Key Considerations for Extended Business Traveller Programmes

As organisations continue to emerge from the pandemic-imposed restricted business environment, there has been a renewed focus on extended business travel as a way to meet business needs. Organisations are beginning to develop, or re-evaluate their Extended Business Travel (EBT) programmes. 

Is your EBT programme working as a strategic tool for your organisation in an evolving post-pandemic workplace? Are you prepared to avoid any potential compliance issues that may affect your organisations and assignees?

Six Important Ways to Evaluate Your EBT Programme

There are several key considerations when evaluating your EBT programme. This is an assignment type particularly vulnerable to compliance challenges and other issues that can lead to increased risk, and the overall intent of a comprehensive EBT programme is to minimise both employee and corporate risk. Without a formal programme, extended business travellers can put themselves, and your company, at risk by potentially failing to comply with tax and immigrations guideline. Fines can be quite significant, so it is important for your organisation to find effective ways to track EBTs and ensure compliance. 

Below are some important steps to evaluate a comprehensive and effective EBT programme:

1. Define Extended Business Travel 
It is important to define what EBT means to your organisation for it to be handled consistently and to differentiate it from other programme and policy types. Typically, the duration is beyond just a standard business trip, but does not qualify as a short- or long-term assignment. The most common industry-defined duration is from 30 to 90 days. After 90 days it would be considered a short-term assignment. Any EBT programme support is designed to meet the specific business needs of this duration that may not be addressed in your normal business travel policy, and is not of the length to offer complete short-term assignment benefits. 

2. Administrative Structure/Programme Oversight
Who has oversight for the programme and how is it administered? Global Mobility teams are increasingly involved in the oversight of extended business travellers. Programme management can be centralised or within the region, but the key is to have a single programme owner to develop and enforce the policies and procedures that govern the programme on a global basis. EBTs may also be managed by your Human Resources group, individual business units, or travel department.

3. Develop Process and Policy
Best practice recommends that you develop a formal policy or guidelines to provide support for your employees going on extended business trips. Clear documentation provides appropriate level support, consistency and assurance of compliance. 
Industry research and surveys have shown that the top challenges for managing EBTs are tax compliance, immigration compliance and employee tracking. When planning for extended business travel, business managers don’t always consider host location requirements when choosing employees or setting travel time, nor do they understand the ultimate tax and immigration implications. Centralising administration and programme guidelines significantly reduces the challenges and risk in these critical areas. 

4 Employee Tracking
Having an employee tracking mechanism in place is critical to ensuring tax and immigration compliance. It also allows your organisation to have the ability to easily locate their employees, which is an overall key duty-of-care function. Tracking the whereabouts of employees became a front and centre issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Different types of tracking tools are available from travel providers, tax providers, immigration providers, relocation services providers, in addition to your own internal tools. 

5. Leverage Mobility Provider Network
Identifying and streamlining the providers involved in your EBT process, and leveraging existing mobility providers, will provide consistency and cost savings to your programme. These providers may include:
• Corporate travel 
• Immigration 
• Tax 
• Relocation management company
• Data provider
• Temporary housing     

6. Coordinate Support
Extended business travel support can be coordinated internally on your mobility team, by a separate team(s), or through one of your organisation’s mobility partners. It is not recommended that the employee coordinates support on their own or that coordination is handled at the manager or business level due to compliance and consistency concerns. 

Recommended EBT Support Components

Once programme structure and governance are in place, it is recommended to determine the level of support your organisation will provide for EBTs, focusing on compliance-related components and provisions that allow the employee to safely transition to the location and effectively perform their role.

Some recommended EBT support elements include:

Pre-Travel Consultation: Providing employees with a pre-travel consultation is key for them to understand their responsibilities as an extended business traveller, including adherence to compliance guidelines and the support your organisation will provide.

Tax Briefing:A tax briefing may be provided by your organisation’s designated tax provider and can be important if, depending upon the location, the extended trip triggers any taxes. The tax briefing can apply to both domestic and international travellers. 
Security Briefing: For international EBTs, depending upon the location, a briefing can be provided by an external provider or in-house security team.

Medical Exam: For international EBTs, a medical exam may be necessary for immigration purposes and some organisations require a physical exam before going on any extended business travel.

Immigration Assistance:For international EBTs, the business traveller must have authorisation to work and temporarily reside in the host location. Passport, visa applications, and supporting documentation must be completed and supplied as early in the process as possible. It is important to allow adequate time for document processing.

Language Training:For international EBTs, language training may be necessary to ensure the success of the employee in the host location.

Cultural Training:For international EBTs, just like long- and short-term assignments, cultural training is recommended to provide the employee with the tools they need to appreciate and understand the culture so they can succeed in their new role. 

Travel Between Departure Location and Destination Location: Travel is typically based on your organisation’s Business Travel Policy Guidelines and booked through your designated travel provider. Travel expenses can include:

• Airfare
• Ground transport to/from airports
• Airport taxes and transfer fees
• Standard baggage costs
• Additional excess baggage for longer durations
• Possible authorised stopovers depending upon trip length
• Meals
• Mileage if driving with a minimum daily driving distance
• Lodging 

Destination Location Accommodation: Furnished corporate housing or hotel is typically provided for the duration of the extended business trip. 

Living Expenses: Meals and incidentals are typically covered by a per diem which is intended to pay actual and reasonable living expenses for days in location. Per diem amounts can be determined using a data provider, government tables, business travel policy, company calculation, or flat amounts.

Local Transport: If the employee is not able to drive their vehicle to the destination location, they are provided with reasonable transport assistance as appropriate to the employee’s position, based on destination location policy/practice and local business rules. Assistance may be in the form of an allowance, reimbursement, hired car or company car.

Tax Policy and Preparation: Ideally, the employee’s tax liability should remain the same for the period of extended business travel as it would have been at home. The company would typically pay any liability over and above what the employee would have normally incurred on company-sourced income. If tax return preparation is necessary (international), the company would cover the costs of the year(s) affected.

For more information on how you can make EBTs a strategic part of your mobility programme, please feel free to contact SIRVA Global Advisory Services at globaladvisoryservices@sirva.com or reach out to your SIRVA account manager or SIRVA sales representative.