The mundane routine and “one after the other” tasks makes people want to stay away from corporate traveling. However, traveling is never that bad; it just depends on how it is planned. So as a product of mixing up the two worlds, which many of us think can never co-exist, ‘Bleisure’ was found. Bleisure is the joyful point where business meets leisure, and the much dreaded corporate trip can be looked forward to.
Now that this trend has come into notice, it shows how important its existence has been ever since. Employees who work tirelessly for your company deserve a little time off to keep their mental health intact. As a company that withholds the duty of care of its employees, it is only fair to provide them a stress-free and productive business trip.
As bleisure is a relatively new concept which also seems to sound too good to be true, the article below is specifically written to answer the concerns of how bleisure can be managed and its policies.
First, don’t think that it’s a paid vacation. For a lot of people, doing any recreational work on a work trip that is relevant to the nature of your profession seems like a paid vacation. However, it is not. Bleisure, in the simplest of words, is just a slight combination of business and leisure to release and reduce the stress of the employees momentarily. It is a project that human resources directors have been trying to execute since a long time. The idea also happens to bring a lot of added benefits to the table, which can contribute highly to the performance of your employees. Extending business travel allows employees to recover from jet lag, spend a little time to get familiar with the location and more importantly, meet new people, which can also add value to the company they represent.
Employees who are frequent travelers can best enjoy leisure time. This ensures that they are aware of how to make the most out of their trips without compromising on their business requirements or commitments.
As much as this idea seems attractive, one question that arises is who takes care of the expenses of such a trip? As the paragraph above says, since this leisure is in no way a ‘paid vacation’ hence the employee him or herself is responsible for the expenses of the leisure time of the trip. This includes any tourist destinations visited, transport around the city, and any added meals which are not a part of the business trip agreement. Another aspect of bleisure which can get a little complex to understand is the pattern of insurance and who is it that ensures your trip. The answer is that it is mostly a split between your corporate travel service budget and your income.
Bleisure trips are usually controlled and monitored by a travel management company that has been hired by the company you work for to optimize your comfort and provide you with an enlightening experience. This is also why, as an employee, you can not deviate from your company’s corporate travel policy. No matter how much personal money you are investing in extending your business travel, it remains to be a ‘business’ commitment.
Now, this is where a lot of you may think of how such trips are monitored? Well, travel management companies have efficient software explicitly designed to control these extra costs. So no matter how minor an added expense is, if it exists and is a part of your leisure time, it will be taken into account. However, travel companies mostly keep the leisure part of your trip separate from the business part of it.
Even though the concept has previously existed as well, it is only now that bleisure traveling has begun to get more familiar. However, there are still a lot of employees who are unaware of being able to take the opportunity of making their business trips a little more interesting. A travel agency can help employees plan a well-organized trip even for their leisure. In today’s time, making such trips is more accessible and possible because of the various facilities such as car rentals and tourist guides available easily. To give an even more excellent edge to your trip, you can join some leisure activities while you are at it.
Click here to find out some corporate travel safety tips you need to know
