From delays and fare increases to navigating foreign cities and language barriers, there are seemingly endless challenges for business travellers and legal PAs tasked with booking travel. Such challenges, including employee safety and security, have given rise to new technology aimed at solving these problems and supporting employee duty of care.
Employee tracking
When it comes to duty of care for travelling employees, the most common mistake is simply not knowing where employees are. TSheets and myGeoTracking are two useful platforms that can be used for GPS tracking of employees on the move.
There are more sophisticated military-style tracking programmes available, from organisations such as International SOS, for travel to the most sensitive areas of the world. International SOS specialises in travel security, has access to cutting-edge technology and will ensure efficient provision of documentation or evacuation if needed.
Travel apps
Mobile compatibility is hugely important when it comes to employees on the go, so it’s no surprise that apps are often the easiest, most user-friendly and cost-efficient way of avoiding and resolving travel problems. Here are our top three to recommend for travelling employees:
- Flight tracking
It seems inevitable these days that you will hit some kind of delay at the airport, but with App in the Air you can be prepared for these kind of obstacles. You can track your flight status, delays and even find free Wi-Fi-spots and charging points to ensure the most productive use of business travel time.
- Language translator
Surprisingly, only a handful of cities worldwide cater well to international travellers when it comes to language translation on signage. This is where apps like iTranslate come in extremely useful. The app allows you to translate text or websites, start voice conversations or look up words, meanings and even verb conjugations in over 100 languages.
- Foreign navigation
We all know that easily navigating your way around unfamiliar cities is key for business travellers. For ease of use, our choice of navigation app is Citymapper. It operates in 40 major cities worldwide, provides you with real-time push notifications on travel disruption, and recommends the fastest routes to get you where you need to be on time.
Using the right tech can significantly improve efficiency and minimise hassle. Some may berate our dependency on technology nowadays, but if it can help ensure traveller safety and comfort while maximising business productivity, who are we to complain?
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