Andy Jack: Travel policy helps set boundaries, guidelines and save money

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If your employees have to travel regularly for business, travel expenses can quickly spiral out of control. In fact, it is often reported as a top three cost for organisations.

No matter the size of your company, setting up a travel policy is the best way to get your staff on the same page and control costs. Essentially, a travel policy helps to set boundaries and guidelines for travel and, ultimately, has to meet the needs of your organisation, employees and your business objectives.

I recommend aligning your travel policy with the culture of your business to ensure that there is no clash between business objectives.

Typically, the best way is engaging senior management. For instance, if the objective is to reduce costs, this needs to be a policy that all employees live and breathe by, regardless of their position.

When it comes to setting your policy, it's all about creating a guideline that has the right balance both for your business and frequent travellers. Again, as with most things, analysis of the objectives and cost is essential.

A common challenge when introducing a new policy is failure to recognise this internally. Employees who don't understand or accept the change can continue booking travel the way they always have - giving rise to friction, frustrations. That can even result in not meeting the objectives of the policy for the wider business.

Training is crucial to overcome these challenges, whether it's teaching employees how to use new systems and platforms or actually engaging with them about why the change is taking place and what the business hopes to achieve. Positive reinforcement can also produce results by recognising and rewarding employees who follow the requested process.

As with any policy, employee buy-in is crucial to success.