A business trip is a complex event, the organization of which includes many steps. At each of them, a company can either solve its business problems or waste a lot of money.
A document called travel policy helps to avoid such problems. Today we will talk about why it is needed and how to draw up such a document for your company.
First stage: decide on your goals
Travel policy is a document that regulates business trips. But business trips can have different purposes, and you need to approach the organization and evaluation of such trips differently.
A company can use business travel to solve various problems. Travel in the b2b segment is divided into two important blocks. One of them is business development. This type includes trips to conferences, for employees to participate in exhibitions or negotiations with potential clients.
The second important group of business trips is travel to maintain the company’s activity in the desired region. These include, for example:
- on-site inspections,
- training of branch employees in other cities,
meetings with local partners, etc.
Obviously, every type of trip is important. At the same time, their immediate business value is different – training for branch employees will not give the same high return as successful negotiations on a contract worth several million.
Therefore, if in the first case we can talk about reducing travel costs as one of the main goals, then in the second case the priority should be the speed of movement and the comfort of the person on whom it depends whether the company will receive a lot of money.
After you have compiled a list of travel purposes, you can move on to a specific description of the organization of business trips for each selected type.
Implementation: select parameters in accordance with your goals
To immediately classify a business trip as a specific type based on its purpose, you can create your own sample document, which will provide codes for different trips. Further parameters that need to be monitored according to the regulations must depend on this code.
For example, if the trip is of the type that supports business, then here you can set the goal of saving money. Then it is worth laying down the requirements for finding the best travel and accommodation options in terms of price. It is also important to indicate the time in which the business trip should be booked – this also helps to save money.
According to OneTwoTrip statistics, the price of an air ticket a couple of days before departure can be 50% higher than when booking 2-3 months in advance. The situation is similar with trains and hotels – when buying “here and now” they cost, on average, 20% more than when booking in advance.
In some cases, travel policies include a requirement to explore alternative travel options. For example, a situation is possible when, thanks to a successful carrier’s promotion, you can get to the desired city not by plane, but by high-speed train. It won’t take much more time, the level of comfort for the employee will remain the same, and the company will be able to save money.
You also need to remember that during a trip the company pays an employee not only the average salary, but also a daily allowance. If you need to save money, then the duration of the trip should not be too long. For example, spending more than one or two days on a trip to a neighboring region, if the employee’s task is not very difficult, is clearly not worth it – all this can also be provided for in the travel policy.
Accordingly, when organizing urgent trips, and especially business trips for business development, you can focus on parameters such as travel time, distance of your place of residence from the area where meetings are held, etc.
Conclusion: control is very important
Travel policy is a document that allows you to introduce clear regulations for organizing business trips of various types. However, any regulation will work effectively in the long term only with proper control.
Therefore, it is important to include in the document what documents are needed for reporting on each trip – this should include evidence of expenses. It is also worthwhile to specify in the travel policy the people who have access to the flight and hotel booking system. This will avoid situations where an employee unfamiliar with the policy bought a ticket according to his preferences.
