Control Employee Travel Costs By Offering Them These Perks

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Providing your employees with perks while traveling for business is an excellent way to build loyalty and trust as well as keep them motivated to work in the field. You can help control employee travel costs by offering a few perks that keep your budget manageable without making your employees feel like they're sacrificing comfort or convenience. Instead of handing over a company credit card to pay for travel expenses, consider offering the following perks to your traveling employees:

Transportation

Paying for car rentals during each employee's business trip can get expensive, especially when things like gas and insurance fees are considered. As opposed to paying for car rentals when employees need to get around during a trip, offer them taxi coupons to use.

Not only can you control how much each employee spends on travel by providing them with taxi coupons, but you may be able to score a discount on your coupons if your employees tend to travel to the same places throughout the year. Many taxi companies are willing to provide a small discount for purchasing multiple coupons vouchers at the same time, and some even offer discounts for simply paying for travel ahead of time.

To determine how much taxi vouchers should be worth for each employee as they embark on a business trip, figure out where they'll need to go for business that isn't walking distance from the hotel they'll be staying in, and map the mileage using an online interactive map. You can then just order vouchers for the mileage that you've calculated. It's a good idea to also include a little extra mileage (consider 10 percent of an employee's business travel needs) for personal travel. Contact a discount cab company for more information.

Meal Access

You can save your business and your employee some money on food expenses by establishing accommodations for them that feature kitchenettes. This will allow your employees to stock their hotel rooms with enough food to keep them satiated throughout the duration of their trip so they don't have to eat at restaurants or order room service on your company's dime. If your employees will be expected to pay for dinners eaten with clients, give them a prepaid credit card to use so you can control spending limits.

Some Personal Time

When your employee's brains are stimulated with exciting activities that make their business trips more enjoyable, they'll likely perform better and therefore improve productivity overall – so make sure that each of your employees has some free time while they're away on business, whether it's to check out an art museum, see a concert, spend time at a spa, or simply walk around town. While employees enjoy their personal time, they won't be on the clock, which should save you some money on wages.

Instead of packing your employees' days with work and meetings, schedule four to five hours of daytime work and occasional evening meetings throughout their trip so they have plenty of downtime to use for their own purposes. This should give them enough time to fit in relaxing and sightseeing so that stress management is easy while they're away from home.

If you can't offer your employees free time while they're away on business due to tight deadlines or schedules, consider providing them with a day off sometime soon after they return home. Alternatively, you can give them an opportunity to start work later than usual for a couple of days after their trip.

By offering these perks while your employees are away on business trips, you can effectively manage your costs while providing each employee with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs well and return home motivated to work on the next project.  

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22 July 2016