Travel Technology
Travel can be a little bit hectic. However, having a travel technology service like TTTMobile removes some of the guesswork and tension when traveling. This service offers valuable insights to travel managers and travelers, like flight details and alerts in addition to destination insights. Duty of care services are also integrated. These include traveler tracking and in-app communications to help ensure safety while team members are on the go.
