On the road again - business travel - includes related articles on pointers for reducing travel costs while boosting morale and reimbursements

HR Magazine, Sept, 1997 by Lynn Miller

Business travel is a greater burden than many managers and executives realize. Sometimes HR has to step in and speak up on behalf of jet-set employees.

Harold's colleagues are jealous. Harold, you see, is off having a great time on a business trip to sunny California. While his colleagues are chained to their desks, he's eating at great restaurants, sleeping in fancy hotels, and soaking up the sun. Or so it seems.

The truth is that when Harold's co-workers knock off for the day, he will be having dinner with clients. And while his colleagues are asleep in their beds, he will be trying to catch 40 winks in a crowded plane in an effort to ward off impending jet lag.

Business travel is not always glamorous. Harold knows that. Hopefully his supervisor and the staff in his HR department know that too.

Being aware of the burdens of business travel is especially important in today's cost-conscious, cost-cutting workplace. Cutting costs is the highest travel priority for nearly 50 percent of companies, according to the 1996 American Express Survey of Business Travel Management. By contrast, only half as many companies list traveler safety as their top priority, and only 15 percent ranked employee needs as their top concern.

While organizations have good reason to cut travel costs - which are expected to rise on average between 6 percent and 7 percent this year compared with 1996 - they may not realize the effect that cost-cutting measures will have on already-burdened traveling employees. HR can do its part and stick up for employees who regularly hit the road by suggesting guidelines that consider both employee needs and the company's bottom line. A written, well-publicized travel policy can help employees keep expenses in line and keep their morale from dropping.

Flexibility is an important element of any travel policy, says Mark Baty, operations manager for Controls Unlimited, Inc., a systems integrator of factory automation located in Perry, Ohio. "We tend to feel the written policy is the best bet, but you need to be aware of special circumstances," says Baty. An inflexible policy won't work well in most cases and will only irritate those who travel.

You have to ask yourself whether your policy should provide mandates or guidelines, says Douglas Weeks of The Travel Management Group in Alexandria, Va., a consulting firm that works mainly with companies that spend at least $5 million annually on travel.

Companies' greatest business expenses

Travel expenses                 % of travel
                                  budget

Airfare                             42
Lodging                             21
Meals                               14
Car rental                           8
Entertainment                        8

Source: The 1996 American Express Survey of Business Travel
Management.

For Baty, providing the personal touch for traveling workers is the most important aspect of the job. That's why he made the effort to shovel an out-of-town employee's driveway after a snow storm. When the wife of another traveling employee had an emergency and had to leave town, he picked up the couple's dog and took it to the kennel.

"Those are the things that make employees feel appreciated and help to avoid burnout," he says. The result is that "they don't worry as much when they're out of town. And when your business depends on them, you want to keep them happy."

For more information on business travel see the HRMagazine section of SHRM's Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.shrm.org).

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Cost-Cutting and Morale-Boosting Options

Low travel costs and high morale don't have to be mutually exclusive. Here are some options that can help employers cut costs and boost morale:

* Issue corporate phone credit cards to save money by avoiding hotel surcharges. Develop guidelines for their use - such as imposing a limit of one personal long distance call per day when on the road for company business - and make sure employees know the rules.

* Provide incentives for flights that take advantage of staying over Saturday night by splitting the savings with employees. While you may not want to force employees to fly out on Saturday, there may be times when they will do so willingly for a cash incentive or "points" that can earn them an award.

* Consider implementing inexpensive gestures, such as reimbursements for luggage, cellular phone use, airline club memberships, and subscriptions to travel newsletters. Those kinds of perks go a long way to "promoting employee goodwill," says Douglas Weeks of the Travel Management Group in Alexandria Va. To control costs, you can set a per annum cap on such reimbursements and let employees choose among several options.

* Streamline expense reporting forms. The more complicated the form, the more time employees spend tilling them out, rather than conducting company business. (See box on reimbursement strategies on page 104.)

* Look into hotel discount programs, especially if your employees rank accommodations highly. More than 50 percent of companies surveyed by American Express use those programs.