dgtsf

I'm putting together our first travel policy to work it into our budget models. Small company but expecting to grow relatively quickly. In the world of cybersecurity and technology, but not a software or hardware company. I expect about 15% of our employees will travel 50-70%, about 1/3 traveling 30-50% of their time, another 1/3 at about 25% or less, and the remainder likely once a year at most.

The philosophy behind our policy is that we ask a lot of those who travel; we acknowledge frequent traveling is extremely hard on the body and family; and we see it not just as an expense, but also as a recruiting and benefits incentive and a way of hopefully minimizing long-term burn-out and retention.

At most, we expect 20% of our travel costs to be reimbursable by customers. We eat the rest. We are not consultants.

The broad brush strokes:

• Seniority agnostic--everyone from the CEO to the Receptionist gets the same policy
• Business class for all red eyes
• Business class for international (anywhere outside continental U.S.; Canada and Mexico is subject to pre-approval/dependent on where in country) travel; no min. miles or hours
• Extra leg room economy on all other flights
• Airline of the traveler's choice as long as it's within a reasonable range (judged by common sense) of what seems to be the average cost of the ticket across carriers
• No fully refundable tickets unless discussed/approved in advance based on likelihood of schedule fluctuations
• No budget hotels if there are other options, but also no luxury (Four Seasons, Ritz, etc.) hotels unless they are priced comparably or pre-approved for specific reasons. Expected stays are mid-range (e.g. Courtyard) or business-class (e.g. Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, etc.)
• Rental car of choice, but only full-size or smaller. Larger or premium cars are fine if they are priced the same.
• Actual expense reimbursement for meals, or entertainment on the road (including a massage or a movie or such), but we expect employees to have good judgment, be reasonable, and do what's in everyone's best interest
• Laundry and dry cleaning only for trips over 5 full days.

Any thoughts or opinions? Other than paying 100% healthcare premiums for the employee and their dependents, we do not provide a particularly exhaustive benefits package, and we don't really offer any other miscellaneous office perks except occassional team togethers.

Does this jive with the current "market" for travel policies? Anyone feel strongly one way or the other that we're either doing well by our employees, or missing the mark? This is new for us, and we haven't really surveyed what others are doing. We just kinda took it from a common sense / control costs within reason standpoint.

TTT

I would say it exceeds the two companies travel policies in flexibility and benefits I have worked for.

A few things to think about/questions:

• Are employees booking their own travel or using a corp booking engine? How are you monitoring their bookings to ensure "compliance"?
• Have you consulted a tax advisor? Some of the benefits (movies, massages, etc) could be considered imputed income for your employees (and not deductible from your business).
• It seems like the policy has opportunities for abuse and rely on the honesty of your employees. May not be an issue now that you are small company, but it might come up as you grow.

sbm12

Excessively generous. While I appreciate the sentiment, you're going to get burned by "we expect employees to have good judgment, be reasonable, and do what's in everyone's best interest." Are you willing to fire someone who crosses the line, even though there was no real line drawn?

You probably mean transoceanic or intercontinental, not international.

Your company isn't hardware, software or consulting. What's left??

chgoeditor

I'd say it's very generous. If you're generally using corporate travel agents, you might want to confirm that they'll book Southwest if that's an employee's airline of choice.

For those who are traveling frequently, will you reimburse for PreCheck, Nexus, Global Entry or the like?

Is there anything to say about what the employee can/must do if they have a choice between travel by car, plane or train?

zkzkz

The companies I've worked for in the IT field generally have premium economy within budget but not business class routinely so I would say your policy is more generous than average.

I would say you should be clearer about what is and isn't expected. Don't worry about someone that's outright ripping you off, worry about the gradual creep of expectations as most people start off reasonable but notice that there's someone else taking a more liberal interpretation.

dgtsf

Thanks for the inputs so far, folks.

A few follow-up points to address your questions.

1. Thanks for the tip about imputed income. No, we haven't yet walked through this with our accountant on the best way to handle it, though we plan to. If it becomes taxable income for an employee, we'll likely take it out of the policy.

2. We'll be using a combination of traveler booking and in-house admins. We don't have a central system, and I'm on the fence about travel agents and the expense that comes with it. Yes, I know "enforcement"/compliance becomes an issue if it's not run through a central source.

