Coming out of the pandemic, there is a stronger focus on work-life balance. Remote work, hybrid work and work from anywhere are being adopted by both corporations and their employees as ways to respond to this new era of work and collaboration. But with these new flexible work offerings come implications for both the company and the employee. The question is, should the corporate travel manager be involved in the creation and support of any new policies governing how a company allows it employees to work?

I think the corporate travel manager should play a larger role as companies decide on their approach to the future of work. First and foremost, the corporate travel manager is one of a few roles within a company that crosses all sorts of corporate boundaries. The travel manager is already dealing with the C-suite, HR, corporate security, procurement, finance and other departments when it comes to business travel. It only makes sense that they should work within the company to make sure a clear and concise remote work policy has been reviewed, discussed, approved and communicated to the workforce. Also, any remote work policy is bound to impact corporate travel and its supplier base as internal team travel increases to bring a now-dispersed workforce together. Airline, hotel, ground transportation providers and duty of care companies could all be affected by remote working policies.

We know that not all companies will adopt the same remote work policies. Different cultures, company missions and other factors will influence whether a company feels it needs employees in the office or thinks they can work remote. Here are a couple of very different examples:

Airbnb announced earlier this year that its employees could work from anywhere in their home country without any impact to their compensation. The company is giving their employees the flexibility to either work close to an Airbnb office or work remotely. Also, they are giving their employees the option to work from anywhere and live in over 170 countries for up to 90 days a year in each location.

Airbnb has acknowledged that there are tax, payroll and time zone availability issues with this international option that they hope to sort out. The Airbnb employees will be responsible for getting proper work authorization while Airbnb works with governments on more flexible remote work visas.

On the other hand, it’s being reported that Bob Iger, the returning CEO of the Walt Disney Company, told a recent employee town hall meeting that people need to come back to the office and gain from the value of working side-by-side in person. These two divergent stories show that corporations will react differently to how they view remote working policies.

Let’s say your company is embracing some sort of remote working program. It’s first important to see how employees in general feel their companies are supporting them with this location flexibility. A recent BCD Travel study of travelers found that 36 percent of respondents said they were always supported during remote work, 18 percent said they were not supported and 25 percent said they didn’t know. Clearly as companies focus more on employee wellbeing, they will need to take a stronger stand on offering some kind of support for remote workers.

As far as the travel manager’s role moving forward any remote work policy, here are a few suggestions:

1 Exactly how will your company define remote work? Do you have only a work from home policy? Or do you allow your employees to work anywhere as long as their work gets done?

2 Will you allow remote workers to be located outside their home country? If so, what impact does that have on payroll taxes, immigration status and so on. Also, consider limitations on the company’s duty of care coverage for those working outside of their normal home location.

3 Once you have determined what qualifies as a remote work location, now consider what a normal commute from that remote location to a company office would be, or whether business travel would be allowed and reimbursed for any internal team meetings.

4 The answer to the above question could impact your existing supplier partnerships. Will any increased business travel impact your city pairs, lodging needs and duty of care coverage? If so, you’ll have to carefully watch your travel data to enable talks with your suppliers for any rate and discount adjustments.

5 Consider allowing your remote working employees access to your current accommodation providers, including hotels, hotel alternatives and extended stay accommodations, who have been vetted for safety and quality, even if the employee will be paying for these accommodations out of their own pockets.

6 The company’s meeting space needs could increase with any growth in your remote workers coming back to the office for collaboration. If your company has reduced its corporate real estate footprint during the pandemic, you will need more offsite meeting space. This could require you to examine meeting event sourcing tools to make it easier for your employees to find approved space.

While this is just a sampling of the ways in which new working models can potentially impact the corporate travel program, it’s clear the travel manager is in one of the best positions to influence this remote working review and coordinate with other internal groups and your external travel and meeting suppliers.

Getting in front of how your company is addressing the future of work will allow you to formulate a well thought out policy before any issues arise with employees who are doing this on their own.

Image: Bobex-73/Shutterstock