A well-written corporate travel policy provides guidance for business travelers while helping organizations influence behavior, manage spend, utilize preferred suppliers, and keep travelers safe. Despite the numerous benefits a travel policy provides, travel managers still face policy compliance challenges.
How do you move the needle on compliance without creating too much turbulence amongst your travelers? At what stage in your program do you consider introducing a mandated policy? Or do you continue with travel guidelines only?
A corporate travel policy contains the guidelines defined by business leaders to manage employee travel bookings and spending when traveling for business purposes (e.g., conferences, sales meetings, and internal meetings). . A corporate travel policy is an attempt to organize travel so it becomes as effective, cost-efficient, safe, and easy for everyone involved.
Let’s talk about the range of travel program policy options: mandated, hybrid and flexible.
With a mandated policy, strict rules are enforced which limit traveler choice in favor of specific booking channels, suppliers, routes, and budgets. For instance, employees may be required to book all travel (air, hotel, and car rentals) through the TMC, forcing them to forego loyalty points, discounts, and other perks offered on supplier or OTA websites.
The opposite side of the travel policy range is a “flexible” policy that allows employees the freedom to book business travel wherever they choose, while still adhering to the budget. Google and Salesforce are two cutting-edge organizations that are known for their open booking policies and Netflix is famous for their five-word travel and expense policy: “Act in Netflix’s Best Interest”.
Are there benefits to mandating that still empower your travelers the freedom of personal choice while allowing you to retain more control? The answer is yes!
A hybrid policy blends the best of both worlds, incorporating mandated elements while still providing employees flexibility to make their own purchase decisions, and leveraging technology to connect the dots for effective program management.
By adopting an omnichannel travel data aggregation tool, such as Traxo, you benefit from real-time data capture, immediately after any travel transaction takes place. This empowers you, as the travel manager, to design a corporate travel policy suited to your company culture and employee priorities.
Leveraging a hybrid program with an omnichannel approach – capturing travel data from all sources –your travel policy is empowered to:
Determining which policy type is right for your organization and its travelers requires a thorough analysis of company travel volume, goals, and culture. Regardless of the policy you choose to implement, it’s best to eliminate booking blind spots by accessing complete travel data with a data aggregation solution like Traxo. Get started with Traxo today.