Why your travel policy is failing your employees

Business travellers are being let down by their company’s travel policy.

Despite being designed with the best intentions, corporate travel policies are peppered with mistakes that make it difficult for employees to comply. If your company truly wants to support employees, ensure safety, and put their well-being first, you must reconsider your employee transportation policy.

Ensuring your corporate travel policies are up-to-date and effective can make a huge difference in employee satisfaction and overall company success. And the first step is recognising the faults in your current policy.

Recognising the faults in your travel policies

Employees feeling let down by their company’s travel policy can lead to frustration, lost productivity, and a decreased willingness to put in the extra effort when travelling for work.

Here are 10 reasons why your company’s travel policy might be failing your employees:

1. You have one policy for your entire workforce

Your travel policies should ensure employees have a smooth and safe trip to their destination. However, many companies need to understand that a one-size-fits-all policy only meets the needs of some employees.

Depending on the size of your company, one travel policy might be enough. But setting individual travel policies is essential when you have several teams with different travel needs.

2. You’re failing to include alternative modes of transport

Most corporate travel policies fail to offer coverage for public transport, ride-hailing, or micromobility. These services are often cheaper and more convenient than taxis, but employees are sometimes refused reimbursement or are reimbursed at a lower rate.

An outdated business travel policy that fails to recognise the value of these services can cause frustration among employees and make them feel undervalued.

When you support alternatives to company or personal cars, you’re making the sustainable choice, too — which is vital when 71% of employees want to work for environmentally-friendly companies.

3. Slow (or even zero) reimbursement

Having to wait weeks — or even months — for reimbursement is frustrating for employees. 

A standardised process that doesn’t allow quick reimbursements can lead to disengagement and a lack of motivation to travel for work. But ensuring a speedy reimbursement process is critical to ensuring employees feel valued and appreciated.

Even better than a smooth reimbursement process is covering the costs upfront. With Bolt Business, your team members choose your company as a payment method. 

And, as long as the journey meets your company’s travel policy, they can get picked up by a Bolt driver, rent a Bolt Drive, or hop on an electric scooter or e-bike.

4. Lack of digital tools

If your company isn’t leveraging the power of digital technology, then you need to adapt.

Traditional travel policies often rely on outdated systems and manual processes — which are inefficient and lead to frustration for employees.

By turning to modern travel management technology, you’ll streamline your travel management processes and improve the travel experience for your employees.

Business travel apps, online booking platforms, and expense management software are increasingly popular for arranging business trips. Going digital opens up a world of opportunity, and many members of your team will likely be used to using them in their personal lives.

Take Bolt as an example: 100M people travel with Bolt in their personal lives, and by setting up a Bolt Business account, you’ll be giving many team members a familiar way to travel.

5. A lack of flexibility

Traditional travel policies often have strict guidelines and rules that employees must follow when booking travel. This lack of flexibility is frustrating for employees who may have unique circumstances or particular personal preferences.

By providing more flexibility within your company transportation policy, you empower your employees to make the best decisions for themselves and deliver the best results for the company.

“Traditional travel policies often treat all employees the same way, regardless of their needs or preferences. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach can frustrate employees with unique travel needs or preferences.”

Gerhard Spitsak, Bolt Business Country Manager, Estonia and Malta

6. You’re putting too much focus on cost-savings

Minimising costs is a vital consideration for any corporate travel policy. But any attempt to save money should be balanced with employee well-being and productivity. 

Putting cost minimisation above everything else can mean that your employees are forced to endure long layovers, fly at inconvenient times, or endure uncomfortable accommodations.

It’s not worth taking these extreme cost-saving measures; your company will see the best returns when employees are in the right frame of mind.

“By balancing cost savings with employee comfort and productivity, companies can create travel policies that benefit both the bottom line and the well-being of their employees.”

Gerhard Spitsak, Bolt Business Country Manager, Estonia and Malta

7. You haven’t asked your team what they need

Nobody knows more about what’s needed from your business travel policy than those travelling for work. Talking to your team about their travel needs gives them a more comfortable journey that sets them up to deliver success for your business.

With their input, you can create a travel and expense policy that meets their needs while serving the company’s interests. Remember, a successful company transportation policy is fair, flexible, and cost-effective — you can create a travel program that benefits everyone involved by evaluating and updating your policy.

8. Not reimbursing expenses

One mistake companies make is failing to provide adequate support and resources for employees required to travel for work.

Such cases force employees to shoulder the financial burden of work-related travel, which can be a significant source of stress and frustration.

Employees expect you, as their employer, to reimburse their business travel expenses — otherwise, they’ll move on.

9. It’s unclear to your employees

Finally, many companies fail to provide clear and concise employee guidelines regarding travel-related expenses. Any uncertainty around which costs are covered can lead to confusion, misunderstandings, or employees avoiding travel altogether.

Every member of your team who travels for work should know how they can travel and how much they can expect to have reimbursed.

10. You’re not looking beyond the company car or car allowance debate

Company cars and car allowances are now an outdated form of business travel.

Company cars have been the go-to mode of transport for business travellers for many years but come with an almost endless list of expenses. One alternative is the car allowance, where employees are paid an additional sum to use their personal vehicles for work-related travel.

While a car allowance gives peace of mind to your employees, they’re hard to track, and you can’t be sure that all the money goes towards business travel.

Employees’ attitudes towards company cars and car ownership are changing; you must adapt and look towards a more sustainable travel policy.

Travel expenses policy template

Expense reporting is a time-wasting task awaiting most business travellers returning from a business trip. As their employer, it’s up to you to make a transportation reimbursement policy that makes the process as smooth as possible.

Having a Bolt Business account takes away the expense process regarding travel. Rather than your employees using their own payment cards and holding onto receipts, they can set your company as a payment method.

This makes travel much more straightforward and allows your team to focus on valuable tasks when back in the office (rather than filling out expense reports).

With travel sorted, you need to ensure your team knows how to process expenses for other areas of their business trips.

For this, your transportation reimbursement policy must include the following:

• Your company’s expense management tool.
• Which items or services your company doesn’t reimburse.
• What the employee must provide to claim expenses (receipts, invoices).
• A sensible timeframe between making the purchase and reporting the expense.
• Give a timeline for how long processing generally takes.

Build your company travel policies with Bolt Business

Your company travel policy may be failing your employees because you don’t have the time to invest in building them properly.

You can build  travel policies in minutes with Bolt Business. Best of all, your team won’t be able to travel unless the order meets the company’s policy!

Start creating your travel policies with Bolt Business today to give your team a reliable, safe, and time-saving way to travel for work.