The return of business travel in recent months amid easing
of restrictions related to Covid-19 has
spurred many companies to revise their travel policies to drop some of the
pandemic-era restrictions they put in place since, several travel management
company executives recently told BTN. Gone, in many cases, are the policy
requirements that high-level executives must approve even simple domestic
business trips, and some have dropped mandates that would-be travelers receive
a Covid-19 vaccine before boarding a flight.
But policies haven’t yet returned to pre-pandemic footing,
either. While several recent surveys of business travelers have shown that a
majority now are willing to travel for work, a significant minority remain
uncomfortable or unenthusiastic at the prospect. As such, some companies are
revising travel policies to specify who can or must travel and determine the
circumstances under which they would do so. Many also are reassessing the role
of remote conferencing and revising their travel policies to detail the
procedures when its use is recommended or mandated.
Covid-19 isn’t the only reason to develop and maintain a
comprehensive travel policy, though. A clear policy serves as a foundation for
any effective managed travel program and, when designed with the company’s
culture in mind, can serve as an opportunity to help advance corporate goals
and objectives.
That’s no small feat, though. Organizations must decide how
strict their travel policy should be, whether it should apply to senior executives
and regular employees equally and how regional and global differences should be
handled—just to name a few choices—and what the effect of these decisions could
be on employee well-being and retention. These questions aren’t always easily
answered and often are considered by organizational task forces that include
representatives from different corporate departments and geographic regions,
and the policy eventually developed often is reviewed periodically to maintain
relevance and incorporate new realities.
The following basics of a travel and
entertainment policy shows some possible avenues for furthering corporate goals
while controlling travel costs.