9 Chapter 9: EMPLOYEE TRAVEL AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT  

Learning Objectives

*Understand the value of travel services to an employee service program

*Organize the travel service options

*Implement the steps to organize group travels

*Manage the required financial aspects (i.e., planning, budgeting, fundraising, and paying) for executing a business or leisure travel

Introduction

The topic of travel within an organization involves several different scopes. Employees may often need to travel to other places for business purpose. Top management teams and various divisions may have their annual retreat somewhere else to bond with each other and develop fresh ideas and corporate strategies for the organization. Companies may also offer vacation planning services or group trips or tours to their employees. The key to the success of any travel endeavor is excellent planning, marketing, and follow-through. The offerings of travel services can benefit the employees tremendously by saving their time, hassle, and even costs. In the following sections, the authors will address topics related to value of travel services, various types of travels and service options, and financial aspects associated with travel events.

Corporate Retreat, Business Travels, and Employee Group Trips

Corporate Retreat

Managers and leaders should know about the challenges of promoting teamwork among a group of professionals well. When there is a lack of cohesive effort among different divisions, there will not be much trust and collegiality among the workers, either. The service quality offered to the clients will suffer as well. Many organizations conduct retreats at different levels to infuse corporate spirit and foster camaraderie within his team (Jackson, 2006). Through different types or physical and mental tasks, individuals are placed together to bond with one another and develop lasting relationships. It is noted that retreats are not just an outing event for employees, they also serves as strategic and operational planning sessions that have a transformative effect (Jackson, 2006).

Video Clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M63Z8bkRtcg (Corporate Retreat Funny Version)

Business Travels

For many professionals such as corporate executives, sales agents, contract developers, sports coaches, athletes, and motivational speakers, travel is an essential and inevitable function for them to conduct their business or complete tasks. Individuals who have planned and took a trip knows that the most difficult part is probably making the preparations. On tops of the business tasks, one must get the time off to plan the details about the trip (i.e., destination, flight information, transportation arrangement, dinning information, and lodging information), pack the wardrobe, and get family members and mails all taken care. There are tons of arrangements that one must make. It is common for companies to provide in-house travel services (as a par to employee services) to ease employees’ hassle. The travel consultants can help employees plan their business and personal travel and assist them with all the needs. The travel consultants can even plan a stress-free vacation trip for employees. This will really make the vacation a vacation. The travel services can be a functional career support to employees, since they don’t have worry about planning a trip on top of their routine daily tasks. At higher education institutions, the in-house travel consultants can help faculty members and administrators plan conference trips and away meetings, they can also help athletic teams and coaches plan away-game trips. If the travel operators are external agencies, they may pay the employee association or the company a commission for the business (referring employees to utilize travel services as clients).

 Group Trips and Group Travel

Group travel is a great convenience, since most of the details have been taken care by a travel consultant (or planner). Employees may enjoy the actual stress-free “pay and go” option. Grips trips are designed and offered to allow employees sharing joyful memories with each other and strengthen relationships. The time away from the workplace really help employees become refreshed and energized.

Many companies organize employee field trips to foster camaraderie. These trips can also be viewed as a part of the employee benefits. The companies often subsidize each participant for taking a trip and getting off the work. The employee group trips may range from day trips to local destination to extensive tour programs. Whether the travel plan is originated in-house or is prepared by an external agency (a tour company), the following steps should be carefully execute to orchestrate a successful group trip (Jackson, 2006; Sawyer, 2001).

(1) Choose ideal destination and events that are preferred by the attendees. The planning team members must carefully do their homework.

(2) Recognize the budget limitations. Research on the potential costs and fee that employees are willing to pay. Figure out what is exactly included in the price-coverage.

(3) Research, plan, and confirm all the details about transportation (i.e., flight, care rental, etc.) and lodging reservation.

(4) Publicize particular information about registration, fee and deposit requirement, insurance, and orientation.

(5) Reconfirm the details. And,

(6) Promote fun and conduct a follow-up survey (an evaluation). Companies should consider conducting postmortems to learn whether the money spent is worthy of its cost. Staff morale is also another gauge.

The trip planner can search for relationship-building tips and go over vacation checklist that is recommended by National Tour Association (NTA) to ensure the trip going smoothly. All of the activities should align with the interest of participants. Adequate amount of free time and rest should be given to accommodate a diverse group of individuals. Be sure high quality of tour guides are hired to help the group and remain high alert to monitor the safety of group members. Make sure a consumer protection program (insurance) is purchased by either the company or an external tour agency. If the service of an external tour agency is utilized, the planner must verify that the travel agency is certified by the associations such as NTA, United States Tour Operator Association or the American Society of Travel Agency. Each attendees should study the agency’s refund and cancellation policies to avoid unnecessary disputes. In most cases, external travel agencies are experienced and will work on corporate travel programs without any additional charge other than the cost of the trips. So it is a wise decision for an organization to work a reputable agency. Different packages of group travel programs are available for employees to save time and money instead of dealing the planning burden on their own. Many other group programs will include other services, such as, offering free customer service, handling sign up, promoting the trips, arranging social events, and conducting orientation sessions.

Family travels accounts for almost 75% of all vacation travels. Affordability is always an important determining factor in family travel. It can be challenging in creating a package to offers a variety of things to see and do for all family members. It is suggested that educational programs are great options to be included for expanding children’s learning experience. Family reunion trips with elderly parents and relatives are also in great demands. For travel consultants, managing the visiting schedule (time) and cost are the primary tasks in planning trips. They also need to know how to market the services and sell the programs to the employees. The planning details are an element that cannot be overemphasized enough in promoting travel plans and services. Students who are interested in this type of business career can enroll in courses (or programs) offered in the Tourism and Hospitality Management.

