Companies without a health and wellbeing policy risk losing employees on long-term sickness due to stress caused when travelling, the business travel show heard.
On a panel discussing the importance of ‘keeping your travellers happy, safe and well’, moderated by BBT editor Paul Revel, Tracey Randall a nutritionist at Healthy Aspirations urged buyers to include a ‘wellness’ programme in their policy that looks at all aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Randall outlined the damage stress-related travel can have on a person’s health and can cause illnesses such as high cholesterol levels, IBS, muscle pains and deregulated sugar levels that can lead to type 2 diabetes.
Randall said: “Stress is an over-used word and very subjective. Some people thrive on it whereas some can’t function at the slightest sign of stress, but the effects on the body can be profound.
“Buyers need to recognise the effect stress through travelling can have on a person’s health on top of what stresses they have in their personal life,” she added.
Randall said travel policies must look beyond “the normal” practices in place that help alleviate travel stress such as business class travel and lounge access.
“Companies should promote a culture of health in the workplace – subsidised gym membership, canteen on-site, encouraging employees to turn their phone off on holiday and weight loss initiatives,” she said.
Also speaking on the panel was CWT VP of global product management Carinne Saulet who said it can be hard to see the positive effects a health and wellbeing policy can have on an employees’ productivity.
“It’s always been difficult to quantify health and wellbeing, but try and analyse data such as sickness levels as much as possible, so you can quantify cost savings.”