Whether it’s for sales meetings, trade shows, or conferences, travel is important for any business. But with increasing costs and a remote work model, corporate travel has become more complicated than ever. This is why a corporate travel policy, or a set of guidelines to ensure your team is efficient with costs, understands their limits, and stays safe while on the road, is essential. Whether you’re creating a new corporate travel policy from scratch or revising a pre-existing one, there’s a lot to take into account. An effective travel policy sets consistent standards for everyone in the organization—including executives, managers, finance teams, and business travelers—regarding business travel.
1. Identify Your Objectives
Before starting any project, you want to know why you’re doing it. What are the business goals you’re looking to achieve by documenting your corporate travel policy? Defining your goals is crucial since it gives the project direction and focus. If your top priority is keeping costs down, then you know to put an extra emphasis on that section and make sure there is enough specificity to meet those goals. This can include setting caps on expenses, promoting cost-effective transportation options, and encouraging the use of budget accommodations.
Additionally, if your team needs to travel internationally, you should make sure to understand policies around work visas, exchange rates, and travel safety. Each of these elements can have financial and logistical implications, which need to be carefully considered and addressed in your policy. Identifying these objectives early on will help you prioritize what is most important and get the most value out of your travel policy.
A clearly defined objective not only provides a roadmap for drafting the policy but also highlights key areas that require attention. Once these objectives are set, it becomes easier to decide on other elements of the policy, such as approval processes, booking guidelines, and expense categories. When your goals are streamlined, your policy will reflect an organized approach that is beneficial to both the company’s bottom line and employees’ convenience.
2. Recognize Your Team’s Requirements
Since your employees are the ones actually going on the trips, you need to understand what their needs are. Consult your team to get a sense of the current process for booking and approving travel. What’s working and what’s not? Feedback from your team will help you identify pain points and areas that require improvements. This will allow you to create a policy that’s not only compliant with your organizational goals but also user-friendly and efficient for those it affects directly.
While meeting your business goals is crucial, it’s just as important to take into account the real-world experience your team has with travel. This can include understanding their preferences for booking procedures, preferred vendors, and what kind of support they need while traveling. By doing so, you ensure that the policy doesn’t feel like an imposition and that it’s something employees will want to adhere to.
Employee input is invaluable for creating a comprehensive and balanced travel policy. Taking their experiences and preferences into account will ultimately result in a better understanding of the policy and overall morale. Respecting your employees’ insights and incorporating them into the policy will make it more robust and practical. Listening to your team’s requirements can also make the policy adaptable and more efficient in addressing real-world travel scenarios.
3. Draft Your Policy
Now you’re ready to put pen to paper. Make sure the policy is written in a clear and concise way that leaves no room for ambiguity. A well-documented policy is easy to follow and doesn’t require extensive explanations. Here are some critical sections you should include in your draft:
Policies for Booking Travel
Explain how your employees should book travel for business purposes. Do they contact an in-house travel manager or your company’s preferred travel agency to start the booking process? Or are they allowed to self-book using travel management software? Provide a detailed outline of each step and any resources they need, such as login credentials for booking tools or contact information for travel managers.
Preferred Vendors and Reimbursement
Mention any preferred vendors for air travel, accommodations, or car rentals, and include incentives for rewards or loyalty points. Describe the procedures for claiming reimbursements in detail. Clearly outline what expenses will be covered, what won’t be, and the necessary approvals required before and after travel. A detailed reimbursement system will minimize disputes and clarify expectations.
Policies Around Domestic and International Travel
For international travel, guidelines around work visas, exchange rates, and cultural considerations should be included. Ensure your policy provides clarity on the procedures for booking both domestic and international travel, and distinguish between them where necessary. This may include different classes of service for air travel or budget caps applicable based on the destination.
Emergency Protocols
Every travel policy should have an emergency protocol section. Outline procedures for emergencies, including who to contact and what steps to take in situations like flight cancellations, medical emergencies, or natural disasters. Make sure to include points of contact and any relevant emergency response procedures your company has in place.
4. Share and Refine Your Policy
Travel plays a crucial role in various business activities such as sales meetings, trade shows, and conferences. However, with rising costs and the prevalence of remote work models, managing corporate travel has become increasingly complex. This complexity underscores the need for a comprehensive corporate travel policy. Such a policy serves as a set of guidelines to help teams manage travel expenses efficiently, understand their budgets and limits, and ensure their safety while traveling.
When creating or updating a corporate travel policy, several factors need to be considered. Effective travel policies are crucial as they establish uniform standards for everyone in the organization involved in business travel. This includes executives, managers, finance departments, and the business travelers themselves. A well-defined travel policy ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding acceptable practices and procedures for business travel.
By having a structured approach to corporate travel, companies can better manage costs, improve safety, and streamline the travel process, making it easier for employees to focus on their primary tasks without unnecessary stress or confusion. Ultimately, a solid corporate travel policy not only enhances operational efficiency but also supports the overall well-being and productivity of the team.
