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Business Travel is No Day at the Beach
By Richard Hadden and Bill Catlette
"I love my job," declared the government scientist in the seat next to me somewhere off the coast of Greenland, "but I hate the travel." By the time we flew over Newfoundland, I knew why.
It wasn't actually the travel she hated. It was the fact that her employer, the federal government, had ignored the human element of business travel, while sending her all over the world to research malaria.
No allowance for jet lag. "Office hours begin at 8 a.m., even if you did just get in from Zimbabwe. Those are our frequent flyer miles, not yours, thank you. We paid for them. Take the bus to the hotel, even if you have to wait an hour. We won't authorize a cab." Her story was sadder than the movie that was showing.
There's no way this worker can give her employer her best performance (the woman gets paid to think), without some allowance for the added wear and tear that business travel puts on the mind, body, and soul. This valuable, highly trained, and reasonably expensive asset is on a direct flight to burn-out. Only after they lose her, and others like her, will they wish they had used a little more common sense.
OK, so this is the government. But those of us in the private sector had better be on the lookout for signs of similar things that add unnecessary stress to those we pay to travel.
Of course, you don't have to treat your traveling employees well. Your only responsibility is to get the employee's bones, and the bag they come in, often referred to
as a tired body, to the distant location in one piece. Who cares if they're capable of work once they get there?
Doom-and-gloom predictions notwithstanding, if you're among the hoards of employers still finding themselves in a war for talent, you can compete by paying an extra measure of honor and respect to your traveling employees.
There are few topics on which we can write with more authority than on business travel. From Little Rock to London, Toledo to Tortola, we've been there. From our humble perspective, here are some tips on keeping your itinerant workforce contented, and productive when they're on the road or in the air.
First, and here comes the broken record part, hire for fit. Funny how that maxim keeps popping up. If the job requires travel, say so, up front. And be honest about it. How far, how often, how long. Be clear that homebodies need not apply.
People often ask the two of us how we manage all the travel. If we manage anything at all, it's expectations. Everyone at home knows that this is how we get to work. On a plane. Our lives are arranged to make it work. Well, most of the time. (Sorry, son, I'm glad Mom took the video camera to your play.)
Employees who travel frequently need to be equally clear with their families. "This is what I do for a living." Encourage them to talk with their families to be sure that everyone's up for the trip. And while there's a pervasive impression that business travel is fun and exotic (OK, some of it is. I really did go to Tortola on business recently. Somebody had to go), if you're like most road warriors, given a choice, you'd probably rather be closer to hearth and home more than you are.
Build in personal accountability. Traveling can be expensive…or not. Logic and reason fail anyone trying to predict airline fares. My wife recently flew round trip between Washington and London on upscale Virgin Atlantic for $348. A recent round trip ticket on Delta, between Jacksonville and Atlanta (350 miles) cost me $505. Go figure. And go shopping.for deals.
As with many things, when it comes to travel policy, the fewer the rules, the better. The problem is that so often, those making the rules have never ventured fifty miles from home. In fact, the only rule that makes sense is this: minimize your overall cost while you maximize your productivity.
Challenge travelers to manage, if not actually devise, their own travel budgets. Make it worth their while to save the company money, by putting part of their cost savings back into their own pockets. An upgradeable fare purchased two weeks in advanced is often cheaper than an "economy" fare bought a couple of days before the trip.
Encourage "tradeoff thinking". If the employee will be doing lots of driving on the trip, but only plans to sleep at the hotel, they may want to upgrade their rental car to something more comfortable, but skip the fancy digs. Look at the cost of the trip as a whole. If someone wants to use their Marriott points to pay for the hotel, but spend a couple hundred extra for an upgradeable air fare, that's not something that should take a lot of managerial oversight.
Acknowledge that traveling takes a toll, especially in the post 9-11 world we live in. The best thing you as an employer can do is to recognize that traveling for business exacts a cost on the body, the brain, and one's personal life. Psychologists say that, on average, a person with a family at home should spend no more than seven nights a months out of his or her own bed, to maintain optimal mental health (this already explains a lot about the two of us.) For those who live alone, eleven nights max. Beyond that, travelers need to take extra measures (or extra medication).
Look. Traveling employees aren't just away from home. They almost invariably work many more hours than those who work closer to home. In the hotel, on the plane. There's little else to do, so why not work? To ask someone to take a three-day trip with hardly any personal downtime, and then quibble over an on-time departure from the office (when overtime is "expected"), is juvenile. Unless you're violating child labor laws, treat your employees like the adults they are. To do otherwise inevitably breeds resentment, wandering eyes, and eventually, a "powering down" that your customers can't help but notice.
And if they're not actually working, they're still "at work". They miss soccer games, weddings, funerals, birthdays, and anniversaries. It's been shown that business travelers spend far more of their own money (not just the company's) than they would at home. They forget to pay bills. Their friends forget who they are.
And then there are the little things. Have you ever tried to get a prescription refilled away from home? Arrange a conference with your child's teacher, get an estimate for a new roof, or get your car in (and out) for service?
Talk about job stress. We've all got it. But add to that interminable delays, stuffy planes, hot airports, long security lines, crowded terminals, lost luggage, inedible food (if you're lucky enough to get any food at all) and airline employees who treat even their most loyal customers like dirt. Not to mention those random acts of footwear inspection. Eventually, most professional travelers come to the conclusion that flying is for the birds, and they'll do something more earthbound.
Upgrades. What about coach vs. first class. For a person who travels once a quarter, first class from St. Louis to Chicago is a luxury. Nice if you can get it, but a luxury nonetheless. For a weekly traveler flying coast-to-coast, it's not. And for transoceanic travel, an upgrade to Business Class can mean the difference between a functioning brain and cranial gelatin on the other side.
Airline Club Lounges. For the price of three nights in a hotel, most airlines offer membership in their club lounge for a whole year. It's a small price to pay to give your employee a place to hang out during layovers or long delays. The extra work they can get done, making phone calls, responding to e-mail, or writing reports is more than paid for by the company's small investment. And if they actually spend an hour or so recharging their batteries (not just their laptops'), it's time well spent.
And for Pete's sake, let people keep their frequent flyer miles. For all the above mentioned reasons, traveling is no day at the beach.
You've gone to great lengths to make sure the office environment is conducive to high productivity from your workers. (Well, maybe you haven't, but you should have.) So why not be as careful to do the same when your employees work at 30,000 feet?
Please print the following attribution for this article: Bill Catlette and Richard Hadden, co-authors of Contented Cows Give Better Milk, help clients clobber the competition by having a focused, fired up, and capably led workforce. They deliver powerful conference keynotes and leadership training. They can be reached at 800-940-7006 (+1-904-720-0870 from outside North America) or www.ContentedCows.com.