Are your employees making decisions based on company policy or corporate culture?
When employees submit expenses, you trust that they are making the right decisions. But when your policy says one thing and people do something different, have you considered how your corporate culture impacts their decisions?
So, what should you do?
It can be difficult to identify the balance between people, policy and compliance. To help you get started, you can download a guide to driving cultural change from Concur. The guide explains how to encourage a positive cultural shift toward compliance and even includes tips you could use as a starting point.
Where do you start?
Compliance begins with regulation. Research shows that 55% of people don’t know their company policy or that it even exists*. Clearly, it’s difficult to comply with a policy you don’t know about. Write and share a policy that clearly advises how much can be spent, where and when. Everybody will know where they stand if the rules are clear
Align policy compliance and corporate culture. If a culture exists where boundaries are pushed and policies are seen as a ‘guide,’ it is likely to have an impact on the amount of exaggerated expense claims. Try and understand the existing corporate culture and enable change. Put different strategies in place to promote positive behaviour. For example, train managers on how to engage with employees about expenses, explain the reasons for staying with a certain hotel chain, set standards and lead by example.
Use Technology. Managing expenses is frustrating for everyone. Use technology such as expense management systems. The software yields benefits for the business and individuals. It is a powerful way to make sure that expenses are accurate, checked and reimbursed within policy. It even provides powerful data to help with decision making.
These are just a few tips to consider when driving cultural change. Download the “Driving Cultural Change: Software, People, Policy and Compliance” whitepaper to learn more.
