Preventing pushback: How to navigate unpopular decisions in T&E policy
Business travel is never static. Shifting economic climates, sustainability mandates, and compliance requirements force travel and expense (T&E) policies to constantly adapt. Yet for travel managers, being the architect of change can be a thankless task – especially when it involves tightening purse strings.
Whether they love it or hate it, travel plucks employees from the everyday familiarity of the office into departure lounges and open roads. So, changes to T&E policies can spark internal conflict. Friction emerges when employees feel deprived of their autonomy, like if they’re unable to travel via their preferred carriers or choose seat classes.
Navigating unpopular policy updates requires a steady hand and a strategic approach to change management. Let’s explore what drives travel and expense policy changes and how travel managers can handle them with tact.
What’s driving policy change in today’s T&E environment?
Travel budget cuts are a primary driver of policy updates. According to a recent survey by SAP Concur, 41% of travel managers report that budget constraints often lead to significant, policy-level adjustments, such as changing the types of trips allowed.
Compliance and environmental policies can also dictate how employees travel. Some businesses have pivoted to a “rail-first” policy for domestic trips under a certain distance. Others have banned short-haul journeys altogether.
Policy updates like these inevitably help businesses hit their carbon reduction targets and minimise costs. But they also often undermine the ease of travel – or put an end to it completely. This can create a divide between leadership vision and employee experience.
Steps to overcoming policy pushback
How businesses approach difficult policy changes will depend on the type of company. Larger enterprises tend to build more flexibility into their policies, provided employees adhere to budget constraints. Smaller businesses are usually operating within tighter margins. Therefore, there might be an urge to reduce autonomy to save money.
Regardless of an organisation’s stature, policy changes often are necessary – even if they are not easy. Travel managers must bear the burden of difficult decisions that not everyone in the business will receive well.
These are best practices for communicating unpopular T&E policy changes to employees and for minimising friction.
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Secure executive buy-in
Successful communication of policy updates starts far before emails get sent to the wider workforce. The foundation of effective change management is executive buy-in.
You need to brief leaders across the business on why and how change will happen, bringing them in early to secure their support. Finance leaders, for instance, are essential for assessing and demonstrating the value of policy updates through the lens of budget and compliance. IT heads provide insights into which systems will integrate best and ensure a smooth transition to enforcing new policies. And HR professionals can act as employee advocates, so that policy updates support talent interests and duty of care.
2.Find the happy medium
When you need to deliver an unpopular policy change, such as mandating economy over business class, it can be helpful to look for “soft-dollar” incentives to offset the impact. For example, could you negotiate with vendors for benefits on the road, like priority boarding or lounge access?
Be cautious with financial incentives, particularly when implementing a global travel programme. This could open the business up to further tax implications. For example, offering benefits such as vouchers for employees who select cheaper travel options may be considered a taxable benefit-in-kind.
Instead, focus on add-ons that enhance the traveller’s experience without triggering tax implications, such as early boarding agreements or fast-track security clearance. These perks can enhance employee comfort without creating compliance challenges.
3.Provide clear, targeted communication
To effectively communicate an unpopular T&E policy change to employees, you must clearly break down the rationale for the change. Transparency is essential. If employees can’t understand why an unwelcome change is in the pipeline, they’re more likely to push back – or continue the behaviour you’re disallowing.
You should also adapt your approach for the audience. Senior executives typically need to be brought into the decision-making process at an early stage, while frequent travellers require detailed FAQs to understand how their day-to-day T&E processes will change.
Timeliness also counts. Policy changes may fail to get off the ground if they’re communicated only once. Reiterate information when and where people are booking, such as inside the travel platform. This can avoid unpleasant surprises for travellers or approvers.
4.Be flexible for the future
Travel policies take time to roll out. To prevent changes from becoming obsolete, it pays to build modular policies.
Lastly, feedback is critical to iteration. You’ll need to assess how policy updates are perceived to build a healthy dialogue around change. Consider distributing pulse surveys to monitor traveller satisfaction or creating working groups to listen to employee perspectives.
Ultimately, the most effective policies are the ones people understand. When you are transparent about the “why” and build easily navigable policies into your T&E systems, compliance is just another part of the process – not a reason for employee uproar.