As a Personal Assistant, your job is to do precisely thatโassist. Your executive is a very busy person, with a lot of appointments, commitments, and excursions that youโll need to manage and smooth into a functional work day. They need to know what’s going on and when, what time they are expected to be where, how they are going to get there, that the dry cleaning is collected, and that every conference call is scheduled.
Now, while not every boss is as demanding as the infamous Miranda Priestly, who wants steak before the restaurants open and hot coffee from more than five blocks away, being a Personal Assistant will almost always be a challenging job. As an employee, your job will be made a bit more difficult when your boss is on an international trip for work or pleasure. Fitting in both work and play, managing logistics and personal belongings while youโre halfway across the world; it’s a tall order.
Luckily, youโve come to the right place! Weโve got your international planning covered with six simple rules for every PAโs international travel planning prep.
Rules for international travel planning
1.ย ย ย Build backwards
This might sound counterintuitive, but hear us out. Building your employerโs itinerary backwards, rather than from the start to the end of the trip, will prevent a lot of last-minute changes to our perfectly curated schedule down the line.
Begin building your schedule with the non-negotiables of the trip: things that cannot be missed, forgotten or avoided no matter what. Any fixed commitment, such as a work deadline, an important meeting, or a family memberโs birthday event, is non-negotiable; add those to the schedule first. Once all of those are in, book travel particulars, such as a private jet charter, helicopter transfers, car services, and accommodations. Continue to work through the list of priorities, checking things off as you go: jet lag recovery time and rest days, entertainment, and sightseeing (if a business trip allows for these). Remember that priorities will likely be reversed in the case of a trip solely for leisure, buffers of time for customs and border or immigration control, etc. Remember to take local working hours into account when planning this crucial part of the schedule.
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2.ย ย ย Become a time zone master
An international trip is likely to mean a time change. If there’s a significant jump, youโll need to allocate more time for jet lag correction above, while a smaller one will take less rest to even out. Time zone changes can significantly impact efficiency if not properly accounted for. Head into the solution with all the backup that modern technology can offer you.
- Make use of world clocks that have auto DST updates for when you find yourself in a new time zone.
- Ensure that all calendars are labelled in local time, rather than the time the event or meeting will take place back home.
Remember that it’s our job to make your employerโs day a smooth one. Making them happy will lead to a happy, cooperative and collaborative working environment in which you both have the opportunity to thrive.
3.ย ย ย Centralise all planning information
Some employers don’t want to see โthe working out,โ they just want to know the answer at the end of the sum. This is beneficial, as it indicates trust; however, we recommend that you ensure all planning information is easily accessible and viewable. If the client needs to access information without going through you, they prefer to keep a finger on the pulse of their own schedules. They also like to keep all planning information, travel details, documents, and schedule information in one Google Drive (or your preferred cloud storage) folder. Create subfolders for each part of the trip, such as business, leisure, accommodation, transport, etc. Maintaining a spreadsheet of expenses may be overkill for permanent employees, but it is advisable for new employees or those working on a freelance basis as well.
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4.ย ย ย Prepare for the unplanned
Prepare yourself, because this may be hard to hear: no matter how flawless your planning, no matter how neatly and puzzle-piece-perfectly your schedule is put together, there will still be problems. An unexpected weather event is going to make traffic impossible, potentially causing your employee to be late or even miss a meeting altogether. Hotels are likely to overbook, and eventually, if your employee travels frequently, they could be a victim of this. Don’t get too worried! To prepare for times when these issues arise, it is essential to always have a backup or contingency plan. Every set of clothing has another top or pair of pants to go with it, youโve already scouted out a backup hotel, a second restaurant is on speed dial, you have every one of your employeesโ essential contactsโ PAs numbers and emails saved, and youโre faster on the draw than Wild Bill Hickok in a standoff. This is how to navigate what you cannot avoid.
5.ย ย ย Learn and improve
After a trip has concluded, give yourself a breather and then debrief. What went right and should be related to travel habits? What went alright, but could be made to flow more smoothly and practically for your client? What was an utter failure and must be scrapped altogether? Reflect on the trip and its events, learning from any mistakes that occurred so that they don’t happen again.
Destination: Success
So you see, it’s simpler than you think! Taking the time to plan well ensures that a trip will never be wasted and that your client will always get what they need out of you as an employee and the experience itself.
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