It appears it can be common, at least initially, for travel policies in small to medium companies to not really exist. When starting in new roles several travel managers have found that travel often sits under the expense policy. And at the expense stage we know that the 'damage' has already been made.
Speaking at the UK's ITM conference, Olive Kavanagh, global travel manager of Kerry Group and another buyer both found that the policies they adopted when joining new companies were expense-heavy. By separating travel into its own policy both have been able to become more focused and strategic on what needs to be implemented and what priority those take.
The two travel managers agreed that travel policies are the baseline for a programme from which areas like risk management, ancillaries and the sharing economy can be applied to. It allows them to be more proactive.
Policies are also an area of contention in staff retention or employment. Kavanagh said Kerry Group is considering allowing business class because competitors offer it and travellers are raising it with HR. When going through an acquisition and merger Carla Zapf, travel and mobility project manager at Infineon Technologies found that a change in policy for new staff members caused friction and she granted business class to retain staff.
By the way, when I wrote about whether robots would be taking over jobs it is these feeling or cultural nuances that technology would not be able to know and tweak without the travel manager's knowledge.
The day I got back from the ITM conference I spoke to Jeremy Bromwell of business travel start-up TripActions who had a different view of policies.
"In a world of traveller preference and the 'economy of choice' the travel policy is no longer adequate. Travel buyers are expected to deliver savings and service the best experience, support and administration against the speed of new acquisitions, growth markets and getting new customers onboard".
When there is so much choice it's easy for travellers to look elsewhere especially if the company policy won't let some content be shown or red flags a particular booking. Perhaps by combining travel policy rules and these new supplier types buyers can find the right balance and improve compliance.