Company travel costs out of control? Having trouble keeping top talent? You may need a staff travel policy! Here are four smart categories to consider before finalizing…

4 Smart Categories For Your New Staff Travel Policy

With the environment growing in importance for many companies, there is increasing pressure to make businesses more responsible for their carbon footprint. In turn, this has led to some companies getting creative with how they get their employees and contractors to work, as well as how they travel for business.

As a business owner, you should ask yourself: Does your business need a staff travel policy?

If your company does not have travel policy guidelines yet, here are four things to consider as you’re crafting a company travel policy for employees.

Staff Travel Policy And Company Cars

One of the most common aspects of a staff travel policy is company cars. If your employees need to travel a lot for business, this has traditionally been the most popular way to facilitate. However, there is now mounting pressure to limit the use of company cars, favoring alternatives.

One alternative is a fleet of hybrid or all-electric vehicles. Although they still need electricity to run, they are lower in emissions and more economical to run for the company.

Always a frugal approach: Instead of employees and contractors traveling to a location for meetings, video conference instead.

Car Parking

Many companies end up with a selective car parking policy because they have limited space to accommodate staff vehicles. When considering a building for office space, businesses will often consider the cost of rental over parking availability.

For your employees and contractors, this means they will need to think about the best options for themselves when traveling to work. Depending on the situation, this may be a factor that affects attracting new talent. 

In terms of recruitment, it might mean coming up with travel and parking arrangements for staff to assure a top-notch, talented team.

Public Transportation

In reducing your carbon footprint and encouraging your employees to be more green, you might consider offering public transportation incentives. It might be worth it to subsidize staff and contractor travel costs if they use a bus or a train.

Another idea is to offer vouchers to help team members buy a bicycle for work instead of taking their cars. This plan not only helps the environment but also means cost savings for your workers. In select locations, your team would be able to take advantage of services like Metromile and reduce their insurance costs.

Car Pools

If your business is too far away for public transport to be a viable option, then you could consider setting up a carpooling program

Here, members of staff to travel together in one car instead of everyone bringing in their own cars. It would cut the emissions attributed to your business operation, and also result in a cost savings for employees.

The driving rotation could include a group of four people each taking turns driving their own cars. If an initial test of this plan is successful, you might consider offering a fuel subsidy incentive to those workers signed up to the carpool program.

Staff Travel Policy Summarization

Yes, it will take effort and man hours to set a company travel policy for employees.  But the clarity in your policies for your staff is a huge advantage and will make a difference in your overall business operation.

Having a staff travel policy does more than just help the company save money and reduce emissions.  It also helps to raise awareness among your employees about their role in protecting the environment.  A win/win.