The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a range of corporate travel elements under the spotlight. Travel policies are one such element.
Travel managers have expressed the need to tighten policies in order to keep up with changes that have been occurring at a frantic pace over the past year. This means implementing versatile measures that enable fast adjustments, better controls and more efficient processes.
Thankfully, there are advanced travel management solutions that make all of this possible. These tools will be essential to effectively reviewing your travel policies both in the existing climate and long into the future. Why is this important? Here are 3 major reasons below.
Ensuring Traveler Safety
The biggest priority and challenge for travel managers is the maintenance of traveler safety. Vastly different travel restrictions across international borders, states, and cities, make this key component particularly difficult.
By utilizing cutting edge travel management tools, you can access useful traveler data that facilitates decision making. Yet, this is only the first step towards achieving optimal traveler safety. These platforms can make the biggest impact when it comes to dealing with issues surrounding policy control.
With such a wealth of valuable data generated by travel management tools, travel managers can use them to quickly and easily make changes to policies as required. This means having the ability to make critical decisions such as temporarily halting travel to certain geographical locations either during the current global health crisis or whenever it may be required again in the future.
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Streamlining Approval Processes
Travel approval processes differ from company to company. Depending on your business requirements, size, and corporate culture, you’ll need to consider the procedures for approving travel, the type of travel that’s allowed, and rules around vaccines and testing. As the world undergoes so much change so quickly, the same can be expected for existing travel procedures.
To keep pace with the evolving landscape, automation as opposed to the more labor-intensive in-person decision-making approach is the new way forward. Creating travel policy rules that enable automated approvals will minimize the amount of time spent on monotonous tasks and significantly improve travel department efficiency.
For Cost Savings & Policy Updates
One of the main goals for any business entity is to save on costs. The best way for travel managers to attain this is by getting buy-in from traveling staff. It entails employees adhering to company travel policies, which is where the disconnect often begins.
In a lot of cases, travelers are unsure about what’s actually included in the policies. This is understandable seeing as travel expenses generally change according to factors like the destination of travel and the traveler’s role within the company. It can cause discontent and the much bigger issue of non-compliance.
As a result, it’s crucial to firstly put policies in place that account for these differences and then regularly update them to reduce employee discontent and maximize buy-in. Doing so delivers considerable cost savings and elevates the organization’s bottom line.
A key part of effectively reviewing travel policies is having access to the right data. Failure in this regard leads to poor decision making, which can have long-term effects. The good news for travel managers is that there are excellent third party tools like FireFly available on the market. By using this platform, you will benefit from comprehensive insights that put you in the best position to consistently keep your travel policies aligned with industry best practices. The end result? You’ll reduce your spending on travel, be in a stronger negotiating position with suppliers, solve unused ticket issues, and benefit from greater TMC partnerships.