survey

Survey Results: New Belgium Business Travel Policy

1. Were you aware of this new Belgian policy prior to its implementation?
Yes	6	7.50%
No	74	92.50%
COMMENTS I am shocked at this stupid policy. Socialist Europe once again screwing US businesses! I became aware of this on Friday through an article in BTN. (3 responses) No notice was given that I am aware of. No, but I wish that I had. Nor was ever informed by my TMC ... Not until receipt of this survey! Thank you BTC for calling out the change and situation. The first I heard of it was from BTC, and I am specifically involved in my company's immigration documentation process. The first time I was aware of this was via this survey This is the first I have heard about this. When I did learn about it, I initially thought it was an April Fool’s joke!
2. Does the policy impact your travelers?
Yes	43	54.43%
No	13	16.46%
Not sure	23	29.11%
COMMENTS I don't believe we have very much travel to Belgium if any. I will be looking in to this as a result of this new information. If we have business travelers to Belgium, then they are returning to their country of employment. What do they mean with business travelers vs. people seeking employment in Belgium? In 2006 we had 5 travelers stop/transit Belgium, all for less than 2 days per trip. It is unclear to me if this applies to foreign nationals who are paid in the USA, even though they are working on our Brussels campus for a couple of weeks. Limited impact to just a handful of travelers, at most. More than 5 consecutive days means six days - most people work 5 days but with a project impending located in Brussels - this could mean our employees needing to register. Our EU HQ is in Antwerp. Plus manufacturing in AMS area. Our international corporate headquarters is in Brussels. This will affect a lot of our travelers that visit work out of that office. Very few travelers to Europe - may be only 1-2 year to Belgium. We have our European headquarters in Belgium. So does this new law apply? Does this law apply to employees who live and work in other EU countries but also travel to Belgium to work at our headquarters? We have travelers that frequent Brussels and sometimes stay longer than five business days. We typically spend more than 5 days a week when consulting for a Belgian client We will not do business in Belgium if this goes through. .
3. What are the implications for your travel program?
COMMENTS Added work load to all travelers. Additional administration needed to monitor the travel days for our employees. Additional programming costs for quality control to advise travelers, liability opened up for travelers already booked. As a travel management company, it adds yet more red tape and checks our consultants have to deal with, for no compensation from the authorities who dream up such pointless schemes. Could mean that company institutes new processes around this destination. Don't send many to Belgium and seldom for more than 5 days. Getting the information to each traveler and ensuring they are registered. Heavier level of management - possibly limiting travel time to bypass. I will need to make few and shorter trips and leverage the internet to conduct business. It is now similar to getting a VISA to enter the country. It will make business travel to Belgium much more difficult to arrange, if this applies when not being paid by a Belgium organization. It's a nuisance. Just one more inconvenience put on global travelers or their employers. Just wondering if this is applicable to EU member countries? It's not very clear on their website. Light, but still of concern if it affects a traveler. Limited impact for employees traveling longer than five days. Loss in business and revenue for the entire country. Making people aware of the need to register. Minor as it relates to Belgium, however we will be watching for other countries to follow suit. More monitoring, hassle, potentially more expense if people decide to stay for 4 days, go somewhere else, and then go back to Belgium. Must notify every traveler to Belgium. My travelers stay abroad more than 5 days. Visas could become costly. Need to develop process to insure travelers are notified and have the proper information prior to departure. Need to put internal process in place to identify travelers this policy would apply to. Then need to communicate requirements. Negative impact, as we have a number of employees traveling to Belgium. Maintaining records of the number of days per employee will be incredibly labor intensive No implications for Belgium, but there could be implications if other countries follow suit. No implications for now, but could affect our ability willingness to perform work at clients based in Belgium. None (4 participants) Not fully understanding "who" has to register so unsure today. Not Sure Yet. It depends on how much Belgium travel I uncover and the reason for the travel. Not sure, it will force us to take a look at our travel just to see what if any impact it could have. Not sure. Not yet clear. Do however not see major issues with what is called business travel in general. Numerous travelers to Belgium. One more rule to remember and advise travelers going to that destination. Raise awareness. Rescheduling trips. Since we have an office in Belgium, it will impact us negatively. It will be an extra step and add unusual workflows into the process. Sounds like a bit more work, coordination and planning. That remains to be seen. The Limosa information is not clear .. we'll see. The need to advise travellers of this requirement The only implication would be if we decided to open an office or have a new customer in Belgium. The Travel Policy will need to be revised to incorporate this new rule. We will also need to create a seamless process to ensure compliance. To ensure compliance - keeping business name out of any adverse publicity. Unclear - we do not do much travel to Belgium - my do even less in future. Unknown at this point. We are monitoring our travelers going to this country. At this time we do not have enough details on this new policy and how it's being implemented. We have to check with our legal department to review the implications. We need to figure out a way to track the employees travel into Belgium and/or ensure employees proactively register or get our TMC to do it. We'll have to develop a process to comply. We'll work elsewhere in the EC, costing Belgium our hotel and meals which move elsewhere, and possibly air flights. We'll work out of Paris and visit Belgium only when we need do. Will add some inconvenience. Will have to spend more and keep people there less than 10 days. Will require the Belgians either to come to us or meet in a neighboring country. Would only impact us if we had business travel to Belgium, which we do not at this time- If we should have travel there, it adds another layer of complexity to an already complex industry.
