Business travel is becoming more common for all employees. Today, it's not just C-suite executives that make business trips every year.
India is a big part of business travel, with of businesses expecting employees to travel for work in 2021, and close to of India-based employees keen to travel again for work.Whether you have employees traveling to, throughout, or through India, there's a lot you need to know when building a policy that accounts for the country's travel policies.
Greater demand in business travel in India means a greater demand in travel expenses, India air travel or car rentals, travel budgets, company credit card allowances, and more.
corporate travel in India—both domestic and international travel—can come with significant expenses like airfare, hotel rooms, and personal expenses, to name a few. You need to ensure you outline how your company handles reimbursements for employees in India in a way that's accessible, learnable, and adaptable.
This article focuses on providing you with a solution to make travel reimbursements, and other typical problems of business travel in India, a whole lot simpler by formulating a company travel policy for employees in India.
A business travel policy is a set of company-specific guidelines that encompass all travel expense-oriented details, including expenses to be reimbursed, how they'll be reimbursed, and the processes your employees need to follow to get approvals.
The company’s financial controller typically creates a corporate travel policy, often collaborating with a travel manager. As well as financial elements, the policy can also outline details about
A travel policy streamlines your business's travel management process, from bookings to reimbursements. You can even allow self-booking so your employees can make travel arrangements for themselves.
Self-booking is more prevalent in the United States but is quickly catching traction in India as well. This allows your admin staff to free up some time that can be better spent elsewhere.
International and domestic travel can both be addressed with a single travel policy. While you can get away without a separate foreign travel policy for employees in India, there are a few things that should be addressed in the original policy.
For instance, a company may need to revise the cap on booking costs upwards for international travel or even provide a travel advance to employees if they’re usually located in India.
Your travel allowance policy in India may not stay relevant outside the country.You may also need to add regional guidelines in the policy because the costs differ significantly for, say, traveling to the U.S. vs the UAE.
Travel policies aren't just about making rules; they're about efficiency and autonomy. Employees might not be excited about reading a 10-page document.
However, they will be excited to learn that they have the option to book a hotel room or choose the mode of travel themselves if using a self-booking platform like TravelPerk. All they need to do is book within policy. Rather than having to read through a lengthy doc, your booking platform should only showcase booking options within policy.
Any company policy that offers employees more autonomy typically sees more buy-in and helps you streamline internal processes. Plus,
on employee autonomy has proven to create more successful businesses in the US.A comprehensive travel policy helps you optimize your travel spend so there are no unexpected spikes coming from an employee's travel expense claims. It also helps minimize costs by providing clear guidelines to employees on room rates, airfare, and eligibility for personal expenses.
A corporate travel policy also frees up some time for your admin staff, travel manager, and finance team. When an employee has queries about booking tickets or accommodation, for instance, the policy can act as an FAQ for your employees.
Most importantly, a detailed travel policy fosters a culture of trust and fairness. Employees have all the information they need, which reduces the frustration that often accompanies a long or complicated reimbursement process—or ambiguity about the eligibility of expenses.
When was the last time you read a travel policy? This is where the challenge is. Your employees may not want to read a policy, let alone remember what's in the policy. Assuming your employees do read the policy, they're often hard to understand. As a result, your travel policy gets shelved, fast.
Companies often have a budget that doesn't align with the current cost of travel, compelling employees to book outside of the travel policy. For instance, an employee traveling to Mumbai is simply not going to be able to find a hotel room if your policy caps the rate based on room rates for Ahmedabad.
When you book your business travel through TravelPerk, your travel policy is seamlessly integrated into our platform. This not only gives your employees better visibility of whats in policy but also helps them make more informed choices when booking their trips. Not to mention, more control and peace of mind for your finance team too!
The non-compliance with trip policies isn't an employee-specific issue, nor a cultural issue, it's a global problem, but what that can be solved with the right tech.
Companies can address this issue by digitizing their travel policy. Here, digitizing doesn't mean creating a word document and emailing it to your staff, it means