6 Jan 2023
Business travel is going through a period of unprecedented change. A pandemic almost brought the industry to a halt, there are signs of a global recession on the way, and climate change is a growing concern.
But with video-call fatigue setting in, there’s a strong desire for face-to-face meetings. This leaves anyone managing travel balancing employee safety, cost minimisation, and sustainability targets — which makes planning future business trips a serious challenge.
In this article, you’ll get the foresight of the Bolt Business team to help you make the best travel decisions for your company in 2023.
After a global pandemic brought massive disruption to the travel industry, it’s time to bring stability to your team’s travel. This means arranging cost-effective, sustainable, and safe travel that allows employees to adjust their trips at a moment’s notice.
To help prepare your team’s future travel plans, here are 8 predictions our Bolt Business experts have made for 2023:
Ahead of an economic slowdown, companies are looking much closer at their outgoings. As part of this, spending on business travel will be kept to a minimum.
Travelling is accepted in many professions, but companies must ensure employees never spend more than a certain amount. This makes visibility and control essential and gives security to the company.
“In the past, business travellers could spend as much as they pleased and come back to the office with a bunch of receipts, not realising how much they’d spent. But those days of nasty surprises are over.”
Nick Powell, Vice President of Bolt Business
Remote work during the pandemic accelerated the use of video call platforms, proving that many businesses can operate online. But for all of their benefits, video calls can only help to build relationships to a certain point, and the novelty’s wearing off.
“Fatigue from video calls is real,” says Nick Powell, “and this will lead to an increase in face-to-face meetings, especially with external parties.” And to make those trips cost-effective, workers will arrange several meetings when they travel, rather than leaving the office for a single meeting.
Video calls still have their place but will be used to complement in-person meetings.
Cassandra Albertine, Regional Sales Manager, says, “the best relationships are formed face-to-face. If anything, the pandemic has made us more aware and appreciative of the value of real-world interactions.”
“Businesses are conscious of the costs of face-to-face meetings. To manage those costs, people will travel less, but the travel period will be intense. We’ll see periods of high-intensity travel where there are meetings booked almost 9–6, Monday to Friday.”
Andrew Short, Strategic Partnerships Manager
A pandemic has shown that plans can change quickly, whether it’s transport cancellations or borders closing. This makes it essential to give your team the flexibility they need when travelling.
To keep flexibility in line with cost minimisation, build a policy that works and gives trust to your employees to do the right thing.
“Give your employees flexibility. When you’re at an airport late at night, the last thing you want is a travel policy on an app blocking what you need to do.”
Amy Hackett, Head of Sales
Cost minimisation and flexibility all come down to having a well-thought-out set of travel policies. Investing time in your travel policies is well worthwhile as it:
Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to travel policies, you should have several policies that suit the travel needs of different teams and individuals. That way, each traveller clearly understands the transport they can use, and your costs will always be within budget.
“Travel policies are becoming mandatory as more and more companies want to cut back on spending.”
Gerhard Spitsak, Senior Business Development Manager
Business travel is making a massive shift towards sustainability. Companies have been setting climate goals in recent years, and from 2023 there will be a real drive to act as target deadlines creep closer.
The first goal of companies is to offset current carbon emissions from travel — companies are keen to see reports on their carbon emissions. Travelling with Bolt Business gives admins a clear visualisation of mileage, emissions, and proof of offsetting.
Following that is the need to change employee behaviour regarding travel — making it easier for them to choose sustainable travel options, such as micromobility and electric and hybrid cars.
“Businesses want to provide a sustainability budget for their employees, where individuals get a value per month to spend on greener travel options to get to and from the office.
“The aim is to reduce the reliance on private cars but also help wider city sustainability metrics — it’s also a nice employee perk. We’ll see more initiatives where businesses give employees budgets towards micromobility and electric vehicles.”
Andrew Short, Strategic Partnerships Manager
Hybrid working is here to stay, but many employers want to see their team in the office at least some of the time. So, how do you make coming back to the office desirable? It’s long been accepted that commuting costs are the employee’s responsibility, but offering travel perks can boost retention and engagement.
Offering travel perks to your team can see you win on two levels: employees have healthy, environmentally-friendly ways to travel, and they’re back in the office.
“Giving employees an incentive to travel to the office is a smart way to boost employee retention and engagement. Smart businesses have recognised this and are adopting travel perks to get their employees back to the office.”
Nick Powell, VP of Bolt Business
Landing at an unfamiliar airport can be daunting as you consider your onward travel.
Rather than facing unfamiliar travel options and having to exchange money on arrival, opening a mobility app is far more straightforward:
Looking after your team, even when they’re not working from the office, should be your priority. And for travellers to know they can use the same method of arranging transport at home and abroad helps to relieve any anxieties.
“Employers need to provide a solution where travellers know how to get to the hotel or the office when they land.
Using a service like Bolt Business shows travellers where they’re going and how long it’s going to take to get there, and you can see on the map that you’re going to the right destination. It’s a significantly more secure feeling than getting in a taxi — unsure of how long it will take or how much it will cost. And you don’t have to worry about currency.”
Amy Hackett, Head of Sales
Rounding out the team’s business travel predictions for 2023 is health and safety. As an employer, the health and safety of your employees should always be priority number one. And when employees are out on the road, you should do all you can to ensure they feel safe from start to finish — physically and mentally.
Anyone working from home during the pandemic had a chance to see what their working life would be like without a commute. Not driving to and from the office and sitting in traffic proved great for people’s all-round health as they:
Now more than ever, the hours spent driving to and from work in slow-moving traffic is seen as lost time. People want as much of this time back to be productive.
“I used to commute for 3 hours a day — 1.5 hours there, 1.5 hours back. That was dead time. I couldn’t do anything, and it made me miserable. After the pandemic, nobody wants to go back to being miserable.”
Nick Powell, VP of Bolt Business
All signs indicate a rebound in business travel over the coming 12 months. But anyone managing business travel still has plenty to consider when booking trips — costs, sustainability, and employee safety are top priorities, so businesses must:
To prepare your company’s future travel plans, see what Bolt Business can offer by reading Everything you need to know about Bolt Business.
The needs of employees and companies are constantly evolving when it comes to business travel. Keep up with the latest trends by following Bolt Business on Linkedin.
Thanks to Amy Hackett, Andrew Short, Cassandra Albertine, Gerhard Spitsak, Nick Powell, and Tom Nutley from the Bolt Business team for sharing their insights.
