Travel’s role in the changing world of work — takeaways from Navan’s HR Masterclass webinar

The way we all work has changed. Hybrid, flexible, and fully remote companies have become the norm, while employees are prioritising greater recognition and personal development opportunities in their roles. In this new landscape, travel has become an invaluable tool for engaging employees and maintaining company culture — a topic Kristina Pysla, Navan’s Director of People, explored in Navan’s HR Masterclass webinar last week.

Here are the key themes Kristina covered.

Employees are travelling more — and liking it

Almost three-quarters of travel managers expect business trip volume to increase in 2025, a sign that companies recognise the importance of in-person connections in closing deals and building company culture.

One factor contributing to this trend is the rise in non-sales teams travelling for work. With companies more geographically dispersed than before, teams like marketing, operations, and engineering are on the road more — often to attend offsites and make office visits.

Navan data backs up this trend. In 2019, sales teams represented a 51% share of business travel activity, falling to 43 – 44% over the past three years as the travel footprint of non-sales teams ticked up.

This is a welcome reality for employees; a Deloitte study shows 83% of employees consider business travel “enjoyable,” while only 3% dislike it.

Travel boosts performance and loyalty

For employees, the benefits of business travel don’t stop at enjoyment. Kristina explored how travel engages employees and improves their performance, referencing the direct correlation between Navan’s best-performing salespeople and the amount they travel. 

In a recent interview with Travel Weekly, Navan’s CEO of Travel, Rich Liu, discussed how travel tangibly improved results at his previous company, Everlaw, too: “There was almost a one-to-one correlation with some of the very, very top performers in the company," Liu said. “They’re spending $30,000 more on travel but closing a million or $2 million more in sales.”

From a company culture perspective, Kristina celebrated travel’s role in enabling employees from different locations, departments, and backgrounds to connect and collaborate in person, creating a more inclusive and productive workplace culture.

“At Navan, we invest in employee travel to ensure our employees from different offices feel connected, and to strengthen the company culture. We see big benefits when teams from different locations connect in person, and projects are more successful as a result,” Kristina said.

Travel, meanwhile, develops employee skillsets. Attending conferences, training sessions, or client meetings exposes employees to new ideas, skills, and insights, contributing to personal and professional growth and fostering greater loyalty to the company.

Bleisure travel: the perk on the side

Bleisure travel — when a traveller blends business and leisure in one trip — is a perk that’s growing rapidly in popularity. At Navan, we’ve seen a 4x year-on-year increase in blended trips booked on our platform.

Employees are increasingly choosing to extend their trips and attach a holiday to their work schedule, with 47% of travellers seeing the opportunity to explore different cities as a key benefit of business travel, according to Deloitte. 

And it benefits companies, too. Promoting bleisure travel is a way to encourage a healthy work-life balance for employees, who can reap the benefits of a mini holiday alongside their working commitments.

How Navan approaches travel

Kristina moved on to discuss Navan’s commitment to travel. As a company, we see business travel as a vital tool for connecting our globally distributed teams, driven by our strong belief in the power of in-person connections.

“Not only do business trips foster a sense of trust and responsibility, but they also validate the employee’s value to the company and support them in contributing to business success,” Kristina said.

Ultimately, travel has become a critical means of engaging employees, improving their performance, and cultivating a winning culture for companies with a globally dispersed workforce.

To learn more about how travel can be a tool to engage employees and improve performance, book a Navan demo today.