Would you feel safer or spied-upon if your boss tracked your mobile device with GPS while you were on a business trip? The answer largely depends upon where you may be heading, with 94 percent of travellers surveyed by Business Travel News saying they’d have no problems with tracking if they were heading into a high-risk area.
Although clearly defining a high-risk area is becoming more difficult, the travellers who said they would opt in for tracking would gladly do so if they even perceived a risk at their designated destination.
The overwhelming agreement with being tracked was a bit surprising, particularly because 20 percent of survey participants said GPS tracking was generally “not appropriate,” even in high-risk areas. But when it came down to opting in for safety’s sake, it appears many changed their minds.
Sixty-six percent of frequent travellers who hit the road at least 12 times each year said they were OK with GPS tracking for all trips, compared to the 45 percent of total respondents who agreed with tracking no matter where they may roam.
SURVEY DETAILS
The BTN survey wanted to determine who was responsible for the well-being of business travelers, and what methods companies should use to monitor their travelling employees. Survey participants consisted of 210 managed business travellers who went on at least four trips over the past year, with the trips including at least one flight and overnight hotel stay.
Those who went on 12 or more trips per year were pegged as frequent travellers, and their responses often differed from those of the overall respondents.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR WELL-BEING
When it came to responsibility for well-being, 47 percent of all respondents said the entire onus falls on the shoulders of their companies. They felt it was up to their employers to provide safe lodging, transportation and access to support, along with knowing the travellers’ whereabouts and being able to help them in a crisis.
Broken down by gender, statistics showed:
- Company entirely responsible for well-being: 45 percent men, 47 percent women
- Company very responsible for well-being: 33 percent men, 41 percent women
- Company and employee equally share responsibility for well-being: 18 percent men, 10 percent women
OTHER RESULTS
Nearly all respondents said it was fine with them if companies dug into their itinerary data for high-risk trips. Scanning itinerary data for all trips was OK with more than 75 percent of frequent travellers, compared to 66 percent of total respondents.
Responses were similar when it came to companies monitoring credit card transactions to determine the last place a traveller charged an expense. Sixty-nine percent of frequent travelers and overall respondents said they’d have no problem with credit card data monitoring.
Nearly half the business travellers surveyed don’t feel as safe on business trips as they did a year ago. Fifty-four percent of women feel less safe, compared to 46 percent of men and 47 percent of frequent travelers. Even if the headlines aren’t necessarily having an impact on trip volume, they’re certainly taking a toll on the traveller’s mindset.
Whether your business trip takes you across town or across continents make travel easier with Chrome River’s expense management solution.
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Our choice of Chrome River EXPENSE was made in part due to the very user-friendly interface, easy configurability, and the clear commitment to impactful customer service – all aspects in which Chrome River was the clear winner. While Chrome River is not as large as some of the other vendors we considered, we found that to be a benefit and our due diligence showed that it could support us as well as any large players in the space, along with a personalized level of customer care.
We are excited to be able to enforce much more stringent compliance to our expense guidelines and significantly enhance our expense reporting and analytics. By automating these processes, we will be able to free up AP time formerly spent on manual administrative tasks, and enhance the role by being much more strategic.