AirPlus International recently wired up its own employees to try to determine the effects of business travel and whether they're less productive whilst on the road.
Using a heart monitoring device called the Bodyguard to compare travellers with non-travellers over a 72-hour period, the research shows frequent business travellers can suffer decreased mental capacity, increased stress levels and decreased productivity.
The study, run jointly with Business Travel Market, shows those on the road spend less time recovering daily - 14% compared to the non-travellers 26% - and have just over 20 minutes less sleep a day.
The travellers also scored much lower when it came to the quality of recovery, the balance between time in recovery and time spent stressed or loaded and calculated on a scale of -100 to +100, with travellers scoring -35 compared to the non-travellers' score of 81.
In addition to the increased stress and decreased productivity, travellers' business performance was also affected by:
- lower levels of concentration
- diminshed communication skills
- lower levels of concentration
- decreased engagement
- reduced levels of tolerance
The AirPlus white paper can be downloaded in full
here.
NB: Heart image via Shutterstock
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