Business trips are a necessity in many organizations. Whether employees travel to meet with buyers, visit factories, or attend industry conferences, it’s important for companies to be aware of traveler’s fatigue. Experiencing this kind of fatigue can affect employees’ well-being and productivity.
What Is Traveler’s Fatigue?
Traveler’s fatigue refers to tiredness, exhaustion, and other symptoms that can occur when people travel. Other symptoms may include headaches, daytime sleepiness, trouble concentrating, anxiety, and difficulty falling asleep. Travel fatigue can occur on short and long trips using any mode of transportation.
Is traveler’s fatigue the same as jet lag? While these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they have a couple of differences. Jet lag occurs when people travel through different local time zones on a plane, especially while traveling east. This condition disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm, which can result in a few symptoms that are similar to traveler’s fatigue, such as daytime sleepiness and difficulty concentrating.
How Does Corporate Travel Contribute to Traveler’s Fatigue?
Business travelers are at risk of experiencing travel fatigue due to the frequency of their trips and other factors, such as taking several long-haul flights rather than short flights. Traveling from city to city or being on a long flight overseas can result in travel burnout.
Employees who travel might end up losing out on sleep due to busy schedules once they reach their destination. This can lead to a sleep debt that builds up inside the body and takes a physical and mental toll. Working long hours during trips, such as attending multiple meetings, can result in sleep deprivation. Keep in mind that in some cases, business travelers in different time zones have to keep irregular hours in order to communicate with employees back home.
Tips for Reducing Business Traveler’s Fatigue
Meeting face-to-face is a crucial element of conducting business, even in this digital age. Understanding how to protect employees from traveler fatigue during business trips is important to both organizations and their employees. Companies should provide employees with the following valuable tips for reducing this condition.
Plan Ahead
If possible, include an extra day during trips that allow for rest and relaxation. Allowing an extra day is especially important when traveling internationally. Planning ahead can also include spreading out business trips instead of doing several trips back to back. Leaving time for breaks or downtime can also help prevent travel burnout.
Sleep Patterns
Traveling can disrupt sleep patterns, making it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Wearing an eye mask on flights and during hotel stays can block bright light, which can help travelers sleep better. Reducing light exposure and wearing earplugs to block noise can create a good sleep environment, so travelers can get enough sleep. Oftentimes, travelers are going to different time zones, and adjusting to the local time can cause disruptions with their internal clock, leading to more difficulty sleeping.
Stay Hydrated and Eat Well
Being dehydrated while traveling can cause fatigue, headaches, and other symptoms. Eating unhealthy foods can also affect energy levels. Travelers should drink water throughout the day to stay hydrated and eat as healthy as possible. Foods with proteins and complex carbs can help boost energy levels during trips. By paying attention to the body’s needs, travelers can effectively travel without disrupting their health.
Exercise and Stretch
Traveling can take a toll on muscles and other parts of the body. Getting regular physical activity before, during, and after business trips can help ease these symptoms and reduce travelers’ fatigue. Travelers can do simple stretches at the airport and at their hotel to alleviate muscle tension each day. They can also exercise in hotel gyms, if available, or take walks at their destination.
Manage Stress
Stress can make travelers’ fatigue symptoms worse. Long-term travelers should work on managing stress during travel to help prevent these symptoms from occurring. This might mean doing deep breathing exercises, practicing mindfulness, meditating, writing in a journal, or taking other steps to keep stress under control. By reducing stress, business travelers will be better prepared to perform their best when presenting at a meeting or attending a conference.
Utilize Technology and Apps
Technology and apps can help travelers avoid travel fatigue. Using apps that promote sleep during business travel to a new time zone or apps that help build healthy habits can provide convenient ways for travelers to get enough sleep, exercise, and eat well. Other technology that can be helpful includes apps with reminders about when to drink water and apps that promote mindfulness.
How Can Your Company Ensure that Travelers Aren’t Experiencing Fatigue?
Keeping travelers safe from travel fatigue helps protect their well-being, resulting in happier and healthier employees. Companies can do all of the following to help prevent traveler’s fatigue in employees who travel often.
Travel Policy Reviews
Travel policies can help make business trips easier for employees, reducing confusion and easing stress. Going over corporate travel policies from time to time can help ensure that they’re updated or adjusted as needed. Make changes to travel policies in order to ensure that business trips go as smoothly as possible for travelers.
