Felix Brand is chief strategy officer at Freenow
When businesses craft their travel strategy, it’s easy to become overly focused on company budgets. While managing costs effectively is crucial, designing a strategy with traveller-centric policies has numerous benefits for employees and for the company.
Corporate travel policies can encompass guidelines for booking procedures, expense limits, preferred vendors, and reimbursement processes. These policies are designed not only to control costs but also to ensure employee safety, comfort, and productivity during their travels.
However, a truly effective travel strategy involves creating traveller-centric policies that employees actually value, along with careful management to ensure comfort, efficiency, and flexibility on their trips. Achieving this requires a data-driven approach, collaboration with the right travel partners, and the utilisation of employee feedback to ensure a strong return on investment.
Understanding the key drivers of non-compliance
Strict rules and penalties often create resentment among employees. Instead, it is vital to understand the key drivers of non-compliance when it comes to travel policies.
The lack of convenience in some policies can deter adherence as
onerous processes or restrictive choices can be off-putting.
Additionally, limited motivation due to a lack of incentives or rewards
can make following the policy feel unrewarding.
Lack of awareness is also a significant factor; employees might need help understanding the policy or its rationale. For example, according to Freenow research, only 29 per cent of employees find their company's travel policy clear and understandable.
Trying to increase compliance to policy is futile if employees don’t know how to use it properly, which leads to wasted resources and increased costs. Ensuring that employees understand and are motivated to follow the travel policy is essential for maximising its effectiveness and minimising unnecessary costs.
Strategies for happy adherence
To promote adherence and ensure employee satisfaction, companies can adopt several strategies. Rewarding smart choices is a powerful motivator. Offering travel discounts, rewards, or company-sponsored incentives for staying within policy limits or adhering to cost-saving choices can be highly effective.
Personalised options within the policy framework cater to individual preferences, enhancing the overall travel experience. Regular employee feedback through surveys and discussions helps companies understand their needs and concerns, fostering a culture of trust and continuous improvement.
According to Freenow research, almost half (49 per cent) of employees prioritise flexible arrangements, while 61 per cent emphasise the need for easy reimbursement processes. This highlights that not everyone prioritises the same travel benefits and listening to these needs and incorporating them into the policy can significantly enhance employee satisfaction and compliance.
By creating a personalised policy that employees value, you improve employee satisfaction and that fosters further benefits such as talent retention.
Why gamify?
Traditional policy adherence methods often lead to frustration and resentment, but gamification offers a refreshing alternative. By leveraging the power of play, gamification can turn mundane tasks into engaging challenges, making policy adherence fun and rewarding.
Our research found that 46 per cent of survey respondents said gamification elements would make a travel policy more attractive. It boosts motivation, drives engagement, and promotes positive behaviours like cost-conscious booking and timely expense reporting. It also fosters healthy competition, creating a friendly and motivating environment where employees strive to achieve goals and climb the leaderboard.
To effectively gamify a travel programme, companies should identify desired outcomes, such as cost savings, policy compliance, and employee satisfaction. Choosing appropriate game mechanics like points, badges and leaderboards that align with these goals is also crucial. Additionally, personalising elements to fit employee preferences enhances engagement, while meaningful rewards like travel upgrades or additional vacation days incentivise participation.
Embracing blended travel
Today, bleisure travel – the blending of business trips and personal travel – is gaining momentum, with 72 per cent of respondents in our research expressing interest in blended trips, offering a win-win for both companies and employees.
Integrating personal time into business trips can boost employee morale, reduces stress and fosters a positive work-life balance. Rested and rejuvenated employees are often more productive and engaged upon their return. Bleisure opportunities can also be a valuable differentiator in attracting and retaining top talent in a competitive job market.
Partnering up
Collaboration between travel agencies and suppliers – such as airlines, hotels and ground transport providers – can bring numerous benefits, including improved convenience for employees and businesses when booking their trips. Partnering with travel providers and technology firms can provide access to valuable resources and expertise, allowing employees to book and expense their trips all in one place, thereby streamlining the process for everyone.
Creating strong traveller-centric policies not only improves employee satisfaction and wellbeing, which in turn can boost employee retention and attract top-tier talent, but it is also more cost-effective in the long run as business leaders can be sure that their travel benefits are being utilised effectively.
By leveraging employee feedback and conducting surveys, businesses can ensure their strategy remains relevant and effective. Additionally, collaborating with the right travel partners that align with your company goals can help simplify the creation and implementation of a successful travel strategy in the long run.