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Opinion

How your travel policy can support better employee wellbeing and retention

Ryan Bushell discusses why employee-focused travel policies can improve wellbeing, retention and business travel efficiency.

5 min read
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How your travel policy can support better employee wellbeing and retention
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Creating an effective travel policy is a vitally important part of an organisation’s approach to HR, even if its impact may not be as obvious as other workplace policies.

A generic approach to a travel policy, or one that focuses too much on cost and unmanaged travel, can overlook the importance of managing business travel that is also in line with employee needs and preferences.

A more bespoke approach fits key HR goals like building employee wellbeing and driving retention, while remaining compliant and managing risk factors such as the ‘grey fleet’ of people using their own cars for work and claiming mileage reimbursement.

This increases the importance of ensuring HR is directly involved in designing the policy and ensuring it remains relevant, working with business travel teams, the fleet department, or finance or admin teams if necessary.

The value of HR being involved in creating the travel policy is in understanding how travel preferences shift depending on the journey, because the right method for heading to a city for a meeting might not work as well for taking bulky equipment to a more remote rural area.

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The fact that the majority of business travel is played out in short day trips to meetings and work sites, rather than major travel over several days, is often marginalised or overlooked as it is often assumed that the little trips don’t add up to much.

The reality is that all those shorter journeys often account for more of the overall business mileage and business days than the larger trips, and it’s vital to create a policy that enables employees to have the best possible experience however long or far they are going.

Understanding employee motivations leads to better travel experiences

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A segmented approach and drawing from employee insight to create a bespoke plan for mobility will engage teams. It will also encourage travel that is aligned with business goals, so the organisation can hit important business metrics, especially around sustainability.

Travel policies that centre on employee needs and preferences often put travel data collection first. A good starting point is to establish which people travel the most and their transport choices when they do so. Designing travel options in line with identified typologies empowers employees to make travel arrangements that suit them better.

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Frequency is another useful metric. Who are your regular business travellers and who are the infrequent travellers? What behaviours can be identified in terms of forward planning, transport choices or the level of support required based on the experience of each group with business travel providers?

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What’s the best way to keep infrequent travellers mobile? Are company vehicles viable? If not, could public transport, car hire, taxis, or a combination of these provide a better option?

Convenience is a key element in employee preference, but how does that match against business goals around cost or sustainability? Ideally, the option that matches business objectives also supports employee convenience.

Structuring a travel policy around employee life stages, locations and preference can provide fresh options. Can electric vehicles be the preferred rental option for all employees if younger team members in urban areas or shared accommodation don’t have access to at-home charging? Is public transport suitable for employees who don’t live close to local travel hubs?

Thinking of the business travel policy in line with other employee mobility requirements unlocks other possibilities. Would team members be more likely to commute by public transport if there was a pool or car club vehicle available on site for ad hoc business trips? Would some employees prefer door-to-door transport for evening business travel to dovetail with the commute?

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Question your legacy assumptions

Many organisations think their business travellers want to use their own ‘grey fleet’ cars for work journeys because of the perceived convenience. Our experience is that many employees actually prefer other options to avoid depreciation on their own vehicle.

Those in a one-vehicle household may not always have access to their car. Younger employees may not own a car at all.

Our 2025 On the Move mobility survey found that nearly one quarter of respondents (23%) who travel for work prefer company or rental vehicles, and one of the top motivators for doing so is to avoid ‘wear and tear’ on personal vehicles.

This further highlights the road safety implications of drivers using what are usually older grey fleet cars: the UK Government estimated £3.1bn in medical and ambulance costs from road collisions in 2024, while RAC research found that 20% of UK drivers under 44 have cut costs by skipping legally required MOTs or delaying tyre replacements.

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Perhaps even more notably from an HR perspective, 61% of UK employees we interviewed said they would consider changing jobs to work for a company that had better measures for business travel than using personal cars. Not to mention that more road accidents due to older cars on the road also means more lost productivity.

The evidence is that mapping individual employee travel needs to travel methods is key to creating the convenience and flexibility that lead to employee wellbeing and retention. Creating a policy that understands those needs is not just the best way to keep a business and its people mobile, but to encourage employees to stay with the organisation and be engaged with what their employer is trying to achieve.

Ryan Bushell is head of public sector UK & Ireland at Enterprise Mobility

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