During the COVID pandemic and the sweeping transition to remote work, it was unclear if business travel would ever return. The rapid adoption of tools like Zoom and cloud-based productivity platforms made it look like business travel was quickly becoming obsolete. Many managers and employees were asking: why deal with the hassle and expense of traveling when it has never been easier to communicate and collaborate remotely?
But business travel came surging back, and the trend has remained steady for the past couple of years. Despite the frustrations of business travel, many employees embrace opportunities to get away from the office for a while, meet people, and experience new places. Business travel also affords employees other opportunities, such as a chance to extend their trips for leisure. At a time when PTO is a chronically under-used benefit, business trips give employees an excuse to take a little extra time for a well-deserved break. This can be a boon to morale, engagement, and ultimately productivity, as time off is essential for helping employees recharge.
HR teams should always be focused on enabling employees to find a healthy work-life balance, and taking time for a vacation is a crucial part of striking this balance. Employees are increasingly blending business and leisure, which is why companies should give them the resources they need to make the most out of their travels. With spring break fast approaching, now is an ideal time to consider exactly how this can be done.
Most employees are eager to travel
Employees generally aren’t thrilled about return-to-office (RTO) policies — less than 10 percent say they prefer in-person work, while nearly half say they’re unlikely to stay at their current jobs if they’re forced back into the office. However, these negative attitudes don’t apply to another form of in-person work: business travel. According to a recent Deloitte report, just 3 percent of employees say they dislike business travel while 83 percent describe it as enjoyable.
Employees emphasize both professional and personal benefits of business travel — networking opportunities and exploring different cities are among the top three benefits employees cite. Two-thirds of employees say they extended a business trip for leisure in 2023, and a recent McKinsey report noted that the line between these different types of travel is “blurring”: “Business travelers enjoy extending their stays at destinations,” the report states, “alternating leisure days with work days.” This is vital information for HR professionals, who should be focused on how to take advantage of employees’ attraction to business travel for both personal and professional reasons.
Global business travel hit a record $1.5 trillion in 2024, which demonstrates that it has fully recovered since the pandemic. Two-thirds of meeting planning professionals expect spending on in-person meetings to grow. The HR teams that leverage these developments to help employees take full advantage of travel opportunities will cut down on stress and burnout while improving engagement and retention.
The benefits of employee travel
Although PTO is a major component of benefits packages for most companies, it’s also widely under-used. According to Harris, 78 percent of employees don’t use all the PTO they’ve earned. There are many reasons for this reluctance: employees say they feel pressure to always be available, their workloads are too heavy to take time off, they feel guilty about increasing colleagues’ responsibilities, and they don’t want to miss opportunities for advancement. All of this amounts to an oppressive workplace culture in which nearly half of employees feel nervous about requesting time off.
The widespread refusal to take time off creates a series of problems. For many companies, it leads to significant unfunded liabilities on their balance sheets — several states require companies to pay the value of unused PTO upon employee separation, and they can face fines or penalties for failing to do so. HR teams recognize the value of vacation time for employees — nearly three-quarters believe it leads to higher job satisfaction, while over two-thirds think it increases employee engagement. Higher levels of employee engagement can have a dramatic impact on many aspects of employee well-being and performance, from lower absenteeism and turnover to higher productivity. Younger generations are particularly interested in travel, which is why forward-looking HR teams should be emphasizing it.
Employees have made it clear that they will seize opportunities to travel for work, and HR teams should encourage them to use these trips for more than just business. As employees struggle to prioritize PTO, many might just need a little nudge to get them out the door and into an exciting new environment.
Helping employees take full advantage of work travel
HR teams must go beyond merely urging employees to embrace travel opportunities — they should also provide resources that enable employees to do so. For example, they can use convertible PTO to redirect the value of unused time off toward trip expenses like hotels, airfare, rental cars, and attractions. This will provide employees with an even greater incentive to extend work trips and take some much-needed time off. Tools like convertible PTO will help employees use their available PTO and reduce the cost of their vacations at the same time.
Flexibility has become a core focus for employees in recent years. After the shift to remote and hybrid work, employees have become accustomed to more independence. This is why it’s no surprise that they rank “flexibility and work-life balance” as top elements of the employee experience (according to a recent MetLife survey). Employees even prioritize flexibility over compensation, and a substantial majority say they’re interested in customizable benefits. Among employees who still work remotely, over three-quarters regard flexibility as the top benefit. As companies accelerate the transition back into the office, other forms of flexibility will be vital to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance.
The ability to travel for work — and turn those trips into vacations and leisure time — will be an essential aspect of this project in the coming years. With resources like convertible PTO, HR teams can give employees more ways than ever to get out of the office and explore the world.
