A Successful Business Travel Policy

 A Successful Business Travel Policy

The idea that business travelers hate their company's policy is false. Assuming the policy is reasonable and allows them to carry out their duties effectively, employees generally prefer clear expectations and guidelines for adhering to business policy. Business travelers and their employers both gain from a well-planned corporate travel policy.


If your firm has tasked you with creating a corporate travel policy, your objective, from their perspective, should be to establish guidelines that standardize business expenses, cut out unnecessary spending while traveling, and establish some controls over that aspect of business expenses. Consequently, the declared business policy should cover a few specific points, such as...

* Bookings. A travel agency that specializes in finding business-friendly deals can be hired by the corporation. Finding and taking advantage of the greatest rates is possible, but only if the demands of the business traveler and the trip's business aim are met. The employee is given clear instructions on how to manage the matter, and it is not unjust to require them to use the corporate travel agent again.

* How credit is used. Establishing corporate credit cards to be used by your traveling personnel requires some work and money. However, you can track most of the employee's business spending by redirecting them to the corporate account. As a result, business travelers don't have to worry about paying for things like airfare and hotel rooms out of their own pockets.

* Rewards for travel. Businesses can set up corporate accounts with the main airlines to accumulate frequent flyer points if they use a travel agency, either in-house or contracted out. That way, the company can put those miles to good use by using them as a substantial reduction to the trip budget.

* Daily Rate. Expenditures for lodging, transportation, and meals while on the road should be explicitly laid out in your company's travel policy and communicated to employees. You should intervene before the employee develops a habit of spending more than necessary on a daily basis. To reflect current costs, this section of the policy should be evaluated every year.

* Documentation. The expenditure reporting system is confusing and difficult to use, which is a major gripe that employees have with company travel plans. Each time an employee travels for business, you will provide them with a standardized form that they must complete out in order to receive reimbursement for their expenses. Take a look at these forms and maybe even make your own to make sure the structure is clear and that you've thought of everything an employee could spend money on.
Your company's travel policy should cover these broad areas, but they should also provide some wiggle room for employees in really tough situations. The employee's room and food costs can fluctuate greatly based on the location of their vacation. So, you shouldn't limit an employee's hotel spending to $125 per night just because they have to stay in New York City for work, even when that's a realistic fee for a comfortable Lincoln, Nebraska hotel.

In order to make business travel work as it should—as a productive, goal-oriented activity that accomplishes the enterprise's objectives—you need a policy that both protects the corporate budget and is practical for employees who are on the clock for company business.

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