4 signs your corporate travel management process is affecting work productivity

Martin Go
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Modern multinational corporations benefit significantly from technological developments like virtual meetings and digital document transfer, but many companies are still struggling in applying this technology to their corporate travel management.

As organizations deal with inflation, managing staff travel arrangements has become an increasingly crucial factor. Concerns about employee morale and safety when travelling for business are also rising. This is why good travel management is essential in a business. With travel management on standby, you can plan your company’s business travels without any hassle or loopholes.

A good corporate travel process gives businesses the ability to manage the costs of sending workers on business trips and some measure of control over the safety and travel experience of the employees. A typical travel policy will cover which suppliers staff members should use, how they should plan their trips, what expenses are deducted from their company cards, and how reimbursement operates.

Travel management companies like Trutrip would help you overcome any issues you might encounter if you plan the trip yourself. They would also use cost management methods which in turn helps to reduce the cost you spend on your travel. Talk about a better and more well-defined duty of care and risk management. A travel management company would help you plan great business trips.

Symptoms of Bad Travel Management 

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Your employee often get stuck in long queues

This is a pronounced symptom of bad travel management. Your employees will be found in long queues for one reason, or the other can be avoided. Sometimes it could be a case of running to the airport because they booked the flight late. So they must rush their preparations for the trip and still end up behind in the check-in queue.

They could also have issues at the immigration desk because their travel documents aren’t complete. Eventually, they must wait for every other person to check in before they ultimately get attended to or even miss the flight if the missing document is essential. Another thing is being caught with over baggage. Your employees could get into this mess and may have to shoulder the fee if they aren’t aware of the designated baggage weight they should travel with.

Trutrip Tip: Before setting out for any business trip, you should orient your employees or travellers on the allowed check-in luggage. Let them know what they should pack and whatnot, basically just letting them know what the weight of their luggage should be at the end of the day. You can also sort out if they’ll need an upgrade for extra baggage, and have your travel policy include such unforeseen circumstances. Also, remind them about the essential documents they must pass through the immigration desk successfully to prevent experiencing any delay.

Your travellers have pages of travel documents

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This is another issue that results from having bad travel management. To prepare for the trip, you get to print many documents and forget the important ones at the end of the day. Or probably miss an update that was done as regards the trip just a few hours to the time for the flight. 

It can be as minute as not going along with their passport because they have a large chunk of many documents that they might not need to carry along. It could even be so bad that the travellers aren’t aware they are supposed to have an essential document. All this boils down to misinformation. 

Trutrip Tip: Misinformation is a big headache for travellers because it could mean a delay or probably cancellation of the trip. So you must check the airline’s website to know the documents you need to go along with and maybe the number of copies you need to go along with. They should also keep checking until the last minute to ensure you have all the travel documents you need.

Trutrip has overall good travel management and 24/7 support that can come through just in case any travel requirements and restrictions were changed last minute. So with Trutrip, there isn’t any case of misinformation because they are always up to date about the papers you need till the last minute. Their 24/7 support is available to help you, travellers, at any time.

Your employees’ travel itinerary only has one agenda, if not non-existent

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Poor travel management would lead to many downtimes or layovers, which is tiring and unproductive for a trip that enhances the traveller’s growth. The trip’s purpose is to aid productivity for the business or for the employees to relax. If the trip is not adequately planned or managed, it might be a wasted time or even a stressful period for them. 

Just imagine if you always have to wait for things to be fixed or if there was no plan aside from just going for the seminars or workshops.

Trutrip Tip: When planning a trip, you should always consider how much you can fit in a trip. The trip might consist of workshops and seminars, so you adjust to how much time is available for other things that could be fun and productive. 

Another thing to consider in planning a trip’s itinerary is the employees’ and company’s growth. Check the great thing they could do in that location to enhance great productivity for both parties. You can include conducive coworking space, dinners, tours, and so on to make the trip worthwhile.

Your employee is buried under paperwork

After a long and exhaustive trip back home or even a work-filled trip, your employees would have to get back to sort our post-travel report and papers needed for records in the company. This is a stressful activity to indulge your employees in, given that they just returned from a trip. 

As much as the post-travel reports, reporting to supervisors, or documentation are essential, not only is it draining but also prone to human errors. It’s a lot of effort to make these reports even with the chunk of information they have accumulated. Sometimes, they forget some crucial parts of the reports because of stress and having too much to think about, which is expected because they just returned from a trip.

Trutrip Tip: Automating business trip planning would save your employees the stress of giving post-travel reports. All the expenses and resources needed would be accounted for electronically. Trutrip has features like Truflex and Riskline that helps you keep up-to-date information about the trip. So with this, you can get any post-travel report or information for your records.

Plan your business trips with the best platform

At TruTrip we have platforms that help automate your plans and give your employees the best experience. We provide cost-effective options that work within your budget and still give the best. You can see for yourself by booking a demo with us or signing up for a free trial.