Examples of Travel Programs and Themes

Sports travel is a growing and vibrant industry. This industry is closely related to transportation, hotel, food, and entertainment industry and affects the growth of local tourism and economy. For mega sports events such as Olympics and FIFA World Championships, we witness over hundreds of thousands travels visit the hosting cities. In 2008, 278 million people travel around the U.S. to attend sport competitions or bring children to play (Federal Highway Administration, 2008). The unique sport-specific travels even create special business opportunities for young entrepreneurs to arrange travel plans for fans (Profitableventure.com, 2018; Small Business Trends, 2018). Readers can check out the FYI section to learn about some of those exotic offers.

• Outdoor Adventure and Mountain getaway
• Winter weekend escapes
• The islands and overseas (Cast away)
• River or carnival cruises (http://cruiseline.com/cruiseline/best?gclid=CNH1yebhzsgCFZKBaQodIS8HgQ&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CNz51ubhzsgCFURYMAodyFQGjQ)
• Honeymoon and love theme (http://honeymoons.about.com/cs/10topspots/a/vacationtravel.htm )

 Financial Aspects Concerning Employee Travel

Employers and Managers have many tools and resources available to support decision making and execution of all types of business- or leisure-associated travel plans. Any well-sounded decision are made based on the detailed information that come from accountants, consultants, sales representatives, board of directors, and customers. To keep a successful operation of travel plans or programs, the organization need to develop a financial plan that contains accurate balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements. The financial plan in this case is the operating budget. The budget states the priorities of the organization’s needs and identifies the expenses (costs) for the needs and incomes that are collected and earned to offset the expenses.

The travel budget of an organization can project and reflect the organization’s objectives (Horine & Stotlar, 2004; Sawyer, 2001). If business travels a necessary function for the organization’s employees to conduct purchases (for future production) and sales, attend meetings, and offer presentation or services, then there must be a pool of fund to cover the travel expenditure regularly or on the need-basis.

For travels with a business purpose, the employees usually need to submit a travel request (or requisition form) to explain the purpose and destination of the travel (Horine & Stotlar, 2004). The requisition will contain a brief summary of the travel cost. The form will be authorized and signed by the designated authority or supervisors (i.e., manager, athletic director, and department chair and dean of the college and school, etc.). Many higher education institution or athletic department issue a credit card or debit card with a limited amount of cap allowing the employees to use during the their business trips. Often times, employees may need to pay for the travel cost upfront, save all of the receipts obtained during the travel, and submit a travel voucher to request for reimbursement. The in-house voucher will be reviewed and approved by the authority or supervisors again, before actual reimbursement is issued.

When managing a group trip with an external travel agency, the planner (or representative from the organization) may need to send a service request (like a purchase order form) along with a voucher to the agency. Detailed information such as destinations and programs of the packages, number of participants, and cost for each individual and group should be specifically addressed. In addition, both parties may need to further abide to agreements on cancellations, refunds, and deposits. When the payment is made, the agency will send the invoice form back to the organization as a receipt (along with the voucher).

Table 1. Examples of Items of Expense and Information on Travel Request and Voucher

Because the employee travel can be considered as a special form of benefit provided for the employees, the unique function may give the organization a great cause to start a fundraising for the travels. Employee Services team can help create a committee to handle the fundraising task. The team will need to describe the function and purpose of fundraising and search for existing program ideas to implement.

Quiz Questions

Q1. Technically, first step to a successful group trip is to:

1. Know your budget limitations
2. Choose your destination/event
3. Publicize the particulars
4. Reconfirm details

Q2. Outsourcing is the good answer to ensure the benefit of an employee group travel program. True/False

Q3. For selecting a travel agency, one must examine:

1. liability insurance
2. sample proposal
3. certification
4. all of the above

Q4. The budget of a program can be used to forecast expenses and incomes of the organization. True/False

Q5. Which of the following is considered a benefit of group travel?

1. Increasing cost of travels
2. Increasing bonding opportunities among the employees
3. Increasing work hours
4. Increasing turnovers

Brainstorming Activity

Assuming the role of a manager of a sporting goods and outdoor advantage store (with 25 full-time employees), could you come up with ideas for annual employee trips or retreat to help boost the workers’ morale and productivity? Please address the planning and financial aspects of your travel programs as well.

Useful information:

(1) A nature/outdoor retreat: hiking and camping?

(2) Cruise vacation.

(3) Yoga and spa treatment for ladies

(4) Tickets to sporting events and concerts, and

(5) An educational retreat

References

Federal Highway Administration (2008). Executive summary. http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop08022/exec_sum.htm

Horine, L., & Stotlar, D. (2004). Administration of physical education and sport programs (5th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.

Jackson, L. A. (2006). The employee field trip: What executive retreats can do for your team. Black Enterprise, 36, 61.

Millburg, S. (2024). Point A to point B. South Magazine: The magazine of University of South Alabama. Fall, 2024 (2), 16-21.

Profitableventure.com (2018). 50 best sports business ideas and opportunities for 2018. https://www.profitableventure.com/sports-business-ideas/

Sawyer, T. H. (2001). Employee services management: A key component of human resource management. Champaign, IL: Sagamore.

Small Business Trends (2018). 20 cool business ideas for those who love travel. https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/08/make-money-traveling.html

Taylor, E. C., Bernerth, J. B., & Maurer, J. D. (2017). Running on empty: The effects of aggregate travel stress on team performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(5), 513-531.