Corporate Culture Is Key to Compliance With Travel Policy
by Fred GebhartTo boost compliance with business travel policy, travel managers must address their own reluctance to enforce policies that are unpopular with travelers, as well as myriad issues involving corporate culture.
“Travel policy doesn’t work unless the corporation itself has a culture that wants to mandate the program and put it into place,” said Terry Wellesley, executive manager director, BMO Spend & Payment Solutions. Wellesley manages corporate card programs for Bank of Montreal.
“I’ve seen it get better over time, but the solution is not there unless the corporate culture is there to support it,” he told Travel Market Report. “Travel is the second or third largest controllable expense for most companies, but companies still have not figured it out. If the culture is not there, compliance is not there.”
Corporate card compliance
Wellesley has identified two sources of compliance problems over a quarter-century working in the card business.
One is senior executives who ignore corporate card programs because they like the rewards, rebates, airline miles, and other perks that come with increased spending on their personal credit cards. The other is employee contracts, typically union contracts, that exempt employees from corporate card mandates so they can continue to accrue benefits to their personal card accounts.
Compliance is not just a billing or reimbursement cost issue, Wellesley noted. Corporate cards also trigger detailed business travel data that are never collected or reported from personal card use. Incomplete data can hobble the entire travel program by distorting spending, hiding spending, and understating spending used to calculate market share and rebates.
“In the end, it is all about the organization and savings,” said Paris-based Stefan Fallert, director of policy and compliance for CWT Solutions Group.
“When it comes to reimbursement processes, there is no excuse for not using the company card. When the company buys computers, I don’t think there is an employee out there who would say ‘I don’t like HP, I want a Dell’ and expect to win a new computer. Travel is no different.”
Hesitant managers
Travel managers who are hesitant to mandate travel policy, or even publicize it aggressively, for fear of offending travelers, are also the cause of many compliance issues, Fallert said.
“It may also be that travel managers and other managers have different priorities,” he said. “Travel may come very low on the list of priorities in other departments. You need management attention and leadership in every department in order to promote compliance.”
Travel managers don’t always make a good business case for travel policy mandates, Fallert continued. Even senior executives may not recognize the cost impact of improved compliance with advance booking requirements, preferred vendors, and corporate card use – because the travel manager has not done an effective job of communicating the need for improved compliance and the direct benefits of improved compliance.
Communication issues
Another wrinkle is the ways companies communicate mandates, said Miriam Moscovici, director, strategic marketing and technology planning, BCD Travel.
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The business world is moving away from the traditional culture of control, i.e., when the company says jump, the only allowable question is ‘how high?’ The new model is a culture of influence in which companies communicate goals and strategies instead of mandates and requirements.
“It’s not so much a culture shift away from compliance, as a culture shift in how the corporation communicates in a more modern way,” she explained. “A lot of travel managers have reached the outer limits of what is possible with traditional policy mandates, hard procurement processes. Now they are looking for employee collaboration,” Moscovici told Travel Market Report.
Execs should jump in
The key to any policy implementation is leadership belief in policy and, more importantly, leadership demonstrating its belief. For companies with an active social media program, that can mean coaxing senior management to jump into the discussion rather than simply observing from the sidelines.
Taking an active role in the discussion shows commitment from the top, as well as hands-on experience with the program. This gives company leaders the kind of credibility that is generally reserved for peers.
“It is leadership telling people how they are personally making changes,” Moscovici explained. “It is sharing with the internal community how they are personally making changes in adhering to policy. It is using your community to talk to people, to get the message across that they are using the program and it works. The benefits of a corporate program can be better realized if people hear about it from a peer. A social network is a huge piece of influence versus control.”
Use direct messaging
Influence grows stronger with repetition, she continued, especially if the same message comes from multiple sources and channels. Direct messaging to travelers at the point of decision or the point of purchase can help influence compliance because they’ve already heard the message.
Most travel management companies have messaging tools to help remind travelers not to pay for hotel breakfast because it is included in the rate, to take a shuttle to the hotel instead of a taxi, to use the corporate card instead of a personal card.
