Keeping a team happy when you’re running a small or medium sized business isn’t always easy. It’s hard to match the salaries that larger companies can offer and in a smaller organisation employees sometimes face more intense pressures.
To keep people on side it’s essential to find other differentiators – which often comes down to making sure that employees are treated well and offering practical perks that show they’re appreciated.
Improving employees’ experience of business travel may not always have been a director’s first thought when it comes to staff wellbeing, but it turns out that it matters a lot. Research from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that 83% of business travellers in Europe say their business travel experience affects their job satisfaction. This figure rises to 88% among millennials – suggesting that for younger generations of employees, a smoother experience has become an expectation.
Travel is an inevitable and important part of growing an SME, whether it’s travelling to meet vendors and suppliers in person, attending industry events or bringing a remote-working team together. Unlike larger organisations, however, many SMEs do not have dedicated travel managers or large finance teams to handle the admin of booking transport, filing receipts, reconciling payments and monitoring policy compliance.
See it from the traveller’s point of view
The reality is that employees in smaller organisations are often responsible for their own trip logistics, including the purchase of tickets and booking of hotels and meals. When it comes to taxis they will almost always be expected to pay for this out of their own pocket and recover the cost from their employer. It’s an extra layer of admin that most people could do without – and frequently means delays before reimbursement.
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