Travel Arrangements
When scheduling business travel for employees, make travel arrangements that don’t add stress or pressure. For example, avoid booking employees on air travel with short layovers that can make it easy to miss connecting flights. When possible, booking non-stop flights will reduce the complexity of connecting flights and typically result in better on-time arrivals. Book hotels that are in convenient locations, so employees don’t have to spend a lot of time dealing with heavy traffic, road trips from new place to new place, or unreliable public transportation. Taking these factors into consideration for corporate travel arrangements can help prevent traveler’s fatigue.
Flexibility and Recovery Time
Business travelers need time to recover from traveling, or they can end up feeling exhausted and fatigued. They should also have some flexibility in their travel plans so that they’re not dealing with a tightly packed schedule with little time for unwinding. Keep flexibility in mind when booking business travel and creating itineraries for employees. Make room for recovery time to allow employees to relax and get sleep before heading back to the office. They might also need some recovery time at their destination after being on a long-haul flight.
Education and Resources About Traveler’s Fatigue
Employees might not be aware of traveler’s fatigue. Some might assume that it’s normal to feel exhausted or have headaches after traveling. Companies should provide business travelers with education and resources to help them understand traveler’s fatigue. This information should include helpful tips for preventing these symptoms.
Health and Wellness Support
Helping business travelers stay physically and mentally healthy is a great way to lower the risk of travel fatigue. How can companies do this? Offer health and wellness support, such as providing travelers with a list of restaurants at their destination that have healthy foods or booking hotels that have an on-site fitness room or pool.
Collaboration Tools and Technology
Employees who are struggling with traveler’s fatigue might find it hard to handle their usual tasks and responsibilities during trips. Companies can provide tools and technology that make it easier for business travelers to collaborate with team members and supervisors.
Feedback and Evaluation
Encouraging feedback from business travelers can help companies learn what works and what doesn’t in terms of preventing travel fatigue. Companies can gather feedback about employees’ experiences with travel, and use this to evaluate the way business trip planning is handled. This can lead to positive changes that help reduce the risk of traveler fatigue, especially for employees who travel frequently.
How Can a Corporate Travel Agency Help?
From reviewing corporate travel policies to finding the right resources for business travelers, taking steps to prevent traveler fatigue can be time-consuming. Companies might also not be sure how to go about handling these tasks or making changes that lower the risk of travel fatigue. A reliable corporate travel agency can offer guidance, handle travel-related tasks, and provide tools and resources that benefit business travelers.
Expert Advice and Consulting
Corporate travel agencies have experience handling all aspects of business travel. These agencies can provide companies with valuable insight on how to make travel less stressful for employees. Corporate travel agencies can evaluate a company’s travel needs and come up with effective ways to make improvements that help reduce the risk of traveler’s fatigue.
Travel Policy Reviews
What should companies look for when reviewing travel policies? This isn’t always easy to determine without expert help. Corporate travel agencies can conduct thorough travel policy reviews and recommend any changes that should be made to better suit employees and ensure duty of care. Having an experienced agency handle these reviews helps ensure that companies have effective travel policies that employees can easily follow.
Customized Travel Plans
Making travel arrangements and ensuring that they’re flexible enough for employees while staying within a certain budget takes time and effort. Corporate travel agencies offer customized travel plans to fit a company’s needs. Whether employees travel overseas often or take several domestic trips throughout the year, a corporate travel agency can handle all travel arrangements.
Emergency Support
Business trips don’t always go smoothly, even with expert planning. Flights can be canceled or missed, meeting dates and times can change, and other unexpected issues can come up. Severe weather and other emergencies can also affect travel plans. A corporate travel agency can provide business travelers with dependable support around the clock. This helps ensure that employees can get help with travel emergencies or unexpected snags.
Travel Tools, Resources, and Partnerships
Corporate travel agencies can provide companies with travel tools and resources that make business trips more convenient, safer, and comfortable for employees. These agencies also have partnerships that can benefit business travelers, while also helping companies save money on travel costs.
Contact Teplis Travel
Looking for a reliable corporate travel agency to partner with? Teplis Travel is a full-service corporate travel agency in Atlanta. We take pride in putting our clients first and providing hands-on travel services for small and medium-sized companies, associations, and organizations. Contact us to learn more about how our services can help your company and benefit your business travelers.
