American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services just released a new report that looks into the impact remote work has on employee connectivity. They surveyed over 400 business professionals and found that seven out of ten agreed that mostly working remotely can make employees feel disconnected from their organization.
The survey also showed that meeting in person has some strong benefits for internal purposes, like connecting with co-workers, teammates, and new hires. About 74% said it helps build stronger relationships between employees and teams, while 60% believe it leads to better collaboration. More than half (55%) think in-person meetings strengthen organizational culture, and 54% believe they boost employee engagement. Additionally, 46% feel that face-to-face interactions help remote workers and dispersed teams feel more included.
Building bonds
“In today’s world of distributed workforces, business leaders increasingly value travel as an effective way to strengthen bonds between co-workers, spur collaboration, and support company culture,” the researchers explain. “Travel is a sign of commitment; by being there, you’re showing that you care enough about the relationship to be there in person.”
Although remote work, embraced by about 93% of those surveyed, offers numerous advantages, it can pose challenges in establishing an office culture and nurturing engagement. Business travel emerges as a vital solution to overcome this hurdle, as per feedback from business respondents who highlighted the significance of meetings, offsites, and workshops in building relationships and fostering collaboration.
They unanimously emphasized the greater effectiveness of conducting these interactions in person compared to virtual meetings, particularly in the realms of team building (79% vs. 19%), brainstorming (70% vs. 26%), interviewing a candidate for a key role (64% vs. 32%), and onboarding/training (58% vs. 31%).
“The broad adoption of remote work can create hurdles to building an office culture and fostering engagement, so business travel has become even more critical to bringing colleagues together,” the researchers say.
Creating connections
Six in 10 respondents also share the view that a majority of employees in their organization consider business travel essential for their professional development. Additionally, 51% concurred that leaders in their organization share the belief in the importance of business travel for employees’ professional growth. It seems that employees might be looking to compensate for the reduced in-person internal meetings during the pandemic, as 40% believe this decrease negatively impacted their organization’s professional development and training.
The shift towards less office-based work and reduced travel, prompted by the pandemic, posed significant challenges in the workplace. More than half (53%) of respondents reported collaboration issues due to fewer in-person internal meetings, while 52% observed a decline in employee engagement, and 49% faced communication challenges.
Despite recognizing these hurdles, respondents note that travel for internal meetings hasn’t fully returned to pre-pandemic levels for many organizations, hinting at a potential gap in employee interactions. A notable 63% stated that travel to meet colleagues offsite has decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period, and 56% reported lower travel for onsite company meetings. However, according to the 2024 Amex GBT Meetings & Events Global Forecast, meeting professionals anticipate internal meetings to experience the most significant growth among all meeting types in 2024.
