Ensuring Travel Policy Compliance With The Help of Travel Management Systems
For example, when you are dealing with complex business procedures like travel management, well-designed travel policies must be made.
According to studies, only half of corporate travelers adhere to their company’s travel policy, and 60% do not understand it. So if you have staff that doesn’t know which website or what software for business travel management to use or just want them to stop asking whether it can be put on claims or not then worry no more.
We shall now jump right into how your TMS can help in ensuring compliance with the organization’s policies.
But firstly let us look at some issues faced when implementing corporate travel policies.
Challenges Of Travel Policy Compliance In Corporate Travel Management
The route to ensuring that all employees follow the international business travel regulations is not straight and narrow. However, there are certain aspects that pose hindrance on policy compliance.
It is obvious that an employee who lacks knowledge of the corporate travel policy cannot comply with it.
If this policy is complicated then they may not be able to understand it.
Business travelers typically wish all good things towards their companies. Nevertheless, sometimes employees unknowingly go off-piste with regard to these guidelines.
According to a research done by the London School of Economics there were some violations by those traveling for business purposes. These include failure due to inadequate approval and breaching price control limits for airfares and hotels.
Steps To Ensure Policy Compliance With Travel Management System
However, while seeking strategies for improving corporate travel compliance within organizations should align with culture and also fit into your team, industry and budget but there are certain general tips that will enable you increase effectiveness of enforcing these policies and procedure;
Use The Right Business Travel Management Software System
There are different types of innovative software available today meant for enhancing corporate travel management. Such a market has various tools that help managers ensure workers follow laid down protocols. ITILITE, for example, will notify you whenever an employee makes an off-policy booking and you can follow it up with specific messaging aimed at guiding the affected individual towards making informed choices. This solution help in proactively managing your travel expense claims as well as putting controls to manage such costs.
Train Your Business Travelers
After creating travel policy, that is not all. Communicate this policy on employees and make sure they know how to use business travel management software so they can comply.
Yes of course, just have your travel manager share the policies with the team and be done with it. You should ensure that employees read through it and follow suit. This approach defines a new way of doing corporate travel management.
There are several methods which may be employed by you to educate your staff members for instance before any official journey, workshops could be organized among them while at other times you might organize training sessions where after explaining the policy each person is given a copy. Through such one-on-one sessions employees get clarifications on the questions regarding their application after reading these instructions.
Establish Granular Travel Processes
To simplify and break down your travel policies for compliance purposes by your workers requires simplifying the current ones further more in order to do so because when implementing granular policy designs makes processes relatively easier. A leading travel management software can help you provide simple and updated workflows.
Subject your company’s travel policy to segregation for reasons of travel goal, destination, trips, departmental and project. This will ensure that everyone has access to the travel rules and guidelines they need to follow.
Make Mandatory Approvals
Sometimes a business travel booking can be cancelled by an employee who makes a business travel arrangement without obtaining prior permission. The avoidance of any cancellation charges and penalties by firms can be possible with the presence of pre-approvals in their travel policies.
When an employee is using an expert management system for travelling, they cannot book their business trip until they have received proper approval from the concerned manager. In terms of your workflow, it is easiest if the employees are able to send their requests regarding business travels directly to the manager after having been approved by you.
Set Travel Products
It is now possible for workers through a tailored online portal within the TMS framework to book flights, hotels and hire cars.
They offer various selections on travel products but only those set according to your policy by the travel management solution will be displayed. By doing so, this function enables the solution avoid compliance infractions without making a journey unenjoyable for travelers.
Monitor Policy Violations
A good traveler policy not only helps an organization enhance its compliance with traveling policies but also ensures its employees adhere them. It uses analytics technology to search and identify violations.
If there are any rule violators among employees, these systems will flash up automatic alerts straightaway; consequently you may take measures against them in time. Moreover, you can exempt them from committing other breaches of your future policies as well.
Travel Analytics
No company survives today without responding to changing needs of tourists and embracing current trends. Therefore,get updated policy changes frequently since that is why we always recommend updatingtravel program guidelines.Travel management software allows easy update of policies since it informs your employees about new changes made into them.
Furthermore,this guides helps you stay on track with your travel policy by giving you actionable insights. This is because the software utilizes data analytics to analyze employee travel behavior and trends. The system can help enhance travel policy compliance in areas where it may be lacking and make more informed decisions.
Limit Out-Of-Bound Reimbursement
To ensure that your company has a good travel policy, you must have specific rules on expenses. For instance, if your employee becomes unsure whether or not room service is allowed this can cost your company or traveler so much money.
Therefore, if you want to avoid this, make sure that as many things as possible are covered in the reimbursement process such as where the employees stay up to where they eat, their tips, entertainment fares and any other journeys they may make around.Try not to pay back workers for false claims which will discourage them from breaking your policy hence all people should adhere to it.
Summing Up: Set Clear Boundaries In Your Travel Management System
Frequently, business travelers do not comply with company policies because they don’t understand them or accidentally break regulations. Every organization is supposed to come up with its own corporatetravel program and make sure everyone follows it strictly.
Allow these reservation tools to enforce your travel policies. ITILITE, the correct travel management solution, allows you to enforce policies and monitor policy breaches but for it to become better you must have a proper set up and configuration. Remember compliance as a KPI as you evaluate how well your corporate travel management is performing.
