In the era of remote work, many employees feel the need to maximize business travel and remote work and may mix the two, a trend known as 'bleisure' travel.
An August 2022 survey by Booking.com questioned adults who planned to travel for business or leisure in the next 12-24 months. The survey found 59% of respondents said traveling and exploring new places inspired them to be more productive at work.
As that happens, bleisure is becoming more common. A report released in August 2023 by the Global Business Travel Association found that of 4,700 business travelers surveyed, 62% are blending business with travel. However, this trend can create headaches for companies without clear employee travel policies and the technology to manage them.
How can companies leverage technology and update their travel policies to keep up with the demand for bleisure travel? What role does expense management software, including automated expense reporting, mobile apps, and real-time expense tracking, play in helping companies balance the pros and cons of bleisure travel? Additionally, how can technology mitigate risks, such as fraud and an employer's duty of care?
Types of Bleisure Travel
Bleisure travel can come in several different forms. Employees may extend their work trips by adding vacation days before or after the business trip. They might also choose to bring their family with them or have them arrive before or after their business commitments.
When allowed to work remotely, employees may even relocate to a vacation location. Once there, they may travel around the area, using the vacation spot as their home base. This can include visits to nearby cities, cultural exploration, and adventure travel. They might also invite friends and family to visit them for short or extended stays.
Challenges of Bleisure Travel for Employers
With rising interest in bleisure, there are several challenges that companies can understand and address. For example, companies cannot permit personal expenses to become business expenses. Productivity can also be a concern, as is managing perceptions of fairness when allowing employees to take advantage of bleisure travel versus those who remain in-person or hybrid employees.
Bleisure travel can also prove administratively burdensome. Allowing employees to work remotely should not create excessive health and safety risks or expose a company's data and intellectual property to unauthorized access. There's also a risk employees could engage in fraud, even accidentally, by classifying their personal expenses as business-related.
Technology to Manage Bleisure Travel
While bleisure travel can complicate the employee travel management process, each of these challenges can either be eradicated or mitigated with technology.
Expenses
The inherent complexity of managing bleisure travel stems from the challenge of classifying expenses quickly and accurately. Automated expense reporting captures and categorizes expenses from transactions, allowing employees to separate business and personal travel expenses quickly and seamlessly, especially if they can do so via a mobile app. It also reduces the manual effort of expense reporting and the potential for error, misstatements, and excessive delays in submitting expense reimbursement requests.
Integrating travel booking with the expense system is also critical. It facilitates the process and removes much of the administrative burden from employees, making it easier for them to submit timely and accurate expense reports.
Consequently, employers can see expenses in real time, making monitoring and adjusting travel-related budgets easier. This visibility can also detect policy violations before they become repetitive.
Analytics and reporting technology provide insights into travel spending patterns, which companies can use to refine their travel policies, amend department budgets, and facilitate the employee experience. For example, suppose the travel data shows that employees opt for certain airlines or hotels when traveling to and from a location. In that case, an employer may be able to negotiate better rates and terms.
Company Data
The right technology solutions can ensure employees access company data using safe and secure platforms. For example, virtual private networks can make it harder for unauthorized users to access company data when an employee uses public Wi-Fi networks. Similarly, mobile device management software allows companies to manage devices remotely, which includes erasing sensitive data if a device becomes lost or stolen. This is in addition to standard security technology, including antivirus, multi-factor authentication, and secure file-sharing technology.
Employee Tracking and Safety
Additionally, there are many technology solutions to help employers track employees' locations, from GPS tracking to check-in systems to remote work tools. Regardless of the solution, every employee must understand and consent to any technology if it's being used to monitor their location and activities. This will facilitate compliance with regulations and relevant laws and can help an employer build and maintain employee trust.
Employers should also be able to locate employees quickly for business-related reasons or in case of emergency. Here, too, technology can help.
The Takeaway
Bleisure travel is a natural outcome and companion to remote/hybrid work. It's also an excellent way for in-office employees to be rewarded for sacrificing personal time for business travel. Proactive and flexible company policies and a robust suite of technology tools designed to monitor and optimize the travel experience can be critical. When handled correctly, employees and employers can benefit from bleisure travel in all its forms.
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