Quick tips to make your Corporate Travel easier
Businesses aren’t just built on sky high buildings and internet connections, but a crucial part of their progress is established through travels. A large section of executives across all firms are engaging in frequent corporate travel meets across the globe.
A global Corporate Travel Survey by Ascend revealed that in 2012, 92% of executives engaged in at least 1 short distance trip for corporate purposes and 87% engaged in long-distance travel as well. The trend was also observed in the preceding year of 2011. Travizon furthered the exploration with their own global Business travel survey in 2015, revealing that many travelers face discomfort of varying levels during their travels and wished for better systems.
Factors affecting the efficiency of people during corporate travel vary across the spectrum due to the uniqueness of each individual but many of them are very common like uncomfortable travel, lack of fresh food, non-availability of the internet or other communication methods, non-availability of working space, etc.
It is understandable that many of the factors are beyond one’s control but it would be unwise to declare that all of them are beyond prevention. A lot of them can be eliminated with minor adjustments to one’s schedules and adequate steps taken prior to traveling. Some of them are:
1) Search and Research.
Before undertaking any business expedition (especially long distance ones), it is imperative to gather all the necessary information about the place like weather conditions, language spoken, easiest mode of travel, and act on it.
Keep in mind the scout motto to “be prepared” and give yourself enough time to prepare an itinerary of your travel.
Know the culture and customs of the country you’re traveling to, and plan your trip so that you have some time to rest before your business begins. Speak to people who have previously been to that country on business and ask them for advice and best practices.
2) Pack less, Pack right.
When it comes to packing while corporate traveling, less is more. Pack right and light, so you do not have additional hassles of managing your personal belongings there.
A large part of your packing will be decided by your research. Along with carrying the obvious, like the clothes befitting the weather conditions, think of precise requirements like a socket converter.
Apart from specific belongings based on the place of travel, make a thorough checklist of all the important things for your meeting like laptop, charger, connecting wires, files, USB drives, or other documents. Make sure you tally that list before leaving.
3) Be on the clock
Unlike a vacation, on a business trip it is important to follow a diligent schedule. Usually there are a plenty of things on your plate, like client meetings, team meetings, field visits, vendor interactions, etc and it is important to time everything properly.
Make sure your routine finds ample time for a healthy diet and sleep too, as neglecting either dampens productivity.
4) Book an office
One of the most daunting tasks with corporate traveling is to find an appropriate place to work or meet.
More often than not, business travelers require a place to meet up their clients, team members or other people for business purposes in the place they have traveled to. Hotel rooms or cafes fall short of providing a solution to this problem because of limited availability of resources.
About 46% of respondents in the global survey by Travison said that an unclean room would most negatively affect their performance on a business trip.
Booking a serviced office space in advance for the required period of time is not just easy but provides you with a consistent experience. A serviced office is replete with resources like internet connectivity, conference rooms, telephone, fax, etc, making you free of all your worries in one go.
Basic steps such as these go a long way in making one’s business trips as comfortable as possible.