How well do employees understand your business travel policy?
Have you ever considered how well your travellers understand their entitlements under your company’s travel policy?
A policy is only as effective as the clarity, communication, and awareness behind it. Without clear guidance and a shared understanding of how the policy supports duty of care, cost control, efficiency, and traveller satisfaction, even the strongest business travel policy can fall short.
Below, we explore why compliance matters, the common challenges organisations face, and practical steps to boost employee understanding and adherence.
Why a clear business travel policy matters
- Strengthens duty of care — A well-defined policy guides employees toward approved processes and suppliers, helping mitigate risk and protect traveller safety.
- Controls cost and improves predictability — When travellers understand the business travel policy, they’re more likely to book within approved channels and take advantage of negotiated rates.
- Creates consistency and fairness — Clear entitlements and guidelines remove ambiguity, ensuring all employees book travel with confidence.
- Streamlines booking workflows — Policy-aligned online booking tools make it easier for travellers to book within parameters and help organisations accurately track and report travel spend
Common challenges to business travel policy compliance
Even well-designed business travel policies face compliance challenges. Frequent obstacles include:
- Limited awareness or training: Employees may not recall policy details or may never have received a proper briefing during onboarding.
- Overly complex documents: Policies written in technical or legal language can discourage engagement, leading to accidental non-compliance.
- Inconsistent communication: Without simple reminders, accessible summaries, or quick-reference guides, travellers may revert to old habits or personal preferences.
- Booking workflows that don’t reflect the policy: If the online booking tool doesn’t reinforce policy rules, compliance becomes significantly harder to achieve.
How to increase understanding and compliance
With the right tools and communications approach, your business travel policy can become a valuable asset for your organisation and your travellers. Consider these steps:
- Make the policy easy to access and easy to read. Offer a traveller-friendly version or summary guide that removes unnecessary jargon and highlights key rules.
- Integrate the policy into your booking experience. Use an online booking tool that automatically guides travellers to in-policy options and approved suppliers.
- Nominate internal policy champions. HR, finance, and travel managers can help reinforce guidelines, answer questions, and advocate for policy adherence.
- Incorporate travel policy training into onboarding. New employees should learn booking procedures, entitlements, and approval processes as part of their induction.
- Capture traveller feedback. Ask employees which parts of the business travel policy feel unclear or outdated, and use that insight to refine the policy over time.
Benefits of strong business travel policy compliance
Ensuring employees understand and follow your business travel policy delivers meaningful advantages for your organisation. When your policy is supported by your travel management company (TMC) and embedded into your online booking tool, it naturally guides travellers toward in-policy choices and reduces friction in the booking process.
Key benefits include:
- Maximised travel budget through negotiated rates and in-policy booking behaviour
- Improved visibility and control with centralised tracking of spend and traveller activity
- Enhanced duty of care by ensuring employees book through approved, safe channels
- Consistency across the traveller experience, supporting fairness and professionalism
- Greater efficiency for travellers, arrangers, and finance teams
A strong, well-communicated business travel policy not only improves compliance — it drives long-term value across your entire travel program.
It’s time to update your team and make sure your business travel policy is fit for purpose?
Contact CTM today!
What is a business travel policy?
A business travel policy outlines the rules, guidelines, entitlements, and procedures employees must follow when booking and completing business travel. It typically includes preferred suppliers, booking channels and approval processes.
Why is a business travel policy important?
A clear policy protects travellers, controls costs, and standardises behaviour across the organisation. It also makes business travel booking more efficient and ensures employees receive consistent support and entitlements.
What happens when employees don’t follow the business travel policy?
Non-compliance can lead to increased travel costs, reduced savings from negotiated rates, safety concerns, difficulty tracking spend, and inconsistencies in traveller experience.
How can we make our business travel policy easier to follow?
Provide a simplified version of the policy, integrate rules into your online booking tool, offer regular training, and make the policy easily accessible across internal channels.
Can travel policy compliance improve over time?
Absolutely. With consistent communication, traveller education, supportive technology, and ongoing policy refinement, compliance naturally increases and becomes part of your culture.
