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Business travel is an essential aspect of growing an enterprise, regardless its size or stature. Domestic business travel enables employees and executives alike to network with other businesses, and field clients, distributors or partners in new regions.
Just as domestic travel can positively influence business growth, international travel is unavoidable for businesses hoping to extend their reach beyond a national market. With business travel returning to a relative norm after coronavirus, and with an influx of new businesses looking to expand equitably, it is more important now than ever for businesses to approach travel in a comprehensive manner.
This does not purely mean spending more time thinking about travel logistics and scheduling. Many businesses already spend the money on private jet memberships for regular executive business travellers, and ancillary financial concerns are easily justified in the long term. What it means is the involvement of HR on a base level – but why is HR such an important piece of the puzzle for organising business travel?
Duty of Care
For one, businesses have a duty of care over their employees on a day-to-day basis – a duty of care that, naturally, extends to employees travelling in a business capacity. It is HR’s responsibility to uphold this duty of care, and so any travel decisions or itineraries should be made available to HR departments in order that they can contact workers and respond to emergencies accordingly.
Employee Wellbeing
In a more general sense, employee wellbeing is a chief concern for HR staff. Not only are there legal and civil precedents for workplace and worker safety, including duty of care as outlined above, but focussing on employee wellbeing can have dramatic impacts in terms of morale, productivity and staff turnover. Constant travel and overwork can result in fractious relationships between worker and business, and HR intervention may be necessary to redress the balance and satisfy the employee in question.
Legalities of Work
There are, of course, legal challenges to consider in sending workers on a business trip – particularly abroad. With distant or remote working, or business trips where client entertainment and preparations can constitute long work hours, it can be difficult to properly log hours worked and remunerate overtime where appropriate. Here, HR systems are crucial for monitoring employee working hours, and enforcing either downtime or the payment of agreed overtime where appropriate.
HR Compliance
Finally, there are internal HR policies and procedures, such as the business’ code of conduct, which must be upheld at all times. Business trips are not holidays from these compliance responsibilities, making HR’s role in business travel essential for other reasons. Employee impropriety on a business trip should be dealt with just as it would be in-office, requiring liaison and communication mid-trip as well as either side of the trip. Disciplinary action is not a pleasant process to undergo, but can be important where employees are not upholding company values while travelling.
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