Six ways to improve travel program compliance

Many organizations are taking the lull in activity to adapt and strengthen their travel programs.

Concerns about travelers’ well-being and cost control have renewed travel managers’ focus on improving policy compliance and program guidelines.

Let’s explore actions to optimise budgets while encouraging travelers to toe the line.

Dig into the data

It’s easy to know when travelers book compliant trips if you have the data behind each transaction. Fortunately, a robust data analytics solution serves up non-compliant behavior, so you can quickly identify policy infractions and guilty business units or travelers.

Business intelligence tools can show what type of transactions, such as hotel bookings, are usually out of policy. It’s easier to enforce policy when you have detailed information about each trip on the BI dashboard. Data analytics reports are also useful to share with leaders to make them aware of non-compliant activities.

Executive leaders can use this information when making a business case for new compliance strategies and solutions.

Secure support from senior leaders

Your executives set the tone for the organization’s compliance culture and it’s important to have their support when promoting a company-wide travel policy. Senior leaders understand the necessity of having a duty of care program built on strong policy enforcement because of the recent surge of travel disruptions.

If they weren’t prioritizing traveler well-being before, they are now.

This is the time to make your case – whether you’re asking for their support in communicating the importance of policy compliance to employees, adopting new tools that can help enforce the rules, or reforming how the program is structured to boost enforcement.

Get the most out of your tech

Technology can improve policy compliance, but you have to make sure you’re taking advantage of all the features.

For instance, your online booking tool may enable customizable pop-up policy reminders and a pre-trip approval system that halts ticketing of non-compliant bookings, but is your team spending the time to configure and maintain these announcements and workflows?

Your OBT may also have a smart engine that pushes compliant content higher in the search results, but if there’s a supplier shift in your program, you may need to update preferences. A pre-trip approval system, whether through the OBT or a standalone solution, can help drive new policy changes.

The tool can be configured to automatically stop non-compliant bookings and require sign-off from a manager before travel gets ticketed. This can be especially useful when regulating travel to certain destinations due to the latest travel and health advisories.

Show travelers it’s for their benefit

In the current environment, travelers will be motivated to do anything they can to increase their safety and well-being on the road. Now’s a good time to remind them why booking in policy is for their own good.

When travelers book all segments of their trip using approved tools, the company can locate and assist them much faster during a disruption because the whole itinerary is captured in one easily-accessible place.

This message can be shared with any policy updates and communicated consistently before and after the travel program’s relaunch.

Lean on other business units to promote the message

Don’t be shy in soliciting help from stakeholders across the business. Security and finance teams need travelers to book in policy to perform their roles more effectively. Managers want their teams to make compliant bookings to avoid budget blowouts.

With the right internal messaging, people will understand how critical it is for the health of employees and the company’s bottom line.

HR can help train new hires, security teams can present safety webinars, and business unit leaders can play a more active role in monitoring policy compliance. Check in with your suppliers and travel management company to see how they can support this education campaign.

Realize a hotel compliance rate hovering 100% is attainable

Some companies are resigned to the fact that many business travelers prefer to book directly with hotel suppliers and have given up on hotel attachment.

But as one industrial company has proven , an almost 100% hotel compliance rate is possible and easier than expected. To get there, the company collected a custom hotel reason code during online and offline travel bookings to understand why travelers weren’t booking a hotel with their flight.

The travel team then followed up and encouraged these employees to make a reservation. This simple step generated an 11% bump in compliant hotel bookings. There is also technology that automatically identifies travelers who haven’t booked accommodation with air travel and contacts them with easy-to-book, in-policy options.

While travel policy compliance may have been met with resistance in the past, the current climate presents an opportunity for change. This is your chance to push for total adherence.

If you need assistance with tools, strategies, and change management, American Express Global Business Travel is here to help .