3. Yes, we clearly rely on honesty. And yes, we're prepared to fire people who routinely cross lines that are not black and white. But we have enough barriers in here -- e.g. no luxury hotels or premium (higher than full size) cars -- that we think people can be reasonable and liberal within those constraints. Our culture as a whole is one of respect and treating people like they're, you know, human beings. We're all adults. We all have reasonable judgment. And if we don't, they're not a fit here for a ton of reasons, and they sure as heck shouldn't be in our line of work. It's the same reason we have an open vacation policy (though we expect, say, sales people, to be around at the closing of a quarter, or other hectic times, for example). We trust people will make adult decisions and take their responsibilities seriously. If they don't/can't, or if they can't get their work done, they're not a fit and will need to go. We believe that generally people are good and mean well and with some variance will make responsible decisions while a typically very small percentage of people would take advantage. Our strategy is to simply not hire them, and to show them the door if we do.

4. Planes, trains, and cars... traveler's choice as long as it's reasonable. For example, we're not going to approve a $500 flight from SFO to Monterey when you can drive there in less time and exponentially less money. But if someone would rather take a train from one place to another and they can fit it into their schedule and the price isn't worlds apart from more common options, than that's fine with us.

5. If someone picks Southwest as their airline of choice, they should be given a stern talking to and reprimanded for their decision. Just kidding. I'm not a fan of SWA at all, but many are. If we end up using an agent, we'll figure this one out as we go.

6. Yes, we will reimburse for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. We will not reimburse for airline lounges, though people are free to use their travel card and status benefits however they see fit.

Loren Pechtel

"International" should be changed--some pretty short flights are international. Since you're obviously US you should probably exclude Canada from that, perhaps Mexico also.

enviroian

way too generous and relying on people's common sense unfortunately.

lowest coach, holiday inn expresses or you guys will run out of money quick.

dgtsf

That's a bit presumptious when you don't know anything about the business, no? As it happens, we're working it all into a very manageable budget and it's not in the realm of unaffordable or we wouldn't be considering it. Either way, the question was about appropriateness and value relative to what other companies offer, not affordability. We're perfectly capable of assessing the latter. I'm very, very clear about the cost of this policy relative to what it could be.

There are lots of companies that make their people stay at the Holiday Inn Express or pick the bare bones cheapest economy flight who don't actually NEED to make them do so.

dgtsf

Good point, thanks!

invisible

Seems that money is not a problem...

If anyone gives me a choice - fly in Business or fly in Economy and take home half of the price difference between Business and Economy - I will take second option without thinking.

pharmawalk

My only comment is that a company that paid for my travel previously had a rule that flights over 4 hours could be in FC/business. There will certainly be employees that take advantage of whatever you provide (e.g., only scheduling flights that are red-eyes to get FC/business).

jahason

Great travel policy. If you treat people like professionals they will behave like professionals. Seems like a company where you probably apply this policy in all other areas too. I hope your company does grow exponentially.

Yoshi212

I agree it's still sounding way too generous for a growing company. I work freelance and most of my clients allow me to have my own travel policy but one or two make me abide by theirs as they're required to for gov't contracts or are gov'ts.

Contracts should be established with at least one airline for a discount and/or elite status packages. Same for hotels. Wifi and meals can add up really quickly but if a hotel is willing to grant a status that includes at least a wifi benefit you'll save a bundle. Parking in some cities will run up a large bill also and some hotels do bundles including parking.

Cars are lesser of an expense, in general, but not bad looking into also. Uber and Taxi policy should be established.

Are these bookings be made on individual employee cards or a corporate card or direct billing?

MSPeconomist

To me, full size cars are unnecessary unless a team will be sharing a car. For one or two people, in most circumstances, a compact is fine. However, some international locations don't have automatics with AC that aren't luxury vehicles, so you want to allow the cheapest such in those locations. It might be a Mercedes. Also, for a team traveling together, do you want them to share a larger SUV or van, which would be some category above full size typically?

How about travel to/from airports where there's no need for a rental car? Is car service OK? What about travel between home/office and airport? Again in some foreign locations, you might want the hotel's car service for security. Will you pay for airport valet parking for certain short trips, especially if very strange hours are involved?

Airport lounges?

Alcohol, either with or without a meal, with or without clients?

Will you pay for airport lounge usage and/or lounge memberships?

Will you pay extra for club level rooms, that sometimes can save money on F&B and sometimes conference room rental. They're commonly free for those with elite hotel status.

Will people generally pay with their own credit cards or a company card? For the former, how quickly can you reimburse them? Will you sometimes give a travel advance (money for anticipated expenses)? When are receipts and other documents required to be submitted for reimbursement? Will you pay credit card annual fees or make arrangements with a credit card company? What if an employee can't get a decent credit card/limit?

When are people allowed to plan to arrive at the destination a day early or stay over a weekend, which sometimes saves money if airfares require minimum stay? What happens if a business trip extends over a weekend or holiday? Can they stay there or go elsewhere if it's not more expensive rather than traveling home and back?