Global corporate travel creates opportunities for companies and startups to acquire international clients, expand into new markets, and forge global partnerships. Employers invest in international business travel to achieve and sustain profitable growth.
Also, they make business trips successful by helping employees overcome potential travel challenges. However, companies can streamline corporate travel management only by identifying and solving a slew of challenges.
At the same time, they explore ways to control average business trip costs by getting corporate travel discounts. We are discussing some of these major global corporate travel challenges, along with strategies to solve them.
10 Major Global Corporate Travel Management Challenges and Solutions
1. Ensuring T&E Policy Compliance
Challenge: Employees can mitigate business travel risks and control business travel costs by complying with organizational travel and expense (T&E) policies. However, employers often find it challenging to prevent each work traveler from violating predefined T&E policies.
Solution: Employers overcome this corporate travel management challenge by setting clear and granular T&E policies. Also, they ensure that each employee can access relevant rules and guidelines on the go. Many companies these days implement travel management software that shows and recommends only in-policy travel products to employees.
2. Procuring and Updating Important Travel Documents
Challenge: Both senior and new staff members these days travel to various destinations for work purposes. They have to put in time and effort to procure and update essential travel documents. Employers find it challenging to help employees obtain must-have travel documents without neglecting professional responsibilities.
Solution: Companies solve this challenge by working with a corporate travel consultant. The consultant helps employees procure and obtain essential travel documents like passports, visas, work permits, national ID cards, and international driving licenses. Additionally, he assists work travelers in creating travel itineraries and customizing travel checklists.
3. Extending Travel Choices
Challenge: Work travelers these days love to book their choice of flights, accommodations, car rentals, and other business travel products. Companies find it challenging to provide travel choices and booking options to employees traveling to various destinations.
Solution: Leading travel management solutions help companies overcome this challenge. The software enables employees to choose from multiple travel products by accessing a comprehensive travel inventory. At the same time, it ensures that employees do not violate T&E policies while choosing travel products.
4. Simplifying Business Travel Booking
Challenge: While booking international business trips, employees have to gather information from diverse sources. Also, they have to complete bookings by visiting the websites of multiple travel suppliers. Enterprises find it challenging to boost employees’ business travel experience by simplifying travel booking.
Solution: Companies overcome this challenge by centralizing international business travel booking. They centralize the travel booking process by using a travel management company or travel management solution. The travel management company books travel products for employees. On the other hand, the software enables employees to complete travel bookings in minutes without visiting multiple websites.
5. Simplifying Booking Management
Challenge: Several studies suggest that business travelers cancel and reschedule bookings more frequently than leisure travelers. Companies minimize booking cancellations by making employees book business trips only after getting the required approval. However, they find it challenging to enable employees to cancel bookings without escalating costs.
Solution: Both travel management companies and travel management solutions help companies overcome this international business travel challenge. They enable employees to cancel or reschedule bookings without visiting external websites. Also, they ensure that employees can alter bookings without paying cancellation fees.
6. Controlling Business Trip Costs
Challenge: No company can increase the ROI of international business travel without controlling costs. Enterprises often find it challenging to reduce average business trip costs without impacting business travel experience and safety.
Solution: Many companies overcome this challenge by outsourcing or automating corporate travel management. Both options help employees save money on travel booking by getting corporate travel discounts. Also, they help employees cancel and reschedule bookings without paying fees. Additionally, they reduce business trip costs by ensuring policy compliance and facilitating travel expense tracking.
7. Providing Travel Assistance
Challenge: Employers must provide travel assistance to work travelers before, during, and after international business trips. They need to ensure that each employee can overcome emerging challenges and mitigate risks by getting the required information or assistance on demand.
Solution: Enterprises overcome this challenge by working with corporate travel consultants. Employees get the required information or assistance by contacting the travel consultant whenever the need arises. Also, many companies implement travel management software backed with 24/4 and multichannel customer support.
8. Meeting Duty of Care Obligation
Challenge: Duty of care is an important moral and legal obligation of enterprises investing in international business travel. The obligation requires them to ensure the safety and security of employees regardless of the destination. Companies find it challenging to meet duty of care obligations due to constraints related to expertise and resources.
Solution: Many companies ensure the safety and security of international business travelers by working with international health and security risk management firms. The firm provides emergency assistance to each work traveler regardless of their location. Also, many companies these days implement travel management software that tracks the real-time location of each work traveler.
9. Tracking and Managing Travel Expenses
Challenge: Most companies these days support post-trip expense reimbursements. They need to ensure that no work traveler experiences stress due to delays in travel expense reimbursements. Hence, they find it challenging to manage travel expenses and speed up reimbursements.
Solution: Enterprises overcome this global corporate travel management challenge by automating the travel expense management process. They track, process, review, and pay travel expenses efficiently by implementing integrated T&E management software.
The software accelerates reimbursements by facilitating real-time travel expense tracking. At the same time, it helps decision-makers analyze expenses incurred by international business travelers by generating custom reports.
10. Making Data-Driven Decisions
Challenge: In the age of big data, no company can increase the ROI of international business travel without making data-driven decisions. Enterprises often find it challenging to ensure informed decision-making by managing and analyzing T&E data efficiently.
Solution: New-age T&E management solutions come with built-in data analytics. In addition to unifying T&E data, they analyze the data automatically using advanced data analytics. They leverage the analytics to help decision-makers understand patterns and detect trends. Also, they share actionable insights that help users control international business travel costs without impacting travel experience and safety.
Conclusion
No enterprise can make international business trips successful without addressing and overcoming many challenges. Companies overcome various challenges in corporate travel management in several ways. Some companies overcome these challenges by implementing and enforcing travel and expense policies.
At the same time, many companies use a travel management company or implement travel management software to overcome challenges and get corporate travel discounts. However, each company can increase the ROI of global corporate travel only by identifying and solving new challenges proactively.
