What is the problem?
Americans travel a lot to conduct business. According to the Global Business Travel Association and American Express, Americans took more than 1.3 million trips in 2018. For the community of business travelers, travel can be a grueling experience, and executives, sales, and other staff members find traveling increasingly taxing, emotionally, and physically. For some, it may resemble a dash to the airport, quickly writing a presentation on the plane followed by a taxi ride to the hotel or meeting, sandwiches at the conference table for lunch, and a return flight home long after the kids have gone to bed. According to tClara, a company dedicated to delivering corporate travel data, the average road warrior takes 26 trips per year and spends roughly 84 nights away from home. Alternatively, to look at it another way, frequent travelers are away from home and office for roughly 4 months out of 12 resulting in an estimated $3 million a year in lost productivity. This is where travel fatigue, and opportunity cost, begin to take a toll.
The below results are from a survey of 200 International Business Travelers: across industries, regions, approx. 50/50 male/female ratio, 56% with children, a wide range of traveling schedules with a mean average of 12 years' experience as an IBT, 13 trips/year, involving 40 days travel. Source GBTA
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Organizational Support for BTs |
Risky Behaviors |
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Negative Outcomes
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Negative Outcomes
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Physical Health Impacts | |
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In Conclusion below Physical, Health Impacts were identified
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Numerous studies performed on the Business Travel Industry reported the following negative aspects associated with business travel.
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Business travelers (BT's) suffer from elevated levels of work-related stress.
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Absenteeism is giving way to presenteeism: the practice among BTs of coming to work despite illness, injury, anxiety, etc., often resulting in reduced productivity/travel outcome.
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BT's record psychological well-being scores substantially below the norm.
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BT's submit 80% more health claims than non-travelers.
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Recruiting & Retention Risks
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Productivity Risk
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Health & Safety Risk
With more focus on increasing shareholder value, companies are becoming tougher on travel budgets and stricter compliance policies in an attempt to reduce costs. This reduction in the travel budget, combined with extensive time on the road, exacerbates a growing problem of travel friction, or fatigue, and dissatisfied employees in the corporate world.
What is Travel Fatigue? and how frequently is it experienced?
Travel fatigue, also known as travel friction, is the emotional wear and tear experienced by business travelers. It is most clearly exemplified in the stress travelers feel from taking constant trips. Fatigue leads to burnout, lower productivity, reluctance to travel, and lower engagement in the workplace—all of which adversely affect a company’s bottom line. Rather than tackling this problem, companies are just trying to recruit high-performing road warriors as some employees burn out and others simply transition into jobs involving less travel.
Impact of Travel Fatigue on Talent Acquisition and Employee Retention
“Retaining employees will remain a top workforce management challenge.”
Replacing a burned-out employee can become expensive when considering the recruiting process, training and ramp-up periods. The average cost of replacing an employee is 90–200 percent of their salary. When the typical sales position, which averages $155,000 in salary, ends up leaving, it may cost up to $310,000 to replace that void. A related travel report shows 84 percent of professionals “would be interested in a job from a different firm that requires similar travel levels if it offers a very attractive travel policy. Eighty-Three percent say the new firm’s travel policy would be as equally, or more, important than the new pay and responsibilities.” Mitigating this dilemma may be easier, and less costly, than some may have previously thought because the issue of work/life quality can be addressed by providing a suitable environment for traveling employees.
True Travel Cost. It can be viewed as a function of Policy, Transactional, and Human Costs.
The graph developed by tClara, illustrates the economies of business travel and points out that the total cost of travel is more than the actual hard costs of the ticket, reservations, and meals; it also includes human factors. Reducing Human Cost means reducing the Total Cost of Travel.
Administrators and managers can’t always control productivity levels, they can, however, provide the tools and environment to foster a mutually successful dynamic. The first challenge is where to begin. Administrators and managers are often advised to start with areas they can control. Jacob Morgan, the author of “The Future of Work,” suggests starting with employee well-being, a factor is strongly correlated to employee productivity and performance.
“Even a small shift in well-being can have a dramatic impact.”
Effective solutions for introducing wellness to tackle Travel Fatigue among BTs.
In-person Fitness solutions on the go. Show your appreciation by offering your team a solution to stay healthy and sleep better. The optics alone can make this element a winner.
Digital nutritional guides to enable Positive Nutritional Choices and healthy eating habits based on geolocation. Curate and create access to the best food options that are close to your BT's location.
Why will it work?
“Keeping the psychology of traveler well-being in mind.”
We think what people are longing for, though they may not realize it or they may not have the words to ask for it is basically the ways of reconnecting with individuals that allow them to feel their humanity and help them redefine success in ways that are more balanced for them and so in that we actually think there's something really important with travel because it exposes you to other people in good ways. In-person wellness training is focused on human connection and we believe it allows people to bridge differences in unexpected ways. It gives them the opportunity to gain local cultural experience and knowledge while working on their wellness goals.
Will BT's adopt an in-person wellness service if offered by their employers?
According to recent survey results and Business Travel Attitudes, Road warriors are unique and around 92% or nine in 10 look forward to meeting new people while traveling and enjoy the sense of adventure and uncertainty associated with the experience. According to the American Psychological Association, 91% of workers feel motivated to do their best when their employers support their well-being efforts. When an employer reimburses for BT's in-person wellness session, it creates an intangible incentive and creates a behavior modification procedure to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors (such as exercise, mindfulness, and nutrition) and decreasing unhealthy behaviors (such as smoking, drinking, and overeating).
The key to a travel program's business impact - What is The Goal?
Travel budgets are spent to buy positive business outcomes, right? Therefore, there needs to be a good balance between the cost of travel, and ensuring travelers are willing and able to get good trip results. Traveler Fatigue is the accumulated wear and tear on road warriors. Too much of this, and your travelers won't bring back successful trip results. Studies (here and here) show the positive impact created by traveler-friendly programs.
22% more trips rated worthwhile.
12% fewer trips rated not worthwhile
Have travelers that are more willing to travel
Have road warriors who are less interested in job offers
Road warriors considering a new job say that the company's travel policy is at least as important as the pay and responsibilities. If your industry is facing talent shortages, your travel program must be designed to attract, protect, and retain road warriors.
In conclusion, High-value travel policies are designed to improve road warrior recruiting, retention, productivity, and wellness. The right travel policy can benefit a company in three important ways:
Improve recruiting and retention
Increase productivity and each trip’s ROI
Protect traveler health and safety