How to… wean staff off corporate travel

A dead-eyed suit rushes between airports, checks into another generic hotel, and spends days in a windowless boardroom, pining for the comforts of home. So goes another tedious lap in the rat race that is business travel.

Except this sorry image of the stressed employee moaning that they'd rather be anywhere than on the road again is a stereotype in need of an update. According to a recent survey, most of them actually enjoy it.

The Barclaycard Business Travel Survey found that a startling 78 per cent of business travellers like taking corporate trips.

Alarmingly for the planet, the study also found that as a result of "global expansion and the continuing need for face-to-face meetings", the number of flights people take per year is predicted to jump from an average of 7.6 to 8.5 by 2015.

In recent years there have been great advances in business communication technology, widespread communication about the devastating effects of climate change, and fuel costs have skyrocketed. But despite all this, travel for work is still rising.

So how do you curb staff travel when people actually like doing it? And just what is that they particularly enjoy?

Two thirds of respondents to the Barclaycard survey said they enjoy the variety travel offers, while 62 per cent said they appreciated the opportunity to see the world and 51 per cent claimed they enjoyed experiencing a new culture. The fact that it is the company picking up the bill doesn't hurt either.

"It's nice experiencing things you wouldn't get to when you are paying for yourself," explains one IT manager who takes several long haul business flights each year. "I like flying business class and I always stay in nice hotels. Having a daily allowance means I can eat in nice restaurants in the evenings. I've visited lots of cities for work that I might not have had the opportunity to travel to otherwise."

According to the US National Business Travel Association (NBTA) most employees enjoy travelling for work when they can add a leisure component to the trip. Their research found that 62 per cent of US domestic business travellers add a leisure component to at least one business trip per year, and two thirds take family or friends with them.

One employee admits his work travel effectively pays for all his personal get-aways, as all the air miles he accrues when travelling for work allows him to book free holiday flights and receive regular upgrades.

Some staff simply feel that travel is essential to their job. "My line of work is hands-on, so travel is still critical," explains an employee for an engineering and manufacturing company.

A retail manager who takes about five flights per year for work says she feels travel "helps with the nature of the work we do, particularly as our key partner is not located in the UK".

Sustrans, an organisation that works to help people choose to travel in ways that benefit their health and the environment, would like to see staff stay more grounded.

"By reducing the amount of travel their staff take businesses can help reduce the environmental impacts of their operations, including their contribution to climate change," a Sustrans spokesman explains. "Businesses should really be thinking about whether it is absolutely necessary for their staff to travel, especially given the current economic climate and with fuel prices so high. In many cases they will be able to save staff time and money by not traveling."

But the high level of enjoyment associated with corporate journeys doesn't surprise a spokeswoman for the NBTA who claims many aspects of business travel have improved in recent years. "Security checks have become faster, technological advances have helped to keep business travellers connected at all times, saving time and promoting productivity, and hotels have made the experience more fun, comfortable, and productive with new amenities and facilities such as in-room workout equipment and free Wi-Fi," she says.

So the polar bears and ice caps are really up against it then, with all the complimentary cocktails, flat bed seats and incorporated leisure time that have ensured that business travel has gone from drab to desirable.

Faced with this reality, how does a business get staff to cut their travel when deep down they enjoy it, see it as a perk and regard it as integral to their job (even when often it isn't)?

The nuclear option is to scale back on the perks. It will not endear a company to its staff, but opting for economy over business class and ensuring hotels are not always of the five star variety will certainly make people think that bit more carefully about whether or not they need to travel – and cut costs in the process.

Of course, such a move can also represent a blow to staff morale and may even have an impact on employee churn. A more positive strategy for curbing staff travel can be found by thoroughly researching the array of communication technologies now available and identifying which ones work best for the company's needs. Communication technology has come a long way but has yet to be given a fair shake by many businesses.

"These days there is excellent remote working and meeting technology and often all you need is a laptop and an internet connection," says the Sustrans' spokesman. "We conduct most of our meetings using widely available videoconferencing software and have given presentations at conferences on the other side of the world remotely."

Some staff seem aware of what technology is available, but there are often obstacles and resistance to using them in place of travel.

"We have WebEx and a few other tools to use," says the engineering and manufacturing employee. "But only day-to-day communication is done via telephone conference calls, as there is little need for face-to-face chats."

The retail manager explains that her employer does have video conference facilities and she has used them to avoid travelling. But while telephone conferencing is used to communicate with the company's overseas supplier, they cannot use videoconferencing with them, as the supplier's company policy does not allow for its use.

"Communication technologies such as teleconferencing and telepresence are becoming more widely used, both to contain costs and to reduce the environmental impact of business travel," says the NBTA's spokeswoman. "However, companies must travel to conduct business. There is simply no substitute for face-to-face meetings."

Another way for businesses to rein in staff travel is by writing and widely publicising an environmental policy encompassing strong green travel guidelines.

Setting out strict guidelines that require staff to always travel by train where feasible, work form home whenever appropriate, offset emissions from any flights, hire the most fuel efficient cars available, and even take fewer business trips that perhaps last a bit longer, can have a major impact on total carbon emissions.

Unfortunately, a forest's worth of environmental travel policies have been printed by businesses in the past few years, often to little effect.

"We do have a travel policy – any flight that is more than six hours we can fly business class," says the IT manager. "I do not think we have an environmental policy; if we do it's not publicised."

The manager at a major retailer was also in the dark – "I don't believe we have one", she says when asked about the company's green travel policy.

Consequently, a travel policy is only as good as its enforcement and any firm committed to curbing corporate travel must do its utmost to promote any guidelines and even be willing to take punitive action to ensure they are followed.

As the spokesman for Sustrans argues a company's green travel policy should become part of its culture.

"Lots of businesses are writing and implementing workplace travel plans as well as encouraging people to walk, cycle and use public transport for journeys to and from work," he observes. "Businesses should be encouraged to create a travel plan, but not just as a tick-box exercise, it should be implemented and regularly reviewed."

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