4. What, if any, actions are you considering as a result of this new policy?
COMMENTS 1. Announce the new rule to all of our travelers 2. Register with Belgian Social Security 3. Serve as "agent" to submit the declarations on behalf of our travelers until we figure out a process that will allow our travelers to submit their own declarations, and still allow me to have visibility to ensure compliance. 4. Contact our travel agency to see what they are doing to help comply with this new rule. Additional communications. Advise our corporate. As we currently have no Belgian office, it will have little impact on us internally, as we can shift our focus of consulting activities to France. At the present time we are trying to determine how big this issue is and come up with a more formal directive on how to deal with it... Hopefully ACTE and other travel groups can bring some direction/common sense/reality checks to this. At this time, we are monitoring our bookings and working with proper government authorities to investigate this new policy. Belgium is not currently a country where we have many business interests, however, I have alerted my team of global mobility specialists worldwide of Belgium's policy so that they may coach future travelers. Bringing this to Sr. Mgt. attention in the hopes of convincing the Belgium gov't this hampers business in their country. Checking to see if our work for NATO or if SOFA applies to our travelers. Communicate new law to travelers. Communications and working with our agency to advise those traveling to Belgium who will be there more than 5 days. Consult with TMG to ensure policy is documented. Create a new process, communicate via our Intranet business travel site and partner with our TMC to alert travelers at point of sale to register. Designing the process to track these employees and ensure we are compliant. Either doing that in our travel group, with our TMC or requiring the employee to do it. I do not know yet. I will have our TMC flag all Belgium travel so we can ensure our travelers going to Belgium are informed of the new rule. I will seriously recommend to our travelers that unless it is absolutely critical that they avoid Belgium travel so we don't have to go through this paperwork bureaucracy. Identifying how this law applies to our company worldwide and notifying the travelers as soon as possible. I've copied the European HR folks and the sponsors of the project. Just research at this point Limit travel to Belgium whenever possible Looking at process implications. Make sure our travel agencies apprise affected travelers No action for now. (9 participants) I hope other countries do not follow suit. Not going to Belgium. Not going to Belgium...may just go somewhere else. Notification to travelers. Out outside legal counsel is looking into this. If there is any type of waiver, we will look into obtaining such. Providing information to all employees worldwide, create awareness of the program through mailing, posting articles on the Intranet. Rescheduling trips. Still inquiring. Take business out of Belgium. Talk to the Belgian authorities. Travelers to Belgium will have to be flagged at the point of sale, and then given the limosa url. Since the limosa site is far from clear, an additional communication will be prepared and sent - once the limosa thing is deciphered. Train my Operations Staff to spot circumstances where this reporting is required and articles in our e-newsletters, together with derogatory remarks about the Belgian Government! Unknown at this time - will have to rely on agency. Visiting the country less. We will organize meetings at the end of the month. We need to first determine if it applies to the USA- employed staff traveling to Belgium to work on our Brussels campus for 5-30 days. If it does, we will have to create new procedures to arrange travel. We will communicate to affected travelers. We will have to see what if any impact it will have on our travel program. We will switch our meetings to other countries.