Creating a travel policy seems overwhelming, but we’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’ve been tasked with creating your company's travel policy, find yourself taking the initiative to put one into place, or stumbling upon this blog and thinking, "wow, what a great idea!”, you’re probably wondering where to begin.

We’ve laid out some helpful guidelines full of pointers and tips on how to get started making a corporate travel policy. Leave executives impressed and never stress about employee travel accommodations again! 

1. What’s Your Goal?

The first step is always identifying what your company’s priorities are. Why are you creating a travel policy?

A few examples might be: 

Controlling costs
Bettering safety and security
Creating better employee experiences 
Wanting to alleviate accommodation stress and speed up process
Building more company structure
Creating enticing new ways to attract top talent 
Improving employee retention

2. This Isn't A One Man Job

Travel programs aren’t subjective to just your key company players. It affects everyone and needs to be created with the entire team in mind. Collaboration from other departments is needed. Everyone in your company has a different expertise relating to the health and wellbeing of the company. You’ll need their brainpower in order to build a bulletproof and success driven travel plan. 

Depending on how big your company is, creating a small group of selected individuals to provide feedback and recommendations could be beneficial. 

You’re probably thinking, where do I begin? A few places to start would be:

• Talk to finance about creating a budget
• Talk to HR about employee satisfaction and how to entice today’s top talent when dealing with recruiting
• Talk to accounting about organizing charges, their responsibility, company cards, etc. 
  
  

3. More Than A Booked Room

It’s important to remember your company culture throughout this whole process. You want to personalize a program that aligns best with your business model, goals as a company, and the culture you’ve worked so hard to create. Think about your employee’s experience and put yourself in their shoes. 

You’re going to be spending money on this new initiative. With that being said, it should have an impact that aligns with what you want your employees to experience. 

Compass is an avid supporter of work-life-balance practices and weave it into both our partnerships and resident experiences. We focus on comfort, open communication, reassuring guidance, and “living like a local” mentalities. 

Yes, your coworkers are traveling on business, but that doesn’t stop us from getting to know them and offering fun recommendations like hiking trails, bars, and shopping centers...because, we’re only human! Live a little! 

4. The Missing Link

There’s a lot of strategic details within the common travel policy. Figuring our airfare, and company card use for one. 

Tip: Check out Expensify! It’s an expense and receipt management software that a lot of businesses use to help keep business travel spending in order. 

It starts getting tricky when you have to go into detailed accommodation and transportation instructions to whoever is tasked with figuring it all out (either an HR specialist or the traveling individual themselves). This has a tendency to stir up more questions and confusion. 

But what if we told you there’s one key piece companies aren’t taking advantage of? This missing piece not only provides all the answers, but takes the stress off your shoulders,  leaving you with a top notch travel plan at your disposal.

That’s exactly what happens when you incorporate a Corporate Housing provider into your travel policy. Whether you need to move someone for a few weeks, or relocate an entire family internationally, we’ve got you covered. 

Being the one assigned to make travel accommodations is stressful, but so is being the one travelling (...and it’s a double whammy when you just so happen to be both). More and more companies are opting to use Corporate Travel companies because we’ve streamlined our services with all of that in mind.  

We provide guaranteed quality, increased employee retention, and treat all partners & residents like our own valued staff. 

To top it off, Corporate Travel companies do all the work for you. You’ve got enough on your plate already! There’s no need to push aside your workload in order to figure out planning these accommodations...that’s what we’re for!

4. Ongoing Communication Effort

Making sure there’s an open level of communication is important. Employees need  the opportunity to give feedback, ask questions, and get clarity about new procedures that will for sure affect them at one point or another. 

During the implementation of the new policy, remember to set up a review process once the launch hits the office, as well as something to send after each traveler’s experience. 

Annual meetings with executives should be scheduled to revisit the plan, give feedback, look at the year to come, set expectations, etc.

Talk to us, too! Just like we don’t leave our travelers out to dry, we take our partnerships very seriously and work together constantly to keep our relationship flourishing. 

Once you’ve made your plan with us, we streamline it so your employees feel empowered to book themselves while maintaining the package that was created for your company. We create custom landing pages, special rates, and perks programs all for our appreciated partners...so keep in touch!

5. An Organizer's Dream

Lastly, let’s talk about the importance of sticking to a timeline throughout the planning process. Be sure to communicate with not only yourself, but to other stakeholders and departments so they are constantly aware and reminded of their own due dates so they can deliver what is expected of them. 

Once you get the ball rolling, following this guide will prove that it’s not as complicated as you first thought.  Need help getting executives to buy-in to Compass in the first place? No problem! Let’s start building your personalized proposal!