Is your business travel program bang on target? How to review your Corporate Travel Program?

Almost every travel manager we’ve met seems to think that his/her company’s business travel policy is ‘gold’. Remember the last time your travel program was reviewed? Was your travel policy really on track? If no, what was the course of action taken to bring it back on track? Here are a few ways how a travel manager in an organization or enterprise can review business travel policy:

• Reviewing travel policy? Don’t give it a long break. Quarterly and yearly reviews and reporting are important; then rethink the travel policy. If existing travel policies are reviewed once every three years or so (though we don’t approve of it), it should be done on a granular level.
• Linking the travel policy of a company to its competitive value may help a great deal in exploring new terrains for team visits. Most organizations overlook travel program over a time period. There, of course, will be a situation when the industry landscape would cease to remain the same from when the travel policy was first formed by the company. Who are the new competitors by the way?
• A travel policy is left behind by light years when it doesn’t reflect vacation rentals, ride-sharing or other latest advancements? Are you game for these? What will be the benefits of incorporating these to the business travel policy?
• How accessible is your company to the technology palette in the market. The business travel industry’s biggest game changer is the tech innovation. Can your company be better off embracing risk management support, convenient travel itineraries, real-time reporting or online booking features? Startups and SMEs usually limit themselves to one or a basic combination of multiple tech features and customizable options. Weigh the pros and cons of every tech option before adopting the same.
• Is yours a growing company whose travel team is not well supported by TMCs? Boutique TMCs or smaller-in-house travel programs no longer offer the attention, customer support, service hours that growing companies desperately deserve. Does your travel policy cover weekend or out-of-the-work-hours travel?
• Does your travel management program cover outside of business travel including meeting or event planning, VIP travel, incentive trips or humanitarian trips? This is particularly useful to save costs over the long haul and integrate all travel requirements within one travel management suite or TMC.

Challenges are not new for a growing company. Travel program is often a neglected case, as there is too much tendency to stick to predated version of the same. Travel managers must take time out to review travel needs, and accordingly update the travel program that will benefit the company in the long run.