Wellbeing: Respecting the concerns of reluctant travellers

Traveller wellbeing is a topic travel managers were slowly groping their way towards understanding before the pandemic hit. Now, safeguarding employee mental health could push close to the top of the priority pile when companies finally contemplate ending their Covid-induced travel hibernation.

In particular, businesses have to anticipate how they will deal with the distinct possibility employees may be reluctant to travel, perhaps even to the point of refusing outright.

“I know there will be anxiety. We have already had organisations reaching out to us on this issue,” says Philip Stewart, founding director and head of intelligence for travel risk consultancy Tapis Intelligence.

“Companies are asking what measures they should put in place to support staff mentally and physically. Where businesses can be blindsided is if they think everything will be back to normal, but that’s not the case. There will be members of staff unhappy with that approach.”

Employees will have good reason to feel anxious about resuming travel, according to Stewart. There are real risks involved.

One is the risk of coronavirus infection, especially for those not yet vaccinated or living with vulnerable people. Another concern is the quality of treatment for travellers who are injured or succumb to a non-Covid illness. Local health systems overstretched by Covid, especially in their intensive care units, may offer inferior care compared to their usual standards. Travellers will also have legitimate fears about being forced into quarantine if rules in their home or destination country change at short notice.

But on top of all these concerns, companies need to appreciate that emotionally their employees may be altered long-term by their experience of the pandemic.

“Return to travel will be a mixed bag,” says Dr Lucy Rattrie, a chartered psychologist who specialises in business travel. “Some are desperate to get back on the road and will find it a positive boost. But a lot will be stressed, especially if they have significant responsibilities at home. If companies want their people to travel again, they need to prepare for it but I don’t think many are.”

Stewart points to the distinction psychologists draw between Trauma with a big T and trauma with a small T. Big T Trauma is a clear event such as bereavement or being caught up in a violent incident. Small T trauma is “small events that cause anxiety,” Stewart says.

“You can have an accumulation of these which also create a crisis. Returning to business travel is a small T trauma, yet the fear is that companies will crack on and say nothing’s changed.

“I haven’t sat next to anyone outside my family for a year but now I’m going to be stuck on a plane next to lots of people. You’re going from a year of being told that’s a dangerous situation to being placed in it. Everyone will be experiencing a number of these small T events and that will build up. Some employees may have had big T traumas too, like losing a loved one.”

In considering how to handle reluctant travellers, perhaps the first point to tackle is the legalities. “This would all depend on whether or not it was a reasonable request by the employer,” says Elisabeth Fitch, interim human resources director for risk management provider Anvil Group.

“There is an implied term in all contracts of employment that employees will follow reasonable instructions. Travelling for work purposes would normally be a reasonable instruction. However, it is more of a problem when you consider the current circumstances and potential quarantine requirements going forward.”

According to the website Practical Law, published by Thomson Reuters, “in most cases it would not be a reasonable request” to ask employees to travel to destinations to which their government forbids, or advises against, travel. Travel which requires self-isolation at the destination or on return also needs to be taken into consideration but may not be unreasonable in itself if the trip “is deemed necessary and appropriate.”    

But even if employers have the law on their side, telling employees to pull themselves together and resume travel whether they like it or not is a spectacularly counter-productive idea, according to the experts. Employers taking a heavy-handed approach could generate high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover, says Rattrie, while Stewart warns that “you’re creating a stressed, anxious workforce, which can lead to poor decision-making”.

On the other hand, companies need their employees to travel, just as they did pre-Covid, even if the last year has suggested less interaction is needed face to face than used to be assumed.

Rattrie and Stewart both urge active intervention to manage the situation, including training employees to deal with anxiety and self-assess how they are feeling. Stewart has partnered with a behavioural scientist and the risk intelligence partnership Tiller to offer workshops and team training aimed specifically at managing employee anxiety post-Covid.

The very act of showing support through training, Stewart argues, will go a long way towards reassuring stressed travellers. It can also produce a framework to find appropriate mitigations. These could include policy changes that reduce contact with other individuals – allowing direct flights or allowing taxis instead of public transport, for example.

Engaging with anxious employees could even lead to a review of their role and potential redeployment to positions that do not require travel. “You need to approach it case by case,” says Stewart. “You have to understand the employee is not being obtuse or lazy. They might be suffering psychologically. You have to find ways to encourage them back again or acknowledge that maybe their lives have moved on and they don’t want to travel as much in future.”

A typical example, he says, might be a parent who has discovered during lockdown they are no longer willing to spend as much time away from their children as during their pre-pandemic road warrior years.

If nothing else, the return to work challenge makes it clear that travel management is becoming even more of a human resources issue than ever before. And that, believes Stewart, is where travel managers should turn. “I would 100 per cent be reaching out to HR,” he says. “You need to make sure they have captured this business area and decided what to do about it.

“Post-Covid everyone in the workforce will have experienced some degree of trauma. A large proportion will adapt very quickly but companies need to be ready to identify very quickly the signs of those who don’t.”