Every travel policy needs to be adhered to by all staff at a company if it is to succeed. However, some employee habits can throw the travel policy out of whack if those habits aren’t identified and dealt with in time. The experts at Crewfacilities.com, a travel management company, share the most damaging employee habits when it comes to the implementation of a travel policy.

Not Being Frugal When Spending Company Money

Some employees pay attention to every penny that they spend out of their pocket, but that mindfulness is thrown out the window when they are spending company money. For example, an employee may spend heavily on dinner with a client just to impress that client. Such extravagance can cause your travel expenditure to skyrocket unnecessarily. Andrea Tsakanikas (President, CrewFacilities) suggests that employers design mechanisms to make employees look for ways to save each time they travel. For example, the travel policy can be modified to stipulate that employees will earn a certain fraction of the money that they save during business trips. This incentive will encourage employees to actively look for opportunities to save each time they travel.

Going Rogue

The success of your travel policy can also be threatened if employees “go rogue” and disregard the booking channels recommended in the travel policy. This tendency may be motivated by the desire to find better deals, or it may be out of ignorance. Whatever the reason, going rogue when making bookings is harmful in many ways, such as denying you the data you need to negotiate better rates from suppliers. It is therefore imperative for you to assign a specific person the task of approving any employee travel bookings or expenditure so that errant employees suffer the consequences of going against company policy if they spent money in a way that isn’t in line with the travel policy.

Last-Minute Bookings

Research has it that it costs approximately $150 more if someone books a flight less than a fortnight before a trip when compared to a booking made three months in advance. These figures show that your company may be hemorrhaging resources if employees are waiting until the last minute to make their travel bookings. Remind your employees about the need to book early so that late bookings become the exception in situations where it is inevitable. It might be a good idea for you to hire CrewFacilities to manage employee travel if you are finding it hard to implement your company’s travel policy. Our experts will ensure that all travel-related issues follow the letter and spirit of the travel policy so that greater savings can be attained.

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