6 Steps to an Effective Travel Policy: Boost Compliance & Traveler Happiness

Is your company's travel policy due for an upgrade? With rising travel costs and travelers becoming increasingly tech-savvy, outdated policies can lead to frustration, wasted money, and a lot of headaches for everyone involved.

While travel managers often prioritize compliance as a key cost-control measure, the reality is that a significant number of business travelers book outside of company guidelines. This compliance gap, highlighted in recent research, reveals a fundamental challenge for today's corporate travel programs.

The good news? By moving away from rigid, one-size-fits-all policies and embracing a more dynamic approach, you can create a travel program that works for both your company and your employees.

Key Takeaways

• Modernize Your Approach: Ditch the rigid rulebook and embrace a dynamic, traveler-centric policy.
• Communicate Clearly: Use clear, concise language that's easy for everyone to understand.
• Embrace Technology: Leverage tools that streamline booking and boost compliance.
• Prioritize Safety: Implement risk management strategies and ensure traveler well-being.
• Adapt to Trends: Accommodate bleisure travel, remote work realities, and evolving traveler expectations.
• Use Data to Optimize: Track key metrics, analyze spending patterns, and continuously improve your policy.

Understanding the Modern Compliance Challenge

To build a truly effective travel policy, you first need to understand why employees might not be following the rules. Here are a few common roadblocks:

• Communication Barriers: Even when policies are well documented, they can be difficult to understand and apply in real-world situations. Employees need clear, concise guidelines that are free of jargon and legalese.
• Technology Friction: Outdated or cumbersome booking tools can create resistance in the compliance process. When it's a pain to book trips within policy, employees are more likely to seek alternatives outside of approved channels.
• Evolving Expectations: Today's workforce expects greater autonomy and flexibility in their travel arrangements. This includes options for bleisure travel, considerations for well-being, and the ability to use preferred booking platforms. Traditional policies often fail to meet these evolving needs.

Now that we've identified the challenges, let's dive into six actionable steps to create a travel policy that actually works.

Step 1: Establish Clear Booking Guidelines

• Set Clear Expectations: Establish clear parameters for booking travel, including advance booking requirements, preferred booking channels and platforms, and class of service guidelines. Strike a balance between cost-consciousness and traveler comfort.
• Streamline Approvals: Develop straightforward approval workflows that minimize friction in the booking process. This will help reduce delays and frustration for travelers while maintaining necessary organizational controls.

Step 2: Prioritize Safety & Risk Management

• Assess & Mitigate: Implement pre-trip risk assessment protocols to identify and mitigate potential travel risks. Provide clear health and safety guidelines to employees traveling to different destinations.
• Be Prepared: Establish clear emergency contact procedures and support systems to assist employees in the event of unexpected situations. Ensure comprehensive travel insurance coverage is in place to protect both the traveler and organization.

Step 3: Adapt to Contemporary Travel Trends

• Embrace Bleisure: Recognize the growing trend of bleisure travel (combining business and leisure travel) and define clear guidelines for extended stays and mixed-purpose trips. Clearly outline how costs are split between business and personal expenses for bleisure trips, and ensure insurance coverage accounts for blended travel purposes.
• Support Remote Work: Address the complexities of travel for a remote workforce, including guidelines for collaboration trips, office visits, and the technology required to support a mobile work environment.

Step 4: Leverage Technology as an Enabler

• Empower With Tech: Utilize real-time policy enforcement systems that guide employees toward compliant bookings rather than simply restricting their choices. Integrate mobile-first booking platforms to provide easy, on-the-go access to travel resources and booking tools.
• Automate & Integrate: Automate approval workflows for routine travel requests to streamline the booking process and reduce administrative burden. Connect booking tools with seamless expense management systems to capture travel data and simplify expense reporting.

Step 5: Use Data-Driven Insights for Continuous Improvement

• Track & Measure: Monitor compliance rates with real-time tracking tools. Analyze spending patterns to identify cost-saving opportunities and areas where policy adjustments may be needed. Measure policy effectiveness using clearly defined metrics.
• Optimize for Success: Use data-driven insights to optimize your travel policy and ensure it aligns with organizational goals. Evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of your travel program to assess its overall effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

Step 6: Plan & Execute Implementation

• Prepare for Success: Identify key stakeholders and engage them in the policy development process. Analyze your current travel policy to identify gaps and areas for improvement. Assess your technology infrastructure to ensure it can support the new policy and associated tools.
• Develop a Timeline: Set clear milestones for rolling out the new travel policy. Build in feedback loops to continually refine the process.
• Build User-Friendly Systems: Create practical, user-friendly systems and processes that align with both traveler needs and organizational goals. Ensure that booking tools, expense management systems, and communication channels are intuitive and easy to navigate.
• Train & Communicate: Conduct training sessions and deploy clear, accessible communication materials to educate employees about the new travel policy. Use a variety of channels (e.g.: email, intranet, in-person sessions) to ensure the information reaches all relevant employees.
• Optimize Based on Feedback: Gather user feedback post-implementation to identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to enhance policy effectiveness. Continuously monitor and refine your travel policy to ensure it remains relevant and effective in the ever-changing business travel landscape.

Business Travel's Integrated Solution

At Business Travel, we make it easy to create and enforce modern, traveler-friendly policies. Our platform combines intuitive booking tools with powerful policy enforcement capabilities, so compliance becomes second nature.

Ready to transform your travel policy? Contact Business Travel today to learn how can help take the hassle out of your travel program.