Employers are often looking for ways to reduce the cost or have more control over the cost of employee travel. With modern expense management tools, business and financial leaders have the ability to gain more transparency and visibility into where spending is happening and what the trends are. This often leads them to want to take action to cut costs.
However, that need to reduce or control costs has to balanced with other objectives, such as maintaining a positive employee experience and employee satisfaction.
Rather than taking a hard-line stance or doling out consequences and punishments as a way to reduce employee travel costs, it can be more beneficial to reduce these costs through incentives and other strategies to motivate employees. The following are some tips that can help along the way.
Provide Autonomy
If your goal is trying to save money on travel costs, you’re probably not going to want to use money as a way to motivate employees. This seems fairly counterintuitive. Money isn’t the only way, nor is it always the best way, to motivate employees to cut their travel costs and save money.
Instead, a sense of autonomy is often an excellent motivator for employees. Employees are likely to make better decisions if they feel like they really are their own decisions.
Whenever possible within your travel policy, try to create opportunities for autonomy. Of course, you can put a framework in place to guide that autonomy, but let employees feel like they’re in control of their travel experience.
Praise and Recognition
Offering well-deserved praise and motivation to employees can also be an excellent motivator and a great incentive for employees to keep doing what they’re doing. If you’re offering praise to an employee who has been able to lower travel costs, make it public. Make it known that their efforts aren’t going unnoticed and they are appreciated.
It sounds simple and maybe even silly, but the desire to be praised and recognized for accomplishments is part of our nature as humans, so take advantage as a way to change the behaviors of your employees.
Provide Time As a Reward
If your employees go above and beyond to reign in their travel costs and expenses, reward them with the gift of time. Time is something we all tend to want more of. Let them take an afternoon off or a full day off if they can meet certain metrics.
This can be especially beneficial for employees who travel frequently and may need some downtime to regroup and recharge. Finally, make sure that the example is coming from the top. If you’re asking most employees to cut down on their travel costs but your company executives are still traveling and spending lavishly, it’s probably not going go over well. Motivate your employees by showing them that everyone is scaling back. Your company leaders have to set the example. Otherwise, not only are employees less likely to do what you’re asking, but there’s going to be anger and frustration that erodes corporate culture.
