There is an ongoing trend of including families while going on an official visit to foreign countries. I believe it is a negative development and organizations should be cautious in dealing such situations. This essay will discuss how presence of household aids in attaining equilibrium between work and life and possible mishandling of information along with relevant examples to support the points.
There is ample evidence indicating the benefit of having family on business trip. The central reason for this is, it allows employees to maintain a certain work-life balance. Corporate jobs leave very little time for individuals to spend with their family and friends. This is because of ever increasing competition at office and striving to climb up the hierarchy. Nevertheless, allowing staff to invite their families on work trips, allowing them to spend some quality time at a changed location will de-stress and rejuvenate the personnel when they report back to job. To illustrate this, an internal test report conducted by the IHR has observed that there is a 20% increased productivity in employees who returned with families versus a decreased 10% productivity in others. Therefore it is conclusively clear that it serves multipurpose when families are taken along.
Although there is a case for healthy work-life balance the threat to sensitive information cannot be understated. The employees usually possess confidential material such as price quotations of bids, financials of the company, etc whilst touring on business purposes. In addition to this, there is a risk of information leak with family and kids around which can be advantageous to competitors. For instance, the recent unsuccessful attempt by WIPRO in acquiring a firm in Ireland is due to competitor quoting a lower price. Upon investigation, it has been observed that the information was accidentally revealed by the spouse of an official at a restaurant. Thus it possible to state that there is a potential threat to company’s information when families are taken along.
To sum it up, in my view despite the benefits of increased performance on return and balanced lifestyle, the drawbacks such as the cost of risking the information to competitors eclipses the advantages of having employee’s immediate household around on official visits.
There is an ongoing trend of including
families
while going on an official visit to foreign countries. I believe it is a
negative
development and organizations should be cautious in dealing such situations. This essay will discuss how presence of household aids in attaining equilibrium between work and life and possible mishandling of
information
along with relevant examples to support the points.
There is ample evidence indicating the benefit of having
family
on business trip. The central reason for this is, it
allows
employees
to maintain a certain work-life balance. Corporate jobs
leave
very
little
time for individuals to spend with their
family
and friends. This is
because
of
ever increasing
competition at office and striving to climb up the hierarchy.
Nevertheless
, allowing staff to invite their
families
on work trips, allowing them to spend
some
quality time at a
changed
location will de-
stress
and rejuvenate the personnel when they report back to job. To illustrate this, an internal
test
report conducted by the
IHR
has observed that there is a 20% increased productivity in
employees
who returned with
families
versus a decreased 10% productivity in others.
Therefore
it is
conclusively
clear
that it serves multipurpose when
families
are taken
along.
Although there is a case for healthy work-life balance the threat to sensitive
information
cannot
be understated
. The
employees
usually
possess confidential material such as price quotations of bids, financials of the
company
, etc whilst touring on business purposes.
In addition
to this, there is a
risk
of
information
leak with
family
and kids around which can be advantageous to competitors.
For instance
, the recent unsuccessful attempt by
WIPRO
in acquiring a firm in Ireland is due to competitor quoting a lower price. Upon investigation, it has
been observed
that the
information
was
accidentally
revealed by the spouse of an official at a restaurant.
Thus
it
possible to state that there is a potential threat to
company
’s
information
when
families
are taken
along.
To sum it up, in my view despite the benefits of increased performance on return and balanced lifestyle, the drawbacks such as the cost of risking the
information
to competitors eclipses the advantages of having
employee’s
immediate household around on official visits.