thinking differently

Burned-out and de-motivated staff who donʼt perform, increased staff turnover, and a poor reputation for your business among potential recruits... it is no wonder companies are moving duty of care and traveller welfare up the agenda, says Gillian Upton

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was not only a landmark piece of legislation when it came onto the statute books in 2008, but also a huge wake-up call to corporates to ensure they fulfiled their duty of care to their employees.

In the intervening decade, TMCS and specialist third parties such as International SOS have been doing brisk business in risk management, traveller tracking and repatriation to keep travelling employees safe from harm. Now the boundaries of duty of care are stretching to incorporate a holistic view of travelling employees and traveller wellbeing is the new buzzword.

“All successful businesses understand that their people are their most valuable asset and so they build strategies for traveller wellbeing in addition to risk mitigation arrangements,” says Scott Davies, CEO of the Institute of Travel Management.

“Whilst cost control is an essential focus, organisations are increasingly aware that they are asking more and more from their people and therefore the need to support their wellness at work is mostly increasing.”

But is that awareness translating into action? HRG Consulting has been in the forefront of using metrics to track traveller burnout. They provide data to highlight the pinch points in existing travel policies. A threshold of ten hours in economy, high frequency of trips, long layovers, too many Red Eye flights, travelling through multiple time zones and insufficient downtime between trips are some of the negative physical impacts of travel. HRG is then able to rank those travellers most at risk.

There is mounting evidence, for example, that disrupted body clocks from flying through too many time zones increases the likelihood of liver cancer. There is a real risk of DVT from flying too many long-haul sectors, and too frequently, in economy class. Law firm Pinsent Masons, for example, issues compression socks to its frequent travellers, as does engineering firm Spirex Sarco.

Where these issues start to get noticed in the boardroom is on the bottom line, when employers have to absorb recruitment costs of 25% of their staff every year. An issue over talent retention should be a red flag to an employer and the solution could be a more generous travel policy.

ITM’S Davies has some insight as to how travel policies can be used. “In some industries, such as professional services, the travel programme is sometimes used as an employee engagement and satisfaction differentiator,“he says.

Measuring the risk as a starting point can be frustrated by company structure as part of the issue is a lack of joined-up thinking within organisations. Often, wellbeing sits within HR or medical but that may only involve a vaccination programme.

“Organisations have got to break out of their silos and join up more and get more insight on the pinch points,” advises Dan

Raine, Global Director Consulting at HRG.  “Wellbeing is often seen as something negative, through statistics on absenteeism or stress-related illnesses.”

The good news is that Raine is hearing a more positive spin around wellbeing and less around mental health so gradually it will lose the stigma associated with it.

Bragging rights of road warriors will be received less favourably in the future and ITM’S Davies warns that, “all sizes of companies should avoid celebrating the million-miler road warriors within their business and be mindful not to role model excessive demands on their people.”

And there is a further issue, that either the traveller feels that it’s not macho to complain or as Paul East, Chief Operating Officer of Wings Travel Management, says that, “not all travellers recognise the risk as well.”

Ultimately, it is up to the employer to take action. The physical impact of travel is an increasingly measurable metric through advances in Big Data and analytics. Rather than use the data to model savings projections, TMCS can help corporates change travel policies to factor in wellbeing.

“Some organisations are even gamifying the capture of this data and giving employees a score to optimise in order to avoid burnout,” says ITM’S Davies.

Juan Antonio Iglesias, Head of Account Management EMEA, FCM Travel Solutions, says clients are beginning to factor this in, through more hotel inclusions and switching to business class for night flights even on restricted travel policies.

“We are beginning to see an increase of adjustments to add flexibility if needed, to ensure travellers can rest, so that’s one step in the right direction. Creating policies around these issues is something that will come in time,” he says.

ITM’S Davies agrees that it’s a slow burn. “We are not seeing a concerted move to relax travel policies but we are seeing companies being more aware of their responsibilities to their people regarding their wellbeing, from paid gym memberships to providing healthier snacks.

“The reality is still that the demands put upon individuals are most influenced by the internal culture, line manager’s direction and the way that staff are incentivised.”

Easy wins for businesses are choosing hotels with more leisure facilities, or a day flight on a Monday rather than a night flight on Sunday to reduce the number of out-ofcore hours being worked – ie the hours between 6pm and 6am.

HRG even hooks up with suppliers to offer bespoke ISOBAR compression socks, nutritionists to advise on diet, sleep experts and even stages educational workshops for frequent travellers. If traveller wellbeing isn't on your agenda yet, it should be.