Last week I said “No” to a job offering me double pay just because they had three days per week of business travel.
I know you might think I am shortsighted, but I am not the only one. More and more professionals are prioritizing their ease over corporate perks. Employees are choosing remote positions, flexible working hours, work-life balance, and family time over on-site well-paying jobs and occasional business travel.
As per the US Career Institute, 54% of employees want fully remote work opportunities, 41% want to work a hybrid work schedule, and only 5% agree to work full-time onsite. The same report also mentions that more than 95% of workers want some form of working from home online.
With such promising numbers, it comes as no surprise that employees are not ready to push their boundaries or opt for business travel. Inc. reports that seven out of ten employees will even choose to say, “No thanks” to a promotion if they have to work onsite.
In this case, it seems that business travel is out of the question unless the company is sending the employee to Bali or any other famous tourist destination.
So, what is convincing employees to pass on golden growth opportunities at the workplace?
Keep reading as we explore the exciting world of remote work, and business travel, their perks, limitations, and trends.
The Remote Work and Its Rise
For the longest, getting a job meant traveling every day to the workplace. We have all seen our parents getting ready in the morning, roads jam-packed with vehicles, and the infamous rush hours. People would move their families, shift houses, or opt to live in shared spaces just to reduce the commute time.
Millennials and Gen Z prioritized work, financial gains, promotions, and growth opportunities over everything else. Eventually, children raised by workaholic parents came to value work-life balance more than – relentless career advancement. Instead, they longed for freedom and work-life balance and preached their way to a flexible work environment.
Fortunately, this was the same time when tech advancements were on the rise. More businesses were using the internet, computers, and tech tools like Skype, Microsoft, and google for work. Moreover, manual work was being replaced by automation.
Eventually, when residential internet brands like Xfinity offered high-speed and reliable internet via Xfinity internet deals, businesses started offering optional remote work opportunities. This option later became a necessity during the pandemic. During the lockdown, companies and employees explored the benefits of remote working.
Employees realized that they were able to save commute time, and travel expenses and find work-life balance. Companies realized they were able to cut operational costs, eventually boosting overall profit.
Even after the pandemic, most tech companies shifted to complete remote options, while others opted for hybrid work settings. Even today, after four years of the pandemic, some of the biggest brands in the tech industry are staying loyal to remote work.
But before you get confused, it is very important to address that your daily commute to your office from your home doesn’t suffice as business travel.
Instead, business travel can be any commute done for work-related purposes. This can be a meeting, a conference, a networking event, a sales kickoff, a trade show, a leadership retreat, or a professional event.
Here is everything that you need to know about business travel
What Is Business Travel?
Business travel includes any travel experience done for work purposes. However, it is not a daily work commute; instead, it is a long-distance travel that is done for a specific goal. The goal can vary based on the expertise of the person or the requirements of the job.
For any travel to qualify as business travel, there is a distance and time limit as well. As per IRS, business travel must be either overnight or more than 100 miles. Bureau of Transportation Statistics claims that every year Americans take over 400 million long-distance business trips. This makes up roughly 16% of all long-distance trips booked by US travelers.
Now that you know about business travel, let us look at its different types as well:
Event and Conference Travel
Businesses send employees to corporate events like conferences and networking events so the employees can learn from other attendees, peers, clients, and competitors in the market.
Training and Education
Companies send employees to attend training and educational events, so they can get familiar with industry standards, stay updated with the latest trends, and upscale their skills.
Internal Meetings and Visiting Offices
International companies with global offices across the board send their management-level employees to their offices in their cities and countries to help them know more about the company policy business strategies and project details.
Company Retreats
Companies offering remote work or global working teams conduct annual or monthly get-togethers for their employees, where team members can collaborate and work on team bonding.
Client Meetings
Companies offer an opportunity for account managers to get to know their clients via formal one-on-one meetings. This eventually helps them to set a common goal, build a business strategy, and find a way to overcome obstacles.
Trade Fairs
Trade fairs are independent, formal networking events organized by different organizations. These events help the attendees to display their products, introduce their business, and build solid relationships with potential customers via face-to-face interactions.
Transfers and Offshore Work
Companies transfer or relocate their experienced employees to different cities to scale their business or work in diverse locations.
Transient Travel
This style of business travel involves frequent trips for a short period. This can be work-related monthly or weekly, intercity and intercountry trips.
Bleisure Travel
A perfect combination of business and leisure travel where employee is allowed to extend their stay and enjoy some extra time to relax apart from work.
