US companies reward staff by paying for foreign travel

US companies have come up with a new way of rewarding their staff – by paying for their summer holidays abroad.

US companies sending their staff on a foreign summer holiday to such places as Paris Image by Luke Ma / CC BY 2.0

Betabrand boss Chris Lindland began thinking of foreign travel for his work force when he found out at a happy hour last year that very few of his employees had ever travelled abroad.

He signed up for a miles-rewards credit card and decided to use the points collected to help with the cost of the first trip in January.

He said that the idea got legs among his 60 strong staff and added to the life of shared adventure.

The Irish Times reports that the chief executive doesn’t see it as sending some people off on “luxurious vacations” as much as on “four- to five-day quests”.

Recently returned from one such adventure to Paris thanks to Betabrand, is Delta Cockins. The company paid for her direct flight and her upmarket hotel close to the Louvre. On top of that her fellow workers stumped up $500 spending money for the inventory planner at the online retailer based in San Francisco.

She is one of a number of employees who will get the chance to go abroad every six to eight weeks with their firm happy to cover the cost of lodgings and flights.

The free or heavily subsidised holiday abroad is becoming popular with companies, replacing other benefits such as paid time off.

Among well-known companies giving between $1,000 and $4,000 to allow workers get off on vacation far away from home are Evernote, Airbnb, G Adventures, Afar Media and Think Parallax.