What does a great travel policy look like? It’s short, to the point, and easy to understand.
Whether you’re a business that designs microchips, engineers submarines or provides legal services, a great business travel policy will benefit you and your travellers, and it’s very achievable for all kinds of companies. Here are our key insights into how you can create a policy that really makes a difference when trying to gain greater value and compliance from your travel programme. From there, you can start making headway on your overall business objectives too.
The introduction
Create an introduction that sets out the overarching objectives for your business. What are your aspirational goals (environment, cost reduction, traveller wellbeing etc). This is the first thing your end user is going to see, so you should aim to get your most important points across first.
Keep it simple
Try and keep your policy short and to the point and use language that is relevant and recognisable in your business. We frequently see policies of 30+ pages which can be a rather daunting experience for people to try and navigate.
If you have a long policy or a combined travel and expense policy, think about segmenting it and creating smaller sections. Hyperlinks are a great way to improve the navigation of the policy especially if you are a new starter in a business, so if you are referencing other policy areas, sources of information, or online booking tools, then make it easier for people to find by adding a hyperlink.
Be specific
Challenge yourself to get the main point across in 50 words or less. If you need to provide further guidance or exceptions, do that in separate paragraphs but keep it short and to the point - and don’t duplicate information that already exists elsewhere in the policy.
Make it realistic
Many companies aspire to book travel 14+ days in advance and when it comes to saving money, that’s the right approach, however, is that realistic for your business? Evaluate your current performance and align your policy, or alternatively work with your TMC to actively target the wrong booking behaviour.
Be comprehensive
A lot of policies we review don’t cover how, when, or where to book meetings and events. Organisations are also increasingly focussing on sustainability but don’t relate it to their travel policy. Ask yourself and the wider business what areas of travel or meetings are undertaken and how should sustainability influence people’s choice to travel? Then, cover those areas off within your policy.
Consider if it will age well
There are some things that ‘date’ your policy very quickly like the rate at which mileage can be reclaimed and your hotel rate caps. Avoid having to frequently update your policy and instead signpost to where the most up to date information is being held.
Review it
Lastly, make sure you review your policy on an annual basis at a minimum, that doesn’t mean you have to re-write the policy each year, but that you do a sanity check against your business objectives and review it in the context of your actual performance. You may need to make minor tweaks to adjust to changing environments, however, by keeping your policy up to date you ensure there is one source of the truth that is easily accessible and easy to understand.
How many months since you reviewed your policy?
- 0-6 months
- 6-12 months
- 12-24 months
- 24+ months
Get in touch
We can support you with your policy re-write either collaboratively involving all relevant stakeholders or as a stand alone project with input from you, get in touch with the team to see how we can help.