The case for corporate travel compliance

Compliance is the cornerstone of an effective corporate travel program which delivers optimal savings. Driving company-wide compliance involves implementing measures to enforce your organisation’s travel policy at all levels, and across all channels. The aim is to ensure that every travel booking is made in accordance with your corporate travel policies, to produce the best possible time and cost savings.

While compliance rates will vary from organisation to organisation depending on a number of factors, including company culture, the following tips will help ensure a more strategic and consistent approach to all bookings.

Review your program

The first step is to update your travel policy, to take into account the changing travel requirements of your company. Travel is a dynamic industry with ongoing rate fluctuations, the introduction of new suppliers and constant regulatory changes. Your policy should be reviewed at least every 12 months to ensure it is driving compliance through desired booking behaviour, achieving the best value from supplier agreements/rates, curbing ad hoc bookings, centralising bookings with preferred suppliers and delivering on your traveller duty of care responsibilities.

Harness technology as your gatekeeper

Implementing innovative, industry-leading technology can drive compliance, reduce out of policy bookings and deliver insights into traveller behaviour. Online travel portals or hubs, online booking tools and mobile phone apps, are all powerful tools that work hand-in-hand with policy compliance.

When configured to your organisation’s specific policies, these intelligent tools can build effective compliance measures into your policy and steer bookings towards preferred suppliers and the best fare or rate of the day. At the same time, an integrated mobile app can strengthen traveller ownership of your policies and support your risk management processes. High company compliance also delivers better visibility and reporting analytics, giving you greater insight into travel expenditure and volumes so you can negotiate better rates.

Communicate and educate

Clearly communicating the company travel program will help ensure that everyone across the business knows, and adheres, to the policies - helping to build a better company-wide travel compliance culture. It’s important that both travellers and travel bookers understanding the reasons for travel policy inclusions/exclusions, the risks associated with non-compliant behaviour, the implications of booking outside of policy and the benefits of booking with preferred suppliers, such as value-adds and traveller upgrades. Plus when new online tools and technology are implemented, comprehensive traveller and booker training is essential to get buy-in from all parties and to ultimately drive compliance.