There’s a new buzz word in town. Like it or loathe it, the “bleisure” trip is on the rise among the UK’s employees – following the American trend for rolling business trips and holidays into one. Consequently, many finance teams are now faced with a number of grey areas when it comes to processing the resulting expenses claims. The central question remains, what is it reasonable for employees to claim back on their company expenses when taking a bleisure trip?

By having a robust travel expenses policy in place, employers can ensure that they stay on top of these claims and that bleisure trips don’t cause huge headaches for their businesses. What’s more, they can even turn the bleisure trip into a positive for their organisation.

More employees are spending time out of the office on work-related trips. As a result, we have seen a sharp rise in what is now known in the corporate world as the “bleisure” trip – a term used to describe the rolling together of business and personal leisure travel. As many of us find ourselves increasingly time-poor due to commitments in our personal and working lives, the bleisure trip seems like the best option available.

Research conducted by Jurys Inn shows that one in five business travellers view an overseas working trip as an ideal holiday opportunity. In the United States, where annual leave days are fewer, many employers are more tolerant of these extended stays. However, it remains a murkier area in the UK and a topic that is hotly contested in the business community.

Central to this debate is what is reasonable for employees to claim when taking bleisure trips and how to ensure that they don’t lead to spiralling costs for businesses.

In my view, it’s perfectly reasonable for an employee who is staying in a beautiful and unexplored city to want to make the most of their visit. However, it’s also equally justifable for finance teams to be suspicious when it comes to the resulting expenses.

With this in mind, it has never been more important for businesses to ensure that they have a robust travel expenses policy in place, ensuring both employers and their workforce know where they stand. By doing this, firms can harness the bleisure trip as a motivational tool for their workforce.

 Fairness is key

All companies will have some sort of expenses policy – some formal, some not so formal. However, to tackle any grey areas, all employers need to ensure that they have clear guidance in place. Without this, travel costs and any associated subsistence and accommodation could soon spiral out of control and cause considerable headaches for all businesses, regardless of size. Put simply, if you don’t already have a travel expenses policy in place, you need to get one fast.

A policy should be an organic document that is constantly revised to ensure that it reflects the true costs of products and services – after all, there’s no point in having unrealistic guidelines. This will only lead to staff overclaiming on their expense forms – a situation that no employer wants.

In addition, your policy needs to be clear about what employees can claim as part of company expenses. One way of doing this may be to set upper limits on what can be claimed for all associated travel costs. By doing this, you can also build in a fair and reasonable percentage of leeway for your employees to claim the odd meal or taxi as part of their leisure time.

Being fair with your expenses policy is crucial. By developing a clear and balanced document which gives staff a little room for enjoyment, you’ll soon instil a sense of trust and loyalty among them and they will know that they are working for a company that rewards hard work.

Building your policy

A good place to start when developing your travel expenses policy is to clearly set out the process employees should follow when arranging business trips, as well as outlining which suppliers and services they should book with.

For example, you may suggest that your staff travel with budget airlines, rather than pay premium prices with luxury providers. However, downgrading everything to save money is not always the best tactic, as you’ll still want your staff to be comfortable and safe when travelling. A common-sense approach needs to be taken here – you may agree that staff travelling on long-haul flights are perfectly within their rights to book a business class seat, while you encourage those on shorter journeys to book an economy flight.

Once you have the outline of a policy in place, it is important that you make the document easy to understand. Keeping things simple and avoiding the use of unnecessary jargon and corporate speak will encourage staff to get to grips with your policy. If people know the rules they are less likely to break them, which is a great position to be in for employers and staff.

The ability for employees to record and submit expenses from wherever they happen to be in the world, and at any time, can be a useful tool for keeping control of travel costs. By taking advantage of tools, such as cloud-based software for smartphones and tablets, businesses can keep a real time check on their employees’ expenses at the touch of a button. Systems such as these also allow an organisation’s policy to be integrated with the software, ensuring that claims that fall outside the limits are flagged immediately.

Finally, employers should look at adding reminders to company booking systems to prompt staff about company policy when it comes to buying travel and accommodation. For example, reminders like “Can you be flexible with the flight date to qualify for cheaper rates?” or “Have you checked availability of economy class first?” may mean that it’s harder for those “little extras” like premium flight seats and expensive hotels to slip through the net. These reminders will also limit the scope for excuses if the rules are broken.

The need to travel

A question that many UK organisations need to ask is whether their staff even need to travel for business purposes in the first place. Digital technology is constantly evolving and now provides the ability to communicate in real time with just about any part of the world. Software such as Skype and Google Hangout provide virtual conferencing tools which can reduce the number of business trips. Many of these conferencing programmes are free to download – meaning that even small businesses can make some savings on their travel expenses.

 Embracing change

In our hectic world, it’s unrealistic to expect employees to maintain an artificial boundary between business and leisure. Instead of burying their heads in the sand, firms should embrace bleisure and look for ways to make it beneficial for their company, as well as the individuals who work for them.

Developing a clear and effective travel expenses policy is the only way that UK business can take the headache out of bleisure trips and the associated costs. By setting staff realistic spending limits and allowing them a few monetary perks to help support their leisure time, blesiure trips can become a really good motivational and trust building tool for your company.

Fairness and common sense are definitely key when developing your travel expenses policy. By making the rules too stringent for employees, you may ultimately develop a workforce which regularly overclaims on travel expenses, having huge repercussions for the culture and profitability of your organisation.

In the long term, a fair travel expenses policy will help to foster trust between you and your employees, and support in creating a business that is more productive and positive in its approach to the work–life balance of staff. What’s more, you may even be able to improve your organisation’s bottom line.

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