How To Write A Corporate Travel Policy For Your Startup Team

When startups incorporate travel into their operations, they succeed in building their businesses. Travel offers the opportunity to experience new places, people and products. Before startup teams can start attending promotional events like conferences and trade shows, they need to implement corporate travel policies. With a detailed policy in place, entrepreneurs can easily manage expenses and employee satisfaction during business trips. Keep reading to learn how to write your own corporate travel policy for your startup team. 

Determine Your Objectives

Before you begin writing your travel policy, determine your objectives. This first step is crucial to success because your goals will outline your entire policy. One of the biggest corporate travel policy objectives among entrepreneurs is to keep costs low. By keeping your costs low during business trips, you can maintain a steady cash flow during your startup phase. Another popular objective for entrepreneurs to consider is keeping employees safe. Employee safety management plays a major role in worker satisfaction rates during work trips. Keep these objectives in mind when setting your own goals. Once you have a list of clear objectives, continue writing your startup’s corporate travel policy. 

Create A Travel Request Process

Another critical step to take when building your policy is to create a travel request process. Request processes ensure that employees do not schedule trips without your approval. They prevent workers from attending events that do not fit into your current startup goals. Start building a travel request process by creating a business trip form. Ask for information about the event in the form. Require employees to explain why they think the event is a good idea for the company. Then, include a section for financial information. Request the estimated travel cost for the entire trip. Add these forms to your corporate travel policy to write one effectively. 

Outline Your Corporate Travel Services

Furthermore, develop a travel service process for your policy. Entrepreneurs and their teams have access to a variety of corporate travel services. Once you select the best one for your own team, you need to show employees how to use it effectively. Create a written outline for the process so your team never gets confused. Provide account information in the outline. That way, authorized employees can login and make travel plans easily. Include cost restrictions in the outline to ensure that your team stays within budget as well. Add this process to your corporate travel policy to keep your startup team and travel services team on the same page. 

List Reimbursable Expenses

Entrepreneurs also need to list reimbursable expenses in their travel policies. By listing these expenses, you avoid dealing with any miscommunication issues with employees. They can review the list of expenses that they can be reimbursed for during trips. They can plan their own budgets accordingly. To ensure that employees understand this portion of your policy, be as clear as possible in your list. Consider every travel and entertainment item that you can think of. Include details for each listed item. Instead of writing “food”, set a price or amount limit on the food. Take this step to write a promising corporate travel policy for your startup. 

Keep Your Employees’ Needs In Mind

In addition to the above steps, keep your employees’ needs in mind to write an effective corporate travel policy. Your team’s satisfaction is crucial to your startup’s success. This is why you need to consider your employees’ wants and needs when building a travel program. Acknowledge how your employees prefer to read crucial company information. Rather than writing up a policy in fine print and with little white space, make it easy to read. Keep it short and sweet so your employees can remember it easily. You can even ask your staff members about their preferred reimbursable expenses. Alter your list based on their opinions. As long as you keep them in mind, you will write a great corporate travel policy for your startup team. 

To scale your new business up quickly, you need to attend corporate travel events. Before doing so, you need a travel policy in place. Prior to writing yours, determine your policy objectives. After you establish a clear set of goals, build a travel request process for employees to gain approval. Then, set travel service limits to avoid overspending on business trips. List reimbursable expenses to prevent money-related issues from arising as well. Finally, keep your employees’ needs in mind when creating your policy. Follow these guidelines to write a corporate travel policy for your startup team.