As companies send more people across borders than ever before, getting policy compliance right has never been more critical or more complex. From immigration and tax to accommodation, cost control, and sustainability, the stakes are high across the board. In 2024 alone, the global e-visa market surpassed $1 billion, and it's projected to double by 2030. And that’s just one small slice of compliance. With this level of movement, organisations must look at smarter, more centralised ways to manage compliance.
We’ve revisited this topic throughout the year, from ProcureCon Travel to our webinar with guest expert Jamie Finnie, NES Fircroft’s Head of Travel. But it was at our 5th annual Smart, Safe and Sustainable Summit in London last June, where the conversation around policy compliance really took shape.
As AltoVIta's VP of Client Partnerships, I hosted a panel on the “Headaches of Policy Compliance”, exploring the challenges of the field and how global mobility managers can overcome them with technology. I was joined by The Cozm’s CEO, Benjamin Oghene, RSA’s Head of Reward, Europe, Sigrid Nauwelaerts and Databricks’s Immigration and Global Mobility Lead, EMEA & APJ, Soren Strurup-Toft.
Conversations with travel and mobility leaders have revealed seven core challenges to policy compliance, outlined below. When it comes to accommodation, the main issue is that global policies often clash with local realities. Companies aiming for consistency in cost, sustainability, and risk must still navigate regional regulations, infrastructure, rate caps, and cultural norms. Without flexibility and insight, even the best policies can create friction, both for managers and travelling employees.
Today’s volatile geopolitical environment adds another layer of unpredictability. What was once a straightforward process for certain nationalities or destinations can now be far more complicated. Families may be reluctant to relocate if there's uncertainty around immigration timelines