For an increasingly remote and hybrid workforce, “work from anywhere” has become the next normal. The globally-mobile workforce is on the rise, and international business travel is also surging. According to Deloitte’s 2023 Corporate Travel Study, international travel now represents one-third of business travel spend, up from 21% in 2022.
Companies have seen a corresponding interest in “bleisure” travel, which extends business trip with a day or more of personal vacation. Bleisure trips make travel more accessible to employees, and they present a new opportunity for employers to improve organization-wide outcomes by meeting the evolving needs of workers today.
“Embracing bleisure is an actionable strategy for enriching the work environment and fundamentally improving the mental and emotional health of employees,” says Tara Furiani, corporate HR consultant and CEO of Tarabull Media. “It's a commitment to acknowledging that, especially post-pandemic, our understanding of workspace has forever evolved. It’s not a trend; it’s an imperative.”
Bleisure can increase engagement and productivity across the organization and unlock greater business travel ROI, and setting bleisure-friendly travel policies can set your organization up for success.
The Mutual Benefits of Bleisure
Business travel plays a central role in the employee experience, shaping workers’ perceptions of their jobs and their employers.
Nearly 9-in-10 business travelers say they consider business travel as a perk in their role at their company, reports the Amex Trendex: Business Travel Edition. Additionally, 8-in-10 business travelers say that, in the past year, they have extended a business trip to work remotely from their travel location (77%) or for leisure travel (79%).
Bleisure has the dual benefit of helping make leisure travel more accessible for employees, while helping bolster employee attraction and retention efforts for employers, says Furiani. “When I worked with a 3,000-person multi-unit entertainment company, we discovered that the flexibility of encouraging an extra day of leisure while on a business trip did wonders for employee loyalty and job satisfaction.”
The positive impacts also reverberate across the corporate culture. “There's a profound impact on the psychological well-being of employees,” she explains. “When you invest in someone's quality of life, they invest in you. The returns are exponential: higher morale, deeper engagement, and a potent lift in collective creativity.”
How Bleisure Boosts Business Travel ROI
The benefits of bleisure aren’t just about enhancing the employee experience – they also extend to increasing business travel ROI. As a baseline, the flexibility bleisure provides may allow employees to book cheaper flights, which provides near-immediate savings or offsets the cost of an additional night of lodging.
But organizations can also realize more significant long-term savings. “Consider the mental refreshment and rejuvenation that come with a change in environment,” says Furiani. "The short-term investment in bleisure pays long-term dividends by reducing burnout and increasing productivity.”
As a result, bleisure can help companies address lack of employee engagement – a problem that costs employers $8.8 trillion in global productivity each year, according to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report.
Making More Effective Bleisure Travel Policies
Doing bleisure well is critical to maximize the positive impact on your organization – and Furiani recommends these strategies to refine your corporate travel policy with bleisure in mind.
1. Think beyond reimbursement
As the corporate world moves into a new era of business travel, Furiani recommends going back to the drawing board to reimagine travel policies with the needs of today’s employees in mind.
Furiani recommends leaders leverage bleisure travel as a way to reward – and retain – your top talent. “Employees are driven by tangible rewards, and what's more tangible than an extra day to enjoy a city you're already traveling to for work?” she says. “When I was involved in executive strategy and HR for a tech-based financial firm, we tied our bleisure days to KPIs and project milestones, and we had a happier and more productive team as a result.”
Performance-based travel policies proved to be especially impactful for employees that traveled frequently, she says. "It made the travel grind feel less like a chore for the road warrior sales teams. They had a [motivation to be productive] that was unique, added to their income in a different way than their typical monetary bonuses."
2. Support employees during downtime
One of the positive impacts of bleisure travel is its potential to prevent or mitigate burnout. And your organization will reap the most benefits by setting travel policies that help employees achieve a healthy work-life balance on the road, says Furiani.
“Traveling is high-stress, and employers should not only accommodate but also actively encourage downtime activities,” she explains. Whether it’s facilitating local experiences, reimbursing employees for a yoga class or massage during travel, or providing a stipend for mental wellness apps, a holistic travel policy can double as a strategic commitment to employees’ mental and physical health.
3. Devise a strategy to measure your success
Introduce an after-action, easy and automated review process where both the company and the employee assess the benefits and drawbacks after the trip, advises Furiani. “Was staying in town an extra day impactful for the employee? What did it cost the company in addition to the trip itself? How did it change productivity in the following weeks?”
Actively soliciting employee feedback helps your organization remain on the pulse of what's most important to your employees today, so you can work to retain top performers and attract like-minded talent.
Furiani recommends monitoring both hard metrics, such as productivity and financial impact, as well as softer – but equally critical – ones, including employee satisfaction and emotional well-being. “This becomes a living document that aids in fine-tuning your policy,” she says. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to bleisure, and your policy is ripe for customization based on the evolving needs and feedback of your workforce.”
The Bottom Line
Business travel has become a central component of the employee experience – a trend that is set to increase as global business travel continues to rise. And, as more employees look to mix work with play during business travel, forward-looking organizations that make bleisure a priority are poised to stand out.
“Implementing these strategies doesn't just make you current; it makes you a visionary,” says Furiani. “It's a progressive step towards fostering a well-rounded, engaging, and satisfying work environment, where everyone feels supported, valued and like they can win – and laying the foundation for enhanced productivity, employee retention, and overall organizational growth.”
