Now really is the time to restructure your company travel policy. COVID-19 is still dominating local, national and international news. That being said, the economy is trying to bounce back. Most offices are back open (even if remotely!), workers and their hours are returning and your company might be ready to think about business travel once again. If not now, then certainly for 2021.

Before flying back into business travel (like what we did there?) you can use this time to address problem areas in your company travel policy and refine or restructure it for the ‘new normal’. How can you ensure that your employees are travelling as safe as possible? To answer this, we’ve highlighted five key areas of a standard company travel programme that should be analysed and updated.

1. Eradicate ‘leakage’ from the company travel programme

This is simple. Your dedicated business travel agency is in place to uphold your company travel policy. If an employee is booking outside of your chosen business travel agency, perhaps on a hotel or airline website directly, you will have no control over these bookings. The location, hotel or airline may be unsafe or not in your company travel policy approved list. On top of this, you will have no oversight or access to traveller tracking. Retrain employees to ensure they are only making arrangements via your business travel agency.

2. Update traveller profiles

Before business travel recommences, take some time to thoroughly update traveller profiles. Are passports in date? Have there been any name changes? Have contact details or next of kin details changed? Perhaps some of your travellers may have new preferences or dietary requirements? These are all things to consider to ensure your business travel agency accurately book and manage future travel.

3. Consider incorporating testing

Some countries will only accept entry if the traveller has tested negative within a number of hours prior to travel. However, things change very quickly and other countries may also wish to see negative tests on arrival. This could happen overnight. To avoid any employee being stuck on arrival it might be wise to ensure your staff are tested before travel regardless of their destination.

4. Update the company list of approved hotels

Ultimately, your employees will want to feel confident that they are staying in a hotel that meets the highest of safety standards. Your business travel agency should be able to advise you if your approved hotels have upped their cleaning game. They can also advise if there are other chains or hotels that are making waves in the industry for their adaptation to the new standards of COVID-19 cleaning. These are the ones that should be making your list.

5. Is it time for a new business travel agent to uphold your company travel policy?

Lastly, it’s worthwhile noting that your new and improved company travel policy may need supporting by a better business travel agency. Review your past years relationship, after all, you are going through a pandemic together. If ever you needed an impeccable service, it was in 2020. Was your agent there for you and your employees when things took a drastic turn? Could you rely on them to get your staff home safely? Were they quick, reliable and responsive?

We hope the answer to these questions is ‘yes’. However, if there’s any doubt, then our expert team at Your Travel Corporate would love to hear from you. We were voted 2020’s ‘Leading Travel Agent of the Year’ by the Corporate Travel Awards. Our dedicated team have clients ranging in multiple industries and have sent corporate travellers to every corner of the globe. At Your Travel Corporate, we have partnered with Confirm Testing to offer rapid and reliable COVID-19 testing and Fit to Fly certificates to our clients, at a discount!

Get in touch today to find out more.

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