It is a myth that employees who travel on business resent the corporate travel policy. While that's true of badly-trained employees, the truth is that employees like to know what is expected of them and how to comply with a corporate policy as long as that policy is fair and gives them the ability to do what they need to do on the road.  So a well thought out corporate travel policy is a benefit to the company and the business traveler alike.

 

If you have been given the task of putting together a corporate travel policy, your mission--from the standpoint of the company--is to develop a policy that standardizes business expenses, -that eliminates waste and excess on the road and -that controls the travel-part of the company's expense-picture.  

 

Here are some definite focus areas you should include in the stated corporate policy:

 

*Reservations.  The business should utilize a travel agent that is looking for the best deal for the company.  The best rates can be identified and taken advantage of, but only while making sure the business-traveler’s needs and the business-objective of the trip are satisfied.  Requiring that employees utilize the corporate travel agent again is not unfair and it clarifies for the employee how to handle the situation.

 

*Use of credit.  It is a bit of effort and expense to set up corporate credit cards that you can require your traveling employees to use.  But by running expenses through the corporate account, you can get a record of a most of the business expenses that the employee is incurring.  Many of the expenses of travel--such as airline and hotel--can be directly billed back to the company---thus taking the issues out of the hands of the business-traveler.

 

*Travel rewards.  If you have your corporate travel coordinated by an internal or external travel agency, corporate accounts with the major airlines can be established so that the frequent flyer miles can be collected by the business.  As such, the business can redeem those miles and realize those benefits as a significant discount to apply against the travel budget.

 

*Per Diem.  Your corporate travel policy must communicate clearly to the traveling employee what their limits are for hotel, rental car and meals on the road.  You want to establish these limits before before employees can develop a tendency to go overboard with daily expenses.  The 'per diem'-policy should be reviewed annually to update to current costs.

 

*Reporting.   One of the chief complaints employees have about corporate travel policies are that the expense reporting system is cryptic and hard to fill out.  You need give the employees a standardized form that each traveler in the company must fill out to get reimbursed for expenses while traveling.  But do review these forms and even design your own so the format is understandable and you have categories to cover all types of expenses the employee might encounter.

 

Along with these general categories, your corporate travel policies should include some leverage for employees who are faced with exceptional situations.  

 

Room and food expenses can vary widely depending on where the employee must travel.  For instance, you don’t want to set the hotel limit to Lincoln, Nebraska's 'comfortable hotel'-rate for an employee who must do business in New York City.  

 

By creating a policy that generally protects the corporate budget but -that is also workable for employees to acheive the company's goals, you will have a tool that will serve both company- and employee-interests and enable business-travel to be what it was always intended to be--–a productive, business-focused activity that achieves the goals of the enterprise.