4 Ways to Rethink Your Travel Policy

Improving travel policy compliance amongst business travelers is a goal of any organization. Which is why travel policies exist in the first place, right? Applying consistent, accountable standards around expenses is the first step to helping employees exercise not only good judgement, but to know what’s an appropriate expense and what isn’t.

As one of the leading travel management companies, Carrousel Travel utilizes tools to help organizations manage their travel policies in ways that improve both efficiency and effectiveness. We know that cumbersome, outdated travel policies can cause costly mistakes and increase frustration; our tools alleviate those factors while inviting organizations to rethink their T & E policies for the better.

Improving Travel Policy Compliance & Maximize Efficiency

1. Smart integration
   Work smarter, not harder. Are you using the tools at your disposal to their maximum effect? Carrousel is one of the few TMCs that doesn’t charge exorbitant fees for training and optimization on our tools. That means that as new features are introduced, you’ll hear about them ASAP and be able to implement/fine-tune as desired.And as you learn about the tools available to you, think about how they may affect your travel policy. There may be more efficient ways to track travel expenses or spending that require a little rethinking of your policies. Your policy should inform how you use the tools, and vice versa.
2. Place hard & soft thresholds
   Thresholds allow organizations to keep spending in check, but sometimes they may cause employees more headaches than help. Placing different levels of thresholds is a good way to allow some transactions to go through, but holding off on others that require sign-off or more oversight in general. Placing controlled access on these thresholds can help users--and those processing--become more efficient while reducing frustration.
3. Utilize reporting
   More data is available with every upgrade of tools, it seems, and that kind of oversight gives users more information to refine and rewrite their travel policies. Understanding how users are interacting with the tool--from frequent issues, misunderstandings, or general confusion on how something should be entered--should generate ideas for revision. Additionally, appropriate implementation can also deliver executive dashboards and actionable performance measures.
4. Track measurable results
   Building off of reporting--and the resulting dashboards and performance measures that can be exported--will help your organization develop key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs, of course, inform decisions and track how well your travel policy is doing over time. Identifying trends and remedying issues as they arise is the hallmark of any agile organization. The cost savings of tracking performance alone is worth the investment in rethinking your travel policy.

When Carrousel Travel works with organizations, one of our biggest goals is to help our clients be successful in our partnership. Part of that is understanding how to best utilize the tools we offer; we know that your success increases our success, too, and that entails rethinking your travel policy as necessary to reap the benefits of upgrades.

Add in the fact that the Carrousel team is always on hand to work through issues and supply recommendations for efficiency, and your organization can feel supported in every way.