Travel buyers must ensure employees have a sound understanding of the company culture in order to increase policy compliance, according to a panel of buyers.
Speaking at the Buying Business Travel Forum in London yesterday one buyer said to get more employees compliant with policy there must be "buy-in from the top-down”, and the board must “push the message” of company culture onto all employees.
In the first session of the day on tackling ‘the three C’s’ – Compliance, Communication and Culture, buyers said it was important for senior management to ensure travellers understand the company culture as it will help "plug leakage" from the programme.
“You have to have trusted buy-in from board level and everyone must understand the culture and this starts at the top of the organisation.”
Another buyer said properly communicating any changes to your travel programme was essential to help compliance.
“Communicate with your employees and find out the challenges they face when travelling.
“We are increasingly getting more demands from our younger employees who are often falling out of policy, so we hold open sessions once a year to listen to the problems they face when travelling and we’ve found this has helped.”
Another buyer also pointed out the importance of communication regarding the travel policy.
“We have a global policy and any amendments made which is twice a year will be communicated globally through many channels such as the Intranet, emails, company forums. We will use any platform to get the message across.”
Another buyer said it was important to always be open to your travellers. “You must be close to your employees. Listen to them and tackle the communication problem at every angle.
“There can also be collaboration with other buyers and find out how the challenges they face, help share the knowledge as collaboration has its place externally and not just inside the company walls.”
The forum focussed on 'facing global challenges' and was debated by a room of buyers under Chatham House rules.
Head to our online forum to discuss any of the issues from the day.
The next BBT Forum will be held on October 3. To book your place contact crobson@panaceapublishing.com or call call +44 (0)207 821 2700.