HR - Business travel latest motivational tool of organisations

There was a time when travelling to far off places was considered a dream. However, with the changing times, this dream is turning into a reality, especially since many organisations are realising that travelling to different places acts as an excellent team building and motivational tool, and is a good knowledge sharing platform.

As more and more organisations get globe savvy, let’s find out about their favourite destinations across India and the world.

For many organisations, it’s all about the south. They conduct training sessions in the south of the country as they feel that these places have a calming effect on the body and mind, due to the serene locations. Cisco sends their employees to Cochin and Goa for their training sessions. Varghese Thomas – VP- Corporate Communications, Cisco, India & SAARCSales and Globalisastion Center East, adds, “These places help our people to relax and enjoy themselves away from the day to day hustle bustle.”

Hewlett Packard also takes its employees to resorts in Kerala and Goa. Bina Raj Debur, Country Communications Manager, Corporate Marketing, HP India Sales Pvt Ltd. explains that these places offer good business/meeting facilities while making great getaways.

For Lionbridge, it’s destination Mumbai and Chennai. They take their employees to the remotest parts of Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi for training and rejuvenation purposes. “We prefer taking our employees to remote places because we do not want them troubled there either by telephone or otherwise. So, when recently we had to take them for training, we took them to Lonavala, where we know that our employees won’t be harassed by pesky phone calls,” explains Robin Lloyd, VP and GM, Lionbridge.

And for Lionbridge, training in India is not just restricted to their Indian employees. They recently held their annual board of directors (BOD) meet in India, where all the company heads from all across the world had met up. “We held out BOD meet here because we wanted out global heads to know and understand how dynamic and over-whelming our workforce is,” he explains. Apart from sending their employees to Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, Philips also sends their employees to outdoor exotic locations like Udaipur for their ‘policy development’ exercises.

Anita Venugopal, VP, Human Resources, SAP Labs India says that the two places that they prefer to send their employees for training are the Himalayas, and Cauvery Fishing Camp. “It is our pick due to its breath taking natural settings which are quite favourable for such out bounds,” she explains.

Many industry experts also say that local destinations like Alibaug, Lonavala etc. also act as an excellent place for training for their employees. Shalil Suvarna, General Manager, Radisson Hotels and Resorts, says, “Alibaug is one of the best places to conduct an off-site training. For any kind of training, you need your employees to have a balanced state of mind and at the same time make sure that he/she can have fun. And this place offers both.”

However, training is no longer just restricted to Indian locations as organisations feel that sending their employees to train across the globe acts more than just as a stress buster and allows the employees to get an insight as to how the other part of the world works. Apart from the work aspect, it also allows the employees to get a feel of a different place, and acts as a huge motivating factor.

“We send our employees to Thailand, Singapore and Australia for their training sessions as these places tend to work well with the travel time and cost perspective,” expresses Debur.

Apart from the regular joints like the US and UK, Lionbridge sends its employees to Bergin, Norway and China for a period of six months. “We send our employees to Norway and China to get a more in-depth knowledge about technical domain, whereas for logistics training, our employees are sent to Santiago, Chile,” says Lloyd.

Logitech sends its employees to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, where their regional headquarters is based, and other countries in South East Asia including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangkok etc. “We treat our regional team as one and they usually take turns to travel to interesting places in the Asian region and understand each other’s markets and cultures,” explains Moninder Jain, Regional Director - Asia Pacific Business Markets & Director - South Asia, Logitech

For Philips, places of training and employee engagement include Amsterdam, where they send their senior managers for executive programmes in renowned international universities and London. “Recently, we held a contest in our organisation where the winners won a trip to London with their spouses for 3 days. Out of the 3 days, they got a chance to be a part of the Philips London Simplicity event on one of the days,” says S R Srinivasan, General Manager, Learning and Development, Philips Electronics India Ltd.

Organisations know that it is not easy planning a trip for their employees. Hence to do so, they rope in the experts. Geetanjali Alamsha, Director, Journeys & Destinations Pvt Ltd., who specialises in business travels gives her take on the business travels. Alamsha says that it is no longer just about ‘sight-seeing’ as organisations need more than just places to visit. “Recently, we took this group of employees from a multi-national to New Zealand and the group was largely involved in sky diving, hot air balloon rides, hot pools, helicopter rides, landing on volcano, among other things,” she expresses.

She says, “People have changed the way they view travel destinations. These days they want to travel to places like Brazil, Miami, South Africa, Budapest, Prague, Finland, Thailand among other places known.” In the end, travel is no longer just about going to a place as a group as organisations are ready to give their employees a taste of the exotic world, with training, motivation and knowledge sharing as the main course.