Travel and Expense
Blending the Rules: Making T&E Policies Work for Businesses and Travellers
Business travel enables your company to sit across the table from key clients; it helps you build relationships and foster partnerships with prospective customers; it is, in fact, the simplest, surest way to build your company.
At the same time, working on the road requires more from your employees than just doing their job. There’s no relaxing with the family after work; there’s no dropping the kids off at school when there’s a plane to catch; there’s not as much life left in the work/life balance. And it requires extra work – tracking expense and travel details, while staying on top of your policies.
So as business travel rebounds, you have to find a way to make it work for your people – while keeping costs in check.
This Requires Policies. Yay, Policies. Everyone Loves Policies
Who doesn’t love a good corporate policy? Well, to be honest, a good corporate policy is really quite great because it’s something everyone can understand and get behind. Good corporate policies are clear and fair and easy to follow. They make sure the business gets what it needs and that employees don’t get hassled.
Unfortunately, good policies are often hard to come by.
Fortunately, there’s help. SAP Concur put out a brief guide to creating simple, enforceable travel policies that not only support employees on the road, they help you control travel expenses while improving cash flow.
See? Good policies actually exist.
The Only Thing Hard and Fast about Rules Is That They’re Hard to Create, and You Can’t Do It Fast
When it comes to travel and expense (T&E) policies, it can be difficult to get past the informal, not-always-enforced practices you may already have in place. They work…for the most part, and getting rules and regulations in place that actually work all the time will take some extra effort.
But as the SAP Concur guide points out, there are several tips that make the process – and the policies – far easier. The following few are a good place to start.
- Keep it simple.
Ambiguous booking rules lead to booking mistakes and hidden spend. Make sure your policies are as clear and easy to follow as possible.
- Talk to your road warriors.
Who knows best about what it’s like to travel for your company? Ask them what would make it easier, then fix what’s feasible.
- Make it easy for employees to find and follow the rules.
Not only should the policies be clear, your communication should be unmistakable. Tell travellers why policies have changed, how they work, and how that benefits them.
It Couldn’t Be Easier.
The whole goal here is to rid your T&E program of complexities while managing your costs – because when it’s simpler to comply with corporate policy, more people do it. And you’ll not only capture and control more of your spending, you’ll have more focused, more engaged employees on the road. You’ll also be able to see where they are when they’re out and about, so you can ensure their safety and do your duty of care.
Safer, happier, more productive travellers, plus control over costs. That’s good policy.
