The cornerstone of any robust travel program is a strong corporate travel policy. Yet without the proper building blocks to raise compliance amongst travelers, even the most comprehensive program may deliver benefits and cost savings that fall short of expectations.
Ensuring compliance is an ongoing responsibility that requires consistent training and a concerted effort to grow engagement. Working with a travel management company (TMC) to identify areas where compliance lags can help organizations find sustainable ways to increase policy enforcement.
Below, we map out five key steps those in charge of booking and managing travel can take to boost corporate travel program compliance.
1. Communicate the policy
Communication is fundamental to travel program compliance. For a travel policy to be successful, travelers must first understand the parameters. Sharing the policy through a company announcement may be a starting point, but effective and efficient corporate communication needs to support the policy from start to finish.
Business leaders are responsible for ensuring that the right education and coaching is provided. Beyond initial training, take the time to introduce travelers to the travel policy and explain how it saves them both time and money. Consider building an internal resource library to provide travelers with easy access to reference materials to increase their understanding of the policy.
2. Introduce compliance in onboarding
Including travel policy details in the onboarding process sets the stage for compliant behavior with new hires – both in their introductory phase and beyond. While employees of all seniority levels should be brought up to speed, the earlier new hires are provided with best practices, the easier it is to align with the policy.
Start by engaging new employees with a variety of ways to learn about travel processes and boundaries. Simply providing them with the travel policy to study may not have the full impact needed to change behavior. Instead, try short-form videos and quizzes to increase learning retention. Walk them through the systems and tools they will be utilizing for their future travel. Remember, a successful onboarding experience can provide the ultimate benefit of policy compliance.
3. Ensure employees have support
Noncompliance stems from several factors, ranging from unfamiliarity with the policy to intentional disregard. Often, it’s simply a matter of misinterpretation. The best way for travel managers to avoid this common pitfall is to provide ongoing support.
This support may include implementing tech solutions alongside service, including Artificial Intelligence. Travelers have expressed interest in AI that can anticipate their needs and make recommendations based on personal preferences and travel routines – even handling everything from booking the trip to submitting expenses.
Even with technological advancements, do not underestimate the importance of human connection and responsiveness. Around a third of business travelers prefer to use a human agent during disruptions, citing that they offer a line of sight into their entire trip and can manage all the impacted interdependencies in one call. Prompt and personalized service for travelers is a reliable way to increase compliance.
4. Update the policy to reflect needs and trends
No matter how dialed in a travel program is, the policy needs to evolve with business growth and industry changes. Treating the policy like a static asset, rather than a dynamic document to be updated, may actively work against the goal of achieving compliance.
Build in flexibility to the policy to allow for factors outside of your organization’s control. Trends in traveler behavior should be addressed in a timely manner, and new regulations or international travel considerations should be accurately reflected.
Consider how your business can accommodate the growth in bleisure and the rise of the independent traveler. Above all, keep travelers in the loop during such stages to help them understand any changes, which will help foster further compliance.
5. Analyze the data
For those who manage travel, every booking, transaction, expense, and travel experience produces valuable data points to help optimize their policy. Prioritizing the collection of this data will provide a deeper understanding of traveler compliance and ways to increase it.
However, data collection can seem unwieldy and overwhelming without an established system in place. That’s why we recommend having access to policy details and traveler information in a single location. At Direct Travel, we’ve set out to deliver a unified travel experience with our next-gen tech solution, Avenir.
Avenir provides a consistent user experience with personalized service, complex booking support, and faster issue resolution times. Since agents, managers, and travelers are all brought together on the same open platform, Avenir not only simplifies the booking process – it also encourages policy compliance.
In the fast-paced world of corporate travel, compliance is a moving target that can be difficult to track and increase without a trusted travel partner for support. To learn more about how solutions like Avenir can increase travel policy compliance for your own organization, connect with our team at Direct Travel.
