How to Ensure Compliance in Business Travel?

A corporate travel policy is a set of rules and regulations that employees must follow while booking, approving, or spending on business travel. Generally, the company’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO) lays down the guidelines and rules to form a corporate travel policy. Besides the CFO, travel and finance managers also assist in the process and determine factors that impact the budget and frequency of corporate travel. 

Business travel policies differ from organisation to organisation, but the requirement for such policies is essential for everyone. These policies help the organisation in controlling costs, reducing problems with reimbursements, and inducing a sense of fairness in the company culture. A structured framework also ensures that all employees adhere to the rules and guidelines. Moreover, it gives immense freedom to employees to manage their own schedule within the set guidelines.  

Here’s taking a look at ways in which you can ensure compliance in business travel.  

Let’s be honest here: there's no use of a corporate travel policy if the needs of the employees aren’t taken into consideration. Often, finance managers try to squeeze the budget for travel. In the process, they sometimes end up ignoring some basic requirements of employees, including preferred flight time, duration, weekend/weekday travel, and in-city transfers.  

For instance, some employees might want to travel during the weekends, others might want to travel in the morning of a weekday and return home by the end of the day. Therefore, to meet the basic requirements of employees, feedback is very important. In fact, it should be encouraged to improve the travel policy and the services offered by the channel partners who manage all your company's travel needs. Keeping the employees in the loop will also ensure business travel compliance. 

Explain the Drawbacks of Non-compliance  

Non-compliance directly leads to confusion. If you have employees that regularly travel to different destinations, you should explain to them the importance of keeping policy guidelines in mind. Unnecessary spending, overstays, or making bookings outside the authorised channels can cause monetary loss. Employees should also be aware that non-compliance will lead to the rejection of reimbursement requests.  

Lead by Setting an Example 

Top stakeholders are the people who can show employees the benefits of following the company travel policy by following it themselves. It is always a better idea to lead by example. For example, being Vice President of Operations could give someone the power to go beyond the set travel policy in terms of expenses. However, it would still be in the organisation's best interest to keep expenses within prescribed limits.  

Similarly, the company’s Human Resource (HR) department can also take small initiatives to incentivise compliant business travel. Employees who follow the guidelines may be rewarded with complimentary room upgrades, business lounge access, and the flexibility to extend their work trip if they so desire. This will not only help curtail financial losses but also create a healthy work environment within the organisation. 

Automate Business Travel Compliance 

Once you have created a corporate policy and put it in place for your employees, you need to find a way to ensure that the policy is being followed. If you’re wondering how to ease out the whole booking, transaction, and reimbursement process, you should note that automation is key.  

Automating policy compliance can solve the problem of finding, booking, and executing business travel while remaining in sync with the set guidelines. It’ll not only decrease manual labour but also solve the problem of non-compliance. 

Also Read: An Ultimate Guide on Corporate Travel Policy for Employees

myBiz, powered by MakeMyTrip, is a business travel planning and management platform where you can upload your company’s travel policy so that employees only see hotel and flight options that are business travel policy compliant. These options would also be within the budget, thereby creating a seamless approval system.  

Apart from this, myBiz also helps in booking modifications and GST compliance. It also helps companies access historical travel data so they can easily create a travel policy draft. Want to know more?