Work travel today is about more than just logistics. It’s about protecting your people, managing costs, and making sure every trip runs seamlessly - and that’s where HR plays a crucial role.

Chubb’s Spotlight on Business Travel report found that 58% of organisations share responsibility for travel between HR and risk managers, with one in ten leaving responsibility solely on the HR team. 

A major factor for this is the importance of travel to job satisfaction. 84% of those surveyed for Business Travel News’ Traveler Experience Index said business travel plays a key role in their job satisfaction, making it a significant consideration for employee wellbeing and retention.

This guide provides advice for HR managers, with expert tips on how to integrate travel into your existing workflows, and how TravelPerk helps you book smarter, stay on budget, and keep your people safe.

HR duties and travel management responsibilities

The good news is that many existing HR skills, including creating policies, managing compliance and handling emergencies can also directly apply to travel. 

Core HR skills can result in a better organised travel management policy for workers, with a clear plan and the right tools to keep travellers safe and travel costs within budget.

• Risk assessment 

As in the workplace, HR plays an important role in reducing the chance of accidents with thorough risk assessments.

• Support

HR teams play a key role in supporting employees with travel preparations, including essential documentation like insurance.

• Duty of care

The HR team’s role is to make sure travellers feel just as safe and supported as they do in the workplace. That means having clear contingency plans in place for disruptions, delays, or anything unexpected.

• Training

Having developed policies, procedures and best practices, training to increase awareness and effective implementation is crucial for making sure each individual is prepared for their trip.

How to integrate travel management into HR roles

1. Understand existing needs, roles and processes

The first step is to understand the existing systems of travel booking and management within the company. Consider why processes have been developed in their current form and the existing pain points for individuals and the company:

• Who is currently responsible for booking travel?
• What budgets are in place and how were they established?
• Review expenditure by reviewing historical information - which departments have the highest travel budgets and are they suitable?

With this information, it will be easier to build a clear picture of the current situation and use this information to develop the goals and approach of your new HR travel policy.

2. Develop or update the corporate travel policy

A clear and effective HR-led corporate travel policy plays an important role in your team’s confidence and makes it easier to develop and update travel arrangements quickly. A good travel policy should include guidance and processes for the following:

• Travel safety and risk management
• Booking procedures
• Approval processes
• Preferred vendors
• Expenses and reimbursement.

TravelPerk can automate travel policies, helping those who are time-poor or uncertain to produce a new and personalised policy in minutes.

Once you’ve got the details, lay out clear rules to cover processes for booking, the types of accommodation allowed and expenses. Collaboration with other departments may be needed over budgeting and compliance, but this will ensure buy-in from across the company and keep things running smoothly.

Cost management is a major consideration that could affect accommodation choices, overnight stays and the use of business class. At all times, try to focus on the team’s needs. While cost is an important factor, the priority should be convenience, safety and the wellbeing of staff.

3. Manage duty of care and safety

While travel booking is sometimes seen as distinct from HR, employee wellbeing should be a priority consideration. Clear processes and contingency plans must always be in place for emergencies.

When you know what’s covered by travel insurance and keep everyone’s info up to date, you’ll protect your team while they travel and will be able to meet your legal responsibilities.

In the UK, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of employees during work-related travel anywhere in the world. This means conducting risk assessments for each trip and taking all reasonable steps to reduce identified risks.

For example, if you're looking to show that you've taken the right steps to protect your team, you might need to update your policies with clear guidance on travel for things like events, conferences, and training.

4. Choose a travel management platform

A modern, all-in-one management solution can make implementing a new approach to travel management much simpler by centralising booking information with an easy-to-use interface. 

TravelPerk’s system makes travel for work smooth by putting everything into one platform.  It also provides custom spend reports and 24/7 support, allowing all stakeholders to have visibility.

Learn how TravelPerk supports HR teams with travel management in the section below.

5. Train employees on the new tools and policies

A strong policy will only be as effective as the quality of the implementation. This means that training should be provided to all levels of staff, with clear communication and regular refresher sessions ahead of booking travel and accommodation for scheduled events.

Training should also include showing staff how to use your travel management system, with demonstrations of various workflows such as making requests, to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the booking system and that their level of access is explained to them transparently.

Emphasise that processes are designed to protect everyone and ensure that travel is simple, safe and aligned with company policies.

6. Review, discuss and adjust

Travel policies shouldn’t stay static. Reviewing them regularly helps you adapt to changing business needs and makes sure your team feels heard and supported. Start with a solid version, then keep assessing and updating it regularly.

• Trip data should be carefully reviewed to spot any overspends and other optimisation opportunities.
• Feedback from travellers on their experience will also help to determine which aspects of the policy are working and which need additional refinement.
• Management should be involved periodically to review and agree to amendments.

A cyclical process of development, training and evaluation will ensure that your travel management plans are adopted, effectively implemented and continue working for every party involved.

How TravelPerk supports HR teams with travel management

With centralised booking, policy enforcement, and traveller safety in one platform, TravelPerk’s corporate travel management solution is designed to support HR and travel managers alike.

Integration into a single platform allows for the automation of otherwise manual processes, giving HR teams the flexibility to avoid micromanagement and instead focus on strategy and enhancing the travel experience with improved policies.

This section looks at the broad range of ways that HR teams can benefit from TravelPerk’s features:

Policy compliance and approvals

Rules, limits and approval information can all be integrated into your TravelPerk platform, providing control, but avoiding micromanagement. The platform automatically tracks bookings and spending for you, with anything that sits outside of policies (such as overspending) requiring authorisation before it is approved.

Centralised booking

All reservations are managed through TravelPerk, giving manager and HR teams full visibility of all travel arrangements, making it easy to review previous bookings and manage each element of the latest journey.

Risk alerts

Poor weather, flight delays and other unpredictable issues can quickly destabilise travel itineraries.

Instant updates from TravelPerk will give HR teams as much time as possible to act quickly when travel advisories emerge. Local guidelines and restrictions are also clearly identified pre-booking to support planning the safest trip possible.

Flexibility

TravelPerk’s FlexiPerk service makes it easy to cancel trips if plans change, saving high levels of stress and wasted travel spend. 

TravelPerk also offers 24/7 customer support, so travellers and the HR team can get help in an emergency, or receive support with short-notice challenges and other issues at any time.

Reporting

Through TravelPerk’s expense and travel dashboards, your report data can be configured in a way that suits you - from cancellations or individual spending to the cost of different transport types. With such detailed and flexible analytics, travel management decisions can be made using the exact information you need.

Scheduled reports and alerts can be set up for ongoing monitoring, breaking down travel spending by teams or VAT spending to make sure that budgets are being used as efficiently as possible.

Integrate corporate travel management into HR workflows

While it might seem daunting at first, managing travel for work aligns with many of the same skills and approaches used in HR. By following the steps above and integrating a single travel management platform like TravelPerk, you can ensure that oversight of travel for work is safe, affordable and aligned with company policies - giving HR more time to focus on employees.

To learn more about TravelPerk’s solutions for HR and travel management, check out our Corporate travel safety guide, or book a demo to see the platform in action.