Now that you know about business travel, let’s look at its benefits as well
The Benefits of Business Travel Over Remote Working
Closing Deals
In the modern era of digital and online business, sales are predominately done online. However, closing a deal is crucial, especially when millions are at stake. This is where business travel comes in. Companies send their sales teams to close business deals that require attention to detail, high trust value, or personal connection.
Exploring New Markets
Researching and exploring new markets requires time, attention to detail, and some ground research that is not possible online. This is where companies send their research teams on business travel to gather valuable insights about the site, audience, location, culture, and local regulations.
Networking
Attending industry events, trade shows, and conferences can provide networking opportunities, learning about new trends, and meeting potential clients and partners. Networking is always as it offers an opportunity to have spontaneous meetups.
Competitive Advantage
Business travel and face-to-face meetings offer an opportunity to connect with the client better offering a competitive advantage to the company. Moreover, this built trust helping the company to gain more business opportunities and revenue.
The Benefits of Remote Work
Reduced Optional Cost for Companies
Remote working is helping small companies and startups with limited budgets to explore better growth opportunities. Companies choose to not send their employee for one-to-one meetings but instead opt for online meetings, which helps them cut both commuting costs and accommodation costs for business travel.
Boost in Productivity
Remote working opportunities allow the employee to work from anywhere. The employee can choose to work from their bedroom, café, library, park, or their favorite holiday destination. Consequently, the employee feels relaxed and can avoid wasting time traveling to and from the meeting.
Perfect Work-Life Balance
Getting late, missing the bus, skipping meals, sleeping late, feeling under the weather, doctor’s appointments, or spending time with family- life can be unpredictable. However, when the meeting is remote, the employee can complete their work while fulfilling personal life commitments.
Environmental Impact
Rush hours, jam-packed roads, bustling streets during work hours, delayed flights, we have seen it all. However, most people overlook the environmental impact of these long-distance travel activities. With remote work options, there is little to no need for long-distance travel, which helps reduce carbon emissions and travel-related waste.
However, remote work is not without its challenges.
The Challenges and Limitations of Remote Work
Now that we have talked about the benefits of remote work, it is also important to acknowledge the limitations and challenges of remote work.
Room for Miscommunication
Businesses run on communication, especially when things are time-sensitive. Good communication does not just happen with words, it requires more than words. When meeting clients, there is little to no room for miscommunication. And with online meetings, there is a possibility of ambiguity, causing communication gaps.
Technical Limitations
Employees and companies have to rely heavily on technology to run things smoothly. In a remote setting, things are less controlled, especially with residential internet. Moreover, in case things go wrong, the employee is required to figure things out independently, which can delay the progress.
Blurred Lines Between Work and Personal Life
With work-from-home and remote work opportunities, employees end up working more than their usual work hours. Moreover, companies expect employees to reply even after working hours.
When is Business Travel Still Necessary?
Considering the limitations and challenges of remote work, one might get curious if business travel would come back into fashion. A simple answer to this question is that companies working remotely would never make business travel a necessity again.
However, there are some special circumstances where business travel becomes inevitable. Here is a quick overview of some events where most companies prioritize business travel over remote meetings:
High-Impact Client Meetings and Partnerships
Business travel becomes a necessity when the event is Symbolic, a high impact, especially between two countries, companies, or projects. In these meetings, the press is usually present, and the event is attended by a huge population.
Conferences and Networking Opportunities
In-person, meetings are a great way to improve the overall networking experience. For young entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts, in-person events, conferences, and trade shows offer unmatched networking opportunities and industry insights.
Team Building and Company Culture
Face-to-face interactions are ideal for team building, company culture, pitching new ideas, and offering demos of new products and features. Although communication apps now offer screen sharing and remote desktop access options, these apps limit the number of participants. Even companies like Zoom offering seamless communication experiences have a 300 – 1000 participant limit.
Industries Where Travel Remains Essential
While most industries have embraced hybrid or complete remote work experience, for some industries, travel remains integral. For instance, industries like manufacturing, sales, construction, international trade, assembling, and logistics require on-site presence. Individuals working in these industries have to travel for the sake of quality assurance because these industries have high risk and high impact.
Key Takeaways
- Remote work is on the rise, and in the future, more companies will switch to remote or hybrid work arrangements.
- Remote work does not just benefit employees; it equally benefits employers
- Reduced costs, increased productivity, improved work-life balance, and environmental benefits are some advantages of remote work that make it a popular pick.
- Miscommunication, technical difficulties, and maintaining team collaboration are some of the potential drawbacks that might hinder remote work from becoming a norm.
- To find the sweet spot between remote and business travel, companies need to prioritize high-risk tasks while keeping small client meetings remote.