When employees have to travel overseas to attend an important meeting or for a vacation as a reward for being a top performer, both the employees and the employer have to make certain preparations for this event. Although the bulk of planning and preparation will fall on the shoulders of the employee, the company will also have to take on some key tasks as well to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible when their staff goes to meetings & incentive travel destinations abroad.

If you have been given the responsibility of helping employees prepare for an upcoming trip abroad, below are some useful tips that you can follow:

Inform the employees of the itinerary as early as possible. Announce the event dates and destination as early as possible to allow the employees time to obtain the appropriate travel documentation. Some of the attendees may not even have a passport, and informing them that they have to go to a meeting abroad or have been rewarded with a holiday in a different country a month before the event or flight won’t give them enough time to get their travel documentation together. Prepare the itinerary and share this with the concerned employees as soon as possible.

Constantly communicate with your employees. Get updates regularly with the employees who do not have passports yet. Find out when they will get it, and if they still have to apply for one, make sure you push them to do this as early as possible. You can also help the employees greatly when you share with them information regarding flight, accommodation, and event details as soon as you have these.

Share some useful packing tips. Although anyone can get information on these from the Internet, you will save the attendees some time by doing researchon this information and sharing these with the employees. Give them tips on how to avoid over-packing and inform them which items they can and cannot place in their carry-on bags and luggage.

Provide some valuable information about the country where the employees are headed. Aside from packing tips, employees will also appreciate some useful travel tips as well. Give them details about the weather conditions they have to expect, what kind of clothes and footwear they should bring, etc. Share some important customs or do’s and don’ts they have to observe while they are in that country as well.

If you still need additional help with completely preparing employees for an important meeting or company-sponsored holiday abroad, you can always invest in the services of trusted incentive travel and event planning agencies.