…but what is Bleisure Travel?….
Business Travel has completely morphed over the past few years, as we all strive to re-adjust our personal and working lives on the back of the pandemic, global fuel price rises and re-assessment of our work/life balance. In less than a decade, we are basically living in a different world and companies that recognise and address that fact are likely to position themselves at the top of the tree, both with existing and prospective employees.
Leisure travel, usually taken as holiday entitlement, however, can sometimes come a bit further down the list of company travel policy focus. Principal Business Travel MD, Ingrid Sanderson, believes that at the core of a company travel policy should be the goal of balancing budget with employee welfare – and that sometimes means offering sweeteners, when it comes to travel.
‘Employees are a precious commodity and as such companies might consider offering staff ‘Bleisure Travel’ as part of their HR/Travel policy: an option to combine business with leisure travel, extending travel dates either side of work-related assignments, or enable partners or family members to join them on overseas trips. Particularly during these times of increased cost of living, many people would welcome, and be motivated by, the opportunity to take their paid holiday around periods of work travel.”
Individual employees obviously have different needs when it comes to work/life balance and making holiday plans. So, Ingrid believes it needs to be managed, measured and considered and that in certain circumstances, such a policy may actually work in employer’s favour as they are seen to recognise employee needs. “An opportunity to open up discussion on the subject, rather than see it as a taboo request, is a tactic that could actually position a company as a destination employer; one that aligns employee wellness with profit. A Bleisure policy can give HR departments the opportunity to own the process, so that it can be handled fairly and not open to abuse”.
Strategic planning when it comes to awarding and approving holiday entitlement will avoid any miscommunication or conflict. Incorporating leisure travel within both HR and Travel policies can avoid hoc and/or scatter gun approaches to approving time off randomly, and ultimately ease the process for both employer and employee. Ingrid expands: “Perhaps a ‘phased-in approach’ of offering ‘bleisure travel’ days according to length of service, would be a good way to introduce such a policy rather a blanket approach which could impact business continuity.”
Understanding the needs of employees is becoming ever more relevant to our modern world, where work stress and mental health issues are a very real concern for many companies. Having a good ear and tuning into the mental health and wellbeing needs of employees can only be good for a positive work environment and employee retention. Perhaps a short staff survey from time to time, asking staff how they like to take their holidays….camping with the kids, or adult only beach time etc….will make them feel that their opinions matter and give the message that the company advocates ‘down time’ as being as important as working performance.
Rewards for excellence would be a consideration. Much like many companies in the past have programmes of sales incentive programmes, where salespeople who achieve specific targets and goals are rewarded. These rewards could be monetary – such as bonuses – or non-monetary where they might be whisked off to exotic locations as part of a company compensation programme. These programmes have been used less and less in past years, due budget cuts etc, but to somehow an invitation by HR to ‘tag on’ leisure travel to a business trip, might be an economical way to offer such a sweetener and incentive staff to hit targets, relatively economically.
Energy – the rollout of a Bleisure programme as part of a company HR/Travel policy will no doubt create a buzz….” Wow, next time I’m in the Dubai office, I can fly the wife and kids out for some family time, and my flights will already be paid for – result!” No-one needs to be reminded that we are living in a period of challenging economics, so anything that helps to ease the pressure on the cost-of-living, can only be seen as positive. Perhaps, there is such a thing as a ‘free lunch’ (throw in one of those too from time to time too!).
For companies in the process of reviewing their travel policy for 2024, who may wish to consider including ‘Bleisure’ travel as part of that, Ingrid is available for comment and advice….Contact: ingrid@principaltravel.co.uk
