You already know all too well the importance of a solid corporate travel policy. While you’re well versed in its need to align to your company culture and the goals of your organization, is your policy covering all the topics it needs to? Here are some points your policy should cover:
Travel requests/pre-trip approvals
To avoid unnecessary T&E expenditures, consider implementing a pre-trip approval process for employees to submit a travel request to an approver. Be sure to outline the pertinent details travellers need to include, such as the destination, dates of travel, purpose of the trip and estimated costs.
Booking
Your travel policy should also have a section on how to book trips and why it’s so important to make in-policy bookings for duty of care purposes. You may also wish to define how far in advance employees must make reservations for the ultimate savings on airfares and hotel rates.
Preferred suppliers
Depending on your organization’s annual travel spend, you may or may not have special arrangements with select travel suppliers. If you do have written agreements in place, explain to employees that’s it’s vital they book with these suppliers to maximize savings.
Air
In addition to encouraging employees to book with your company’s preferred airline carrier(s), implement rules on what kind of seat class employees can book. Also state whether amenities that traditionally were included in the airfare but no longer necessarily are (such as checked luggage, meals and in-flight entertainment) will be covered by you. You also may wish to define other cost-saving measures, such as when to take a connecting flight vs. nonstop and how many hours before/after the requested departure time they should book if a lower fare is found.
Lodging
In addition to promoting your hotel guidelines — whether that’s booking rooms with preferred suppliers only or not surpassing a rate cap by city — you also might specify that only standard rooms can be booked and which incidental expenses are reimbursable.
Rail & Car
If offering rail as an option, spell out when employees may book business class vs. coach or express vs. regional. There also should be guidelines in place on how travellers should get from Point A to Point B once they arrive at their destination. For car hire, denote the class of vehicle employees can procure and how other costs, like fuel, tolls and parking, will be covered. Be sure to also include details about auto insurance coverage and accident information.
Per diem
You’ll need to inform employees what their daily allowance for meals, gratuities and incidental expenses is. You also might be specific on the policy on alcohol and if and when costs will be covered by the company.
Payment and reimbursement
The policy should explain how travel costs should be paid for, as well as how travellers should submit their expenses for reimbursement and what is required of them.
Travel risk management
Because it is so important for companies to prepare their travellers for a crisis situation as part of their duty of care obligation, we suggest devoting an entire section to this topic and clearly outlining what they should do in an emergency. Be sure to encourage employees to book travel using your company’s approved online booking tool so that all their itinerary details are captured and they make sure all their emergency contact details are up-to-date in their profiles.
To make sure your policy is covering all of the must-haves, please reach out to your Account Manager.