Why Corporate Trips and Team Building Travel Experiences are Important
Corporate travel, especially corporate travel in India, is underrated, less invested in, and often ignored because of the lack of benefits that many managers and companies see, although there are multiple. There are many benefits of corporate travel – leadership development, team bonding, self-development, and many more. In life and in business, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Teams should be able to act with the same unity of purpose and focus as a well motivated individual. Bill Gates We know that there are many questions related to corporate trips and team-based travel, such as what are corporate trips, is corporate travel expensive, corporate travel trends, the importance of corporate travel, etc. There are multiple alternatives when it comes to corporate travel – you can hire an agent, a travel agency, self plan a trip, or have an in-house HR/front desk employee taking up a relatively new positing now popular in companies as a corporate travel manager. So why is corporate travel and taking group trips so important? We know that in these times of coronavirus and the pandemic it’s really hard to think of travel – but from a business perspective, the investment is well worth the time. Corporate trips, post-COVID-19, will be even more important than before after months of working from home and no office/personal interaction. The future of travel is uncertain, but a corporate trip/business travel post-COVID-19 is going to be extremely essential. Stressful times call for fixes in motivation, and corporate travel is just as important for improving employees’ psychological state as it is for company culture and improved productivity. So why exactly is a corporate trip so important? Self-understanding and self-development Self-understanding is key to workplace and personal success One of the keys to better corporate culture and a strong bond between employees, managers, and executives of a firm, is to consider each employee in equal regard in terms of the importance of their self-development and mental safety/satisfaction. When employees are treated as long term family instead of short term replaceable assets, there is not only an increase in productivity and loyalty towards work but also a long-standing idea of the goodwill of a company that sustains through and even after their term with you. The first step to this is an emphasis on self-understanding for the furthering of everyone’s mutual targets and goals. Self-understanding involves the usage of simple activities, conversations, time off, etc. that furthers the person’s understanding of who they are and their ultimate goals. A company should always promote this, both for the development of an employee and to place itself in higher regard in an employee’s mind. Travel plays a huge part in this – corporate trips allow employees to reflect on what it is they are working towards, the role they play in a company, their ultimate opinion of it, and how they can utilize their time and efforts best to impact everyone’s lives and time as well. It is easy to get into the rat race, but to stop and think is a luxury often very few can take – a company should make corporate trips and team bonding a part of the culture so that there is higher retention and people in the company understand themselves, and therefore their contribution, better. Plan for trips that place an emphasis on doing menial tasks that allow for deeper thinking and conversations between all departments and levels of employees to encourage deeper self-understanding and development. Check out this blog by the Life-long Learner on self-improvement over a lifetime for a better understanding of the process and effort behind it. Travel definitely encourages self-development, and there are detailed articles and many blogs, such as this one by the Worldpackers, that emphasize on it! Travel is a stress buster Companies need to recognize and fix when stress becomes a part of the workplace The Tarzan Way has hosted more than 1,100 travelers and in our lengthy experience, we’ve seen people travel for many reasons, but all agree that travel makes them happy, content, and see the big picture of life. Your executives, managers, and employees may not be passionate travelers, but it is undeniable that going far from normal life and to a relaxed setting can monumentally help stress and large workloads. Keep in mind that travel isn’t an escape or respite from that workload, but a more slowed downtime that allows for employees to gain perspective over the usual race for success. This is extremely helpful to reduce stress and combat anxiety and other mental health problems your employees may be facing (and often don’t tell their managers about). It also allows them to return to their jobs energized, motivated, productive and having a better, clearer picture of where their focus should be and currently is. Corporate trips, no matter how short they are, are focused on building rapport, improving on relations, and doing exercises/simple activities that can reduce stress, which can negatively impact work in a corporate setting and lead to major problems for employees. Companies have a responsibility towards their employees (no matter their rank and status) to treat them passionately, with empathy and understanding, and keep in mind their sufferings or situations. An article by Forbes supports this claim, and if you want destination ideas or more inspiration on planning a trip – check out The Wandering Soul’s Wander Tales’ blog on leaving stress behind in a beautiful destination that will surely inspire you and convince you of the benefits of corporate trips. Teams understand each other better Teams spend a large amount of their hours in a corporate setting We know you’ve heard this before, but this is something essential – team bonding is extremely important for the team to function smoothly and issues dealt with well and smoothly. Corporate trips can be focused on particular teams as well
