The mark of a successful travel program is a travel policy that’s a reflection of broader company culture, infrastructure and strategic vision. Where to start? Here we explore the whys of travel policy, what should and should not be included, and the how-to on creating or refreshing your policy for today’s travel reality.

We begin with first considering travel policy objectives and purpose through strategic alignment with your organization. In a travel program policy assessment, we typically find six key strategic areas that help us pinpoint and understand more deeply a company’s strategic objectives, both big-picture, and more specifically, how they relate to travel. The list varies somewhat of course, but the following is garnered from interactions with hundreds of travel buyer clients.

In laying out the above, and researching and surveying, we begin to understand the weight and prioritization (or the balance) of these elements. What’s most important, where does it fit, and if it’s not included, was its omission strategically intentional or was it simply overlooked?

Policy Scope
Balancing the key strategic areas also points us toward policy scope and its overall reach and structure within an organization. For example: Is the policy Travel only? Travel and Expense? Travel, Expense and Risk? Meetings? These 
components (and/or a combination thereof) need to be rationalized in terms of priority, program maturity and ownership.

Ownership and infrastructure play heavily here. Whether areas are managed together or separately from an organizational standpoint can be a determining factor in the approach of one policy for all areas or separate policies housed in separate documents. For instance, we may see travel and expense both sitting in procurement and under the same leadership, risk may sit with HR and meetings may be more aligned with marketing. Structure needs to be considered and ownership consulted.

Geography is another layer. And again, this is one where already determined company culture, strategy and infrastructure may help define the global travel policy going forward. Different geographical divisions may have different travel realities and processes that impact policy. Ideally, while different regions may have some disparities, we like to consolidate policy into one global document that includes local exceptions. Mature programs and larger companies are trending this way, but not everyone is to this point yet.

Policy vs. Process
When building policy documents, one of the common things we see and that we like to caution against is confusing policy with process. Focusing on the strategic policy level without getting bogged down in the myriad of processes enables us to get clear and concise on what we’re addressing – overall important governance issues.

There’s no need to include everything. Policy isn’t the place to try to define and resolve every situational possibility. This would result in enormous pages of policy. The trend is toward shorter policies. Some issues and questions may need to be escalated if they impact broader corporate policies. At times, we’ve seen the travel policy bring to light corporate policy issues that haven’t been addressed previously. This once again elevates your role and the significance of travel and its impact on the broader organization.

Policy Style
Understand as well that policy style has to fit the company culture identified. With so many new formatting styles and publishing/presentation technologies available we’ve seen policies delivered in many difference ways – even as a one-page, easy-to-read, digestible info graphic. This is uncommon.

Keep in mind that while the policy shouldn’t get bogged down with process and other information that can be managed elsewhere, it still needs to be detailed enough to be prescriptive and taken seriously. Words can rule. While it’s about traveler satisfaction and reaching the audience, it’s also about clarity, readability and concise detail.

Policy Implementation
Policies today don’t need to be sitting on the shelf. Polices should be active and updated annually. There are many avenues of distribution, both digital and traditional – e-mail, travel sites, gaming and quiz apps. Branch out and get it included in any educational program or online training where it can be referenced or walked through. Think outside of the box – HR, town halls, internal marketing events. Get it passed out and referenced in road warrior annual performance meetings.

Get creative and find ways to incorporate it anywhere that touches on broader corporate policy. And remember there can be competing topics in this realm. Employees can easily get confused with policy on booking tool vs. expense tool, etc. so it’s important to be very precise in the language. Short, clear language will also help when you’re ready to implement policy documents and reminders in the travel process, be it booking, itinerary, travel app, expense tool, etc.
Consider that travel policies should have stakeholder and oversight committees that routinely (annually, maybe) review and provide feedback on the policy. This is especially key in the ever-changing travel market we see today.

Policy Optimization
Continually improve. Take the policy parts that are auditable and up for negotiation and get feedback via stakeholder surveys. Maybe start with a baseline and conduct surveys regularly to glean results on whether policy changes or tweaks make the desired impacts. Understand what your travelers desire now. Be in the know on what new generations of travelers may see or want that’s different from what business travel has always been.

Finally, we know that a lot of new hot topics need to be addressed and included your travel policy and travel program. There’s wellness, sustainability, travel risk. And perhaps an even newer topic that CEOs and C-suite are still struggling with – mobility and remote working. Are companies or remote employees going to be responsible for travel to headquarters? Does location and distance from assigned regional office impact this? Is it going to be more expensive or cheaper to host internal events? What should be virtual vs. in-person?

The travel policy today is likely to need more frequent updates than the one- to three-year reviews we’ve seen before. We can predict big changes on the horizon, but we don’t always know how they will play out and whether they will stick. Let the travel policy be your grounding document and guiding tool to make proactive, yet introspective and smart changes that will help you keep your program on strategy and on target – come what may.