The Practical Guide to Maximising Traveler Wellbeing
How to reduce stress and enhance performance before, during, and after a tripTraveler Wellbeing Covers Everything from Physical Health to Emotional Support
Keeping travelers healthy and happy should always be at the forefront of any travel booker’s mind. Your employees are your biggest asset – they make your organization tick. And people work best when they are supported emotionally and given the flexibility to exist in a positive headspace.
But how can you keep your travelers happy before, during and after a trip? What steps can you and your TMC take to ensure that their experiences on the road are healthy and relatively stress-free? In this practical guide to traveler wellbeing, we take a deep dive into how travel bookers can better support employees both away on a work trip and when they come home.
Pre-Trip Traveler Wellbeing Tips
An employee doesn’t need to be out on a work trip for you to start thinking about their wellbeing as a traveler. There are numerous strategies you can implement before anyone heads out on the road that will make a huge difference to the whole experience.
1️⃣
Include Wellbeing in Your Travel Policy
Consult with your TMC for expert advice in building a fair but flexible travel policy. You can allow travelers to embark the night before to ensure they are well-rested and more productive while working away. Also, consider what class of travel would be most appropriate and comfortable (e.g. on a long-haul flight), and write up an itinerary to allow travellers to feel more at ease with their surroundings and schedule once they arrive.
2️⃣
Adopt Pre-Trip Stress Management Tactics
A lot of travel-related stress is related to a fear of the unknown. Any TMC worth their salt will have identified any potential travel risks, written up contingency plans, and have a process in place to keep you informed of any important travel updates the moment they develop. Plans should include details of who a traveler should contact in an emergency – particularly if they’re solo female travelers. It’s also important to review individual travel preferences and keep traveler profiles up to date. Consider the smaller details, too. For example, does someone have any specific mobility needs or do they have a preferred seat on a flight?
During the Trip Traveler Wellbeing Tips
It is far more difficult to monitor an employee’s physical and mental well-being while they are on the road. However, there are numerous strategies to help you (and them) stay happy and healthy while away.
3️⃣
Ensure Your Travelers are Getting Proper Sleep
Crossing time zones, staying in noisy hotels, and planning meetings out of office hours can all contribute to a poor night’s sleep. Disruptions to a regular sleep schedule and a lack of rest can have serious side effects – it puts strain on mental health and can severely impact performance. To combat this, make sure to select a sensible travel time and provide flexibility to travelers to make the most of any downtime. Your TMC will also be able to request hotel rooms on higher floors away from lifts, hotel lobbies, or in other quieter areas.
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Educate Travellers on Ways to Alleviate Stress
Your travelers themselves have an active part to play in keeping stress levels low. It’s, therefore, important that individuals are given all of the tools they need to maintain their wellbeing. Encourage your travelers to download apps that can help with mindful thinking, such as Headspace, or suggest they stay healthy throughout their trip by encouraging nutritious snacks and light exercise. Work wth your TMC to create a wellness guide that can be easily accessed on your company’s intranet or within your TMC’s portal.
WEBINAR SERIES | TRAVEL TALKS | Episode 18
TOP TIPS FOR
TRAVELER WELLBEING
Discover how to keep your corporate travellers happy and healthy while they’re away on a business trip.
In Episode 18 of our Travel Talks webinar, we explore exactly what Traveller wellbeing is, why it’s so important to both employees and employers, and present a host of easy to adopt strategies for healthier business trips.
Post-Trip Traveler Wellbeing Tips
Traveler wellbeing doesn’t end once the traveler returns home. The post-trip experience is just as important to an employee’s physical and mental health, and managing it requires just as much care and attention.
5️⃣
Give Your Travelers Time to Decompress Afterwards
Allow your traveler to have a few days after the trip to decompress and readjust to their regular work and personal routines. Avoid booking them in for back-to-back meetings, and try not to get them out on the road again too soon. You should empower travelers with the freedom to share any feedback about their trip. This will give you invaluable insights into your travel processes and can help your TMC identify small but impactful changes to make future experiences even better.
6️⃣
Collect Travel Data to Inform Future Trips
Data is one of the most useful tools in a travel booker’s toolbox. A good TMC should be able to provide you with all of the data you need, and by using a comprehensive reporting tool – such as our platform YourData, powered by Microsoft PowerBI – you can monitor how long an employee has been away on business, see the number of red eye flights they have boarded, or check the number of time zones they have crossed.
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