Why Your Company Needs a Well-Defined Corporate Travel Policy?
Your company can increase the number of domestic and international trips by investing more funds in business travel. However, it cannot improve the return on investment (ROI) without streamlining a complex process like corporate travel management.
A well-defined corporate travel policy helps your company streamline the multistep process in several ways. The guidelines and procedures laid down in the policy will help employees plan business trips, make business travel arrangements, and mitigate business travel risks.
Hence, they can accomplish business travel goals by remaining safe and stress-free. At the same time, a clear business travel policy will help your company reduce the average business trip costs and find opportunities to control costs using company travel software.
Your company can increase the ROI of business travel in several ways by implementing, communicating, and enforcing a tailored travel and expense (T&E) policy. Here are some reasons why a well-defined corporate travel policy is essential for your company.
7 Reasons Why a Well-Defined Corporate Travel Policy is Essential for Your Company
1. Control Corporate Travel Costs
Employees spend a large part of business travel budgets on essential business travel products like flights, accommodations, and car rentals. Your company allows them to book their choice of travel products by supporting self-booking.
You can make employees save money on business travel booking by implementing a clear corporate travel policy. Employees can refer to the policy to know what travel products to book and travel expenses to avoid.
At the same time, the guidelines make them save money by booking business trips early and opting for fully flexible tickets. Your company can further reduce costs by centralizing business travel booking using a travel management company or implementing company travel booking software.
2. Minimize Corporate Travel Risks
A well-crafted policy will make your company meet its duty-of-care obligation by ensuring the safety and security of employees engaging in corporate travel. Employees can eliminate travel risks and overcome travel challenges by adhering to preset guidelines.
At the same time, the policy will keep them safe and stress-free by tracking their real-time locations, delivering real-time information, and providing 24/7 travel assistance. At the same time, your company can partner with a global health and security risk management firm to provide emergency assistance to each employee regardless of the business travel destination.
3. Boost Business Travel Experiences
Employees cannot accomplish business travel goals if they experience stress or feel unmotivated. A well-drafted corporate travel policy focuses on improving the experience of each business travel in several ways. Firstly, it helps employees choose and book their preferred travel products without putting in extra time and effort.
Secondly, it keeps employees confident and motivated by ensuring travel support and emergency assistance. Thirdly, the policy creates opportunities for them to indulge in leisure activities during business trips by supporting bleisure travel.
The improved business travel experience and safety motivate employees to accomplish preset goals. Hence, it becomes easier for your company to generate incremental revenue by making business trips successful.
4. Facilitate End-to-End Process Automation
Automation is one of the key elements of corporate travel policy-making. While making the policy, your company can improve operational efficiency and control ongoing costs by automating the corporate travel management process fully. Feature-rich company travel software helps you automate several crucial steps in the process.
Your company can implement the right software to automate crucial activities like corporate travel booking, travel cost management, and travel and expense (T&E) expense data. Also, leading travel management solutions optimize the process using transformative technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics.
5. Streamline Travel Expense Management
Your company cannot increase the ROI of business travel without streamlining the travel expense management process. A well-crafted corporate travel policy streamlines the complex financial process by improving travel expense tracking, processing, and auditing.
The policy makes your company implement software that facilitates real-time travel expense tracking by providing intuitive dashboards. You can use the dashboard to review and analyze travel expenses by generating and scheduling custom reports.
At the same time, the software helps you prevent policy violations and expense fraud by conducting travel expense audits regularly. Hence, you can control costs and find cost-saving opportunities by implementing a clear business travel policy.
6. Facilitate Data-Driven Decision Making
A new-age corporate travel policy focuses extensively on leveraging T&E data. It sets guidelines for unification, safety, and analysis of travel and expense data of employees. The policy ensures that your employees share and exchange personal and sensitive data safely and confidently.
At the same time, it emphasizes storing T&E data centrally and updating the data regularly. Also, it creates opportunities for your company to make sense of the real-time T&E data using data analytics solutions.
Data analytics solutions share actionable insights gained by analyzing T&E data regularly and automatically. You can use data-driven insights to refine travel policies, meet travelers’ expectations, adopt emerging trends, and find cost-saving opportunities.
7. Improve Company Image
Your company can use corporate travel policies as an instrument to enhance its image. While making the policy, you should make corporate travel sustainable by making employees opt for direct flights, green hotels, and recyclable travel accessories.
The commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions helps your company impress customers, investors, and other stakeholders. At the same time, the policy can help employees enhance the company image by providing etiquette training.
Also, the focus on improving business travel experience and safety helps your company attract and retain top talent. Hence, you can implement a tailored corporate travel policy to improve corporate image and reputation consistently.
Conclusion
A well-crafted corporate travel policy helps your company generate incremental revenue and increase market share. Along with helping employees accomplish business travel goals, the guidelines create opportunities for your organization to reduce the average business trip costs.
But you need to ensure that the corporate travel policy includes strict and flexible guidelines simultaneously. Strict guidelines will help your company ensure traveler safety and control costs. Flexible guidelines will boost employees’ business travel experience by providing options and choices.
At the same time, your policy must focus on end-to-end process automation by implementing customizable and extensible company travel booking software. Additionally, you must focus on communicating and enforcing the policy effectively, after defining the rules, guidelines, and procedures.
