More and more companies are addressing bleisure (business + leisure travel) in their travel policies. They know their travelers might add a few personal days to a business trip to explore an interesting city, but those instances are addressed individually and often times leave the traveler and their company with multiple understandings around payment responsibility, duty-of-care, and company liability, for example. The solution for this is to incorporate a bleisure policy into your overall travel policy that all employees are aware of and communicate it regularly.
For most companies, it is standard practice for employees to cover all costs associated with their personal time – that includes accommodations, meals, and ground transportation and weekend stays unless they are required to be there for business purposes. As for the company, most pay for the round-trip flight, as well as all costs for the days the employee is there for business.
With regard to form of payment, most organizations require employees to pay for components of their personal trip with a personal form of payment and the business portion of the trip with a company ghost card or individual corporate card. This can be handled by your travel management partner’s corporate agents.
Duty of care is another area of bleisure that you will want to address. On a trip, when does your company’s responsibility for your employee start and end when they mix business and leisure? If they must perform business activities in an area that is not considered safe, should you dissuade them from mixing leisure with that trip?
Finally, once you have your bleisure policy in place, communicate it within your company and during the hiring process. Letting potential hires know that you have a bleisure policy and that you even promote bleisure travel indicates that your company is forward-thinking and can help attract top talent.
To begin crafting your bleisure policy, contact Travel Leaders / Destinations Unlimited.