It’s a New Year and we all know how that goes. You have a list of 20 personal goals you want to accomplish that start with going to the gym and eating healthier, and by day 20 of the new year, you’ve already forgotten the code to the lock on your gym locker. Hopefully for your work objectives you can be a little more realistic.
If you’re doing things right you’ve set your own personal goals aside from your business goals, and you’ve laid out some clear resolutions that will help you reach your revenue objectives and be sure to push ahead stronger than ever in the New Year. Here are some helpful tips for corporate travel management New Year’s Resolutions that will help you be more successful than ever in 2024.
Expert tip
Focus on leveraging technology for efficiency, data analytics for decision making, controlling costs, streamlining booking processes, enhancing your travel policy compliance, prioritizing employee wellbeing and implementing more sustainable practices.
Resolution 1: Maximize efficiency through the use of technology
Technology is the key to unlocking efficiency, especially when it comes to corporate travel. Integrating advanced booking systems will help streamline business travel bookings and make seamless reservations. Plus, by using an all-in-one platform you can better control approval processes. Less manual work means you can be more efficient because you don’t have to use a million different tools to get one job done.
These emerging technologies will also help you to enhance the overall travel experience for your team because things are easier from start to finish, from booking, to actually traveling. And if there is a problem on the road, by using a travel management platform like GetGoing, you can be sure to get the help you need on the road from real experts.
Resolution 2: Make more data-driven decisions
Making data-driven decisions starts with having good data at your disposal. So in order to make this New Year’s Resolution come true, it’s a good idea to start working with an online travel management platform that will allow you to get access to the data you need like travel spend and how it’s divided between travel categories and by traveler, the number of trips booked, the reasons people traveled, and whether you have any unused tickets still available in the new year so you can better understand how many of the trips being booked are actually being used.
This way in the new year you can analyze travel patterns and identify more savings opportunities, implement predictive analytics for better planning, and then continuously monitor and adjust based on these insights.
Resolution 3: Optimize costs and minimize unnecessary travel expenses
Before you travel, it’s a good idea to decide whether a business trip is really necessary or if it can be replaced with a Zoom meeting. This allows you to only travel when it’s really necessary and forgo frivolous trips. Why not also implement better cost-tracking tools and negotiate better deals with travel vendors?
Working with an all-in-one platform like GetGoing, you can cut costs and take advantage of the travel deals that are already built into the platform.
Resolution 4: Enhance travel policy compliance
If you don’t already have a travel policy, your first New Year’s resolution should be to download our travel policy template. Once you set up your travel policy, it’s a good idea to educate your team about the importance of sticking to the policy rules. You can use technology to monitor and enforce compliance, setting up your travel policy to work in the background.
Be sure to communicate through internal channels policy updates and changes effectively as the more your staff is “in-the-know” the more easy it will be to enforce their adherence.
Resolution 5: Prioritize employee well-being
It’s always a good idea to prioritize employee well-being because happy employees work better. If you’re not already doing it, this year find ways to incorporate wellness initiatives into travel programs, and give ample resources to travelers to take care of their health and safety. Make sure they have a healthy work lifestyle balance as traveling frequently for business can take a toll on employee’s wellbeing. Make it a priority and one of your top resolutions this year.
Resolution 6: Implement more sustainable travel practices
For 2024, set some eco-friendly travel goals for your organization, including implementing green travel policies and initiatives. Promote the use of sustainable transportation such as shared vehicles, public transportation and walking. Allocate more budget to hotels that provide sustainable accommodations and thus encourage employees to reserve at sustainably-minded hotels over conventional ones.
Keep in mind the four pillars of sustainable business travel:
Read more about sustainable business travel and find out all the ways GetGoing is trying to do its part to contribute to greener corporate travel.
Resolution 7: Invest in employee training and development
Invest in ongoing training programs for travel managers, travelers, your human resources team, and department heads to teach them ways to travel better. Make sure to keep them informed of the latest travel technologies. This will help foster continuous improvement in corporate travel management and ensure you achieve all your business goals in 2024. If you invest in your employees’ growth and development, they will invest in making your company better, and helping to achieve its goals.
Corporate travel management resolutions summarized
We’ve looked at the top corporate travel management resolutions we recommend for 2024, which starts with leveraging technology, finding ways to make more data-driven decisions, cost optimization, enhancing compliance to the travel policy, prioritizing employee well-being, implementing more sustainable travel practices and investing in employee training and development.
By prioritizing these resolutions you can be more successful and efficient in your travel program. Corporate travel management is constantly changing and evolving so it’s important to stay on top of the emerging trends to continue to optimize to be efficient and successful in business travel management.
Want to learn more about how to optimize corporate travel management? Book a demo and we’ll tell you everything you want to know. Don’t miss out!