Business Travel Policy for Flights to Asia

How to write a corporate travel policy for the modernistic employee

Today's millennials are tomorrow's business organization leaders and are fast becoming the globe's nigh frequent concern travellers. By 2020, they will business relationship for about half of global business travel spending, and around 60 per cent of them volition likely alive in Asia. This age group — people born from 1980 to 2000 — will brand up three-fourths of the world's workforce by 2025.

For business managers and admins, this requires a shift in their companies' travel policies. Yesterday's workforce, later all, have unlike travel priorities from modern business travellers. The mod concern traveller belongs to a generation known for its digital savviness and preference for experience rather than prestige.

But why must a visitor adjust its corporate travel policy to meet employees' expectations?

There are several benefits to meeting employees halfway:

Compliance. A study of 2,565 business travellers in Cathay, India, Indonesia, Nippon, and Singapore revealed that at least 35 per cent of those who are subjected to company travel policies don't ever adhere to them. Tailoring a corporate travel policy to employees' needs and offering more than flexibility may increase compliance.
Employee satisfaction. Compared to employers in other regions, those in Asia experience more difficulty in alluring and retaining talent, according to a study by WillisTowersWatson. One mode to keep employees satisfied is to show that yous hear their business travel concerns and are willing to accost them — within reason, of form.
Improved performance. Business organisation travellers represent your company abroad, and then they must exist at their best performance during the trip. Adequate preparation, rest, and motivation bear upon employee performance and productivity during business organization trips. Giving business organization travellers the hazard to choose a hotel near a convention venue, for example, can help them maximise their time at the event and even meet with potential clients in the evening without draining their energy.

Whether y'all're part of an SME or an MNC, in that location'southward a take a chance your corporate travel policy has been crafted for erstwhile-school business organisation travellers. It's fourth dimension to arrange it to today's workforce and tomorrow's leaders.

On the other manus, you may not accept created a policy even so, and aren't sure how to create a corporate travel policy for modern business organisation travellers.

Either manner, the following guidelines will assistance you lot write a corporate travel policy for the modern employee.

Guidelines for creating a modern corporate travel policy

1. Assess your company's current business travel practices.

How often practice you transport employees overseas, how much do you spend per trip, and what do these travels achieve?

More importantly — what bug and complaints do your employees oft accept when they travel for business? Hither's 1: you may find it difficult to keep track of the traveller's whereabouts during the trip. Or perhaps you tin improve coordination between the office and the traveller when flights are delayed. Possibly your transportation expenses go along exceeding the budget considering yous're always booking refundable tickets, even though just a tiny percentage of your trips gets re-scheduled or cancelled.

To find out, y'all'll demand to gather your visitor's concern travel data and identify trends. Assess practices that work and those that don't.

2. Identify your company'south business travel goals.

What practice y'all seek to accomplish with each trip? Exercise the results justify the time and cost of travelling?

As yous write or revise your corporate travel policy, brand sure it helps you lot achieve your company's goals. It'south a expert idea to talk to employees — specially newer and younger ones — to observe out whether they grasp the bigger picture of how their business trips contribute to the visitor.

Place what y'all about want to achieve by crafting the policy, too. For instance, is your top priority to save coin? Is information technology to offer employees more than flexibility when they travel? Let priorities — those of the visitor and the travellers — guide your policy.

iii. Determine how flexible you want to be.

How much leeway will you give employees? For example, you might give them the freedom to cull flights and accommodation as long as they stay within your upkeep. You might specify partner airlines and hotels, and permit employees cull among those.

Keep in mind that Asian business travellers are twice as likely as their European counterparts to include weekends when they book travel dates, co-ordinate to McKinsey. This trend is called 'bleisure' travel, or extending business organisation trips for leisure. If yous allow this — which you probably should if you're writing a corporate travel policy for modern travellers — y'all can use the policy to depict a clear line betwixt the visitor's and the employee's area of responsibleness.

4. Gauge alternatives.

If your travel practices currently limit employees to hotels, consider alternatives like Airbnb. That said, yous'll need to gauge the pros and cons of using shared services. These include cost, convenience, and security.

If you have employees who prefer to utilize shared services when they travel for business, ask them virtually their experiences — both the positive and negative aspects.

5. Determine how you lot'll enforce the policy.

Will business organisation trips be managed by an external bureau or past your own administrative team? If the one-time, check whether y'all take enough upkeep, as external travel management packages typically do good large corporations more than SMEs. If the latter, find out how much bandwidth your admin or Hr team has to handle travel arrangements.

On the other manus, more companies today are using digital tools to auto-enforce their policies — so you tin can check if that works for yous, too. This is usually done by uploading the policies to an app or management system, which too handles bookings and other travel arrangements and implements command for policy compliance. Digital tools also work well for small companies, which typically trust their employees to volume their own flights and accommodation.

Test the ease or complexity of enforcing the policy, also. Don't go far too complicated if you lot desire employees to comply.

six. Remember of your audience when writing and formatting the policy.

It doesn't have to be a text-only document written in a very formal language. Your aim, after all, is for employees to read and sympathize the policy. Who wants to read a document with no white space and that doesn't sound like information technology was written for humans?

Make your corporate travel policy like shooting fish in a barrel to remember by keeping it short and simple. For best results, use clear, straightforward, and specific language. Use photos, diagrams, and charts if needed. Make sure sub-headers are conspicuously formatted so it will be easy for employees to refer to them when needed.

One time you've followed the guidelines above, it's time to write (or revise) your policy.

What to include in a corporate travel policy for modern travellers

Introduction

How business travel adds value to your company (e.chiliad., it brings in X pct of deals or generates X number of leads in a yr)
What yous want to achieve with the new travel policy (e.g., reduce travel costs or increment convenience during travel)
What the policy contains (provide a table of contents, besides)

Booking procedures

These will depend on whether your travel arrangements are managed externally or internally, or auto-enforced through an online platform.

Who will volume flights and adaptation
Latest booking period (eastward.g., at least two weeks before the trip)
whatever preferred airlines and hotels

Expenses

Explain the travel budget, every bit well as the reimbursement procedure. Identify the types of expenses that qualify for refunds, and the types that don't.

What categories of expenses are claimable?
What'south the budget for dining with potential clients during the trip?
Should employees book flights and adaptation using the company's carte, or their own? If their ain, when volition they exist reimbursed?
Who should approve the expenses? (Ideally, this should exist a unproblematic process assigned to a single approver, like a department head)

Responsibilities

Explicate what your travel insurance policy does and doesn't embrace. Allow concern travellers know what medical coverage and assistance they tin can await in case of sickness or an blow. Explain what they need to do in instance of an emergency.

Explain what the company, likewise as the employee, holds responsibleness and accountability for. This volition help clarify potential gray areas, especially in situations like:

When an employee extends the trip for leisure
If the business traveller misses a flying through his/her own mistake

Reporting

What'due south the minimum corporeality that requires a receipt? Practice employees need to hand over every single receipt when they return, or can they upload their receipts via an app or online platform?

If you're creating a corporate travel policy for modernistic travellers — i.e., millennials — digital reporting is the best manner to go. Some countries, like Singapore, even encourage keeping source documents in electronic grade.

Back to the bigger picture

Even as you lot delve into the details of your visitor'south travel policy, think to keep the big picture in heed. That includes your overarching business goals and your employees' long-term chore satisfaction.

Know your audition, do your research, and create a corporate travel policy that benefits business travellers. After all, a happy, productive business organisation traveller makes a good company administrator.

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