Employee satisfaction is something a lot more companies are focusing on and making a primary objective. In general, employee satisfaction is a critical objective for a number of reasons.
Why Is Employee Satisfaction important?
Some of the ways employee satisfaction is important include its link to retention as well as productivity. A satisfied employee is more likely to be engaged and is going to provide more long-term value to the employer. There’s this concept that the modern employee jumps from company-to-company, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Employee satisfaction is also important because of the role it plays in employer branding, as well as general branding. When it seems like a company has satisfied employees, it just sends out a positive message overall.
Employee Satisfaction and Corporate Travel
Those are all general benefits of employee satisfaction, and one area of focus for employers who want to improve employee feelings and perspectives is corporate travel. While technology like expense management software has completely changed corporate travel and the role of the travel manager, it doesn’t negate an evolving role of the corporate travel manager within a business. The corporate travel manager can be the point-person for building travel strategies that boost employee satisfaction.
Employee satisfaction when it comes to corporate travel can improve compliance, ROI and employees’ productivity while they’re away.
The following are some tips for improving employee satisfaction in corporate travel.
Provide Productivity-Boosting Tools
Employees don’t want to feel like they’re wasting time when they’re traveling. No one likes that feeling of being trapped in line after line or doing one tedious activity after another. Travel managers and anyone who plays a role in corporate travel management should think about improving productivity during travel time by offering Global Entry or TSA PreCheck fee coverage for the employees that travel most. Companies can cover the costs, and it can significantly change the experience the traveler has.
There are also software platforms and tools like mobile expense management that can completely shift the feelings an employee has about their travel experience. With the example of expense management software, employers should choose a platform with robust time-saving capabilities on-the-go.
Be Strategic with Policies
Businesses can’t afford just to throw out all of their compliance policies related to corporate travel. Some level of policy is important and necessary. What businesses can do, however, is an audit of their policies to make sure they aren’t unnecessarily restrictive or that they’re not making corporate travel a burden.
Some travel policies are just completely unnecessary, or at least elements of them are. Compliance is more likely to be something that everyone is willing to take responsibility for when policies are modern and not overly bureaucratic.
Finally, when you’re working on altering your travel policies and programs to improve satisfaction, regularly check in with employees. Create measurable benchmarks that you can use to determine how well you’re doing to improve employee satisfaction. A travel policy should be like the modern workplace—always evolving.