Why do companies send employees on business trips? The reasons can be very different – to reach an agreement with a partner or investor, to find new clients, to attend an industry event, to visit a company branch in another city, and so on.& ;nbsp;
We recently conducted a survey among clients of the OneTwoTrip For Business service and identified the most common purposes for employee business trips. After processing the results, we received the following picture:
Business meetings
Representatives of most companies, when asked what the purposes of a business trip are, most often indicate meetings with clients, business partners or investors. A third of all respondents named business meetings as the most common reason for business travel.
This is not surprising: quite often, interaction between counterparties in business requires personal presence. For example, if we are talking about concluding a long-term cooperation agreement, the parties will almost certainly want to meet “live” in order to get to know each other better. And even after concluding a contract, many issues are easier to resolve during a meeting than remotely via video conference or correspondence.
Conferences and forums
Participating in various industry events is another popular purpose for employee travel. This includes all kinds of forums, exhibitions, conferences and other events, one way or another related to a specific area of the company’s activities.
At the same time, seconded employees may be given various tasks: to represent the company at an exhibition with a stand, to find new clients or suppliers, to give a report at a conference, to conduct a master class or to gain new knowledge.
Visiting branches or offices of the company
In large companies with many branches around the country (or even in different countries), there is often a need for actions or negotiations that require the personal presence of one or more employees from another branch.
For example, this could be a business trip for an employee from the company’s head office to train new employees in a newly opened branch. Or the director of the company visits all branches in turn to get a detailed picture of what is happening on the ground.
Performing work at sites or on shift
Slightly less common reasons for employee business trips are participation in rotational work or performance of certain work at sites related to the activities of the company and/or its partners. About 16% of respondents indicated this reason for business travel as the most common in their organization.
As a rule, this type of business trip is often practiced in mining, energy, construction, service and other similar companies, whose activities involve the presence of employees at infrastructure facilities or “in the fields”.
Other formats
This category includes formats for sending employees, which are not so common. For example, this could be a trip for the purpose of internship or training, delivery of documents or product samples that for some reason cannot be delivered by courier service, representation of the company’s interests in court and other authorities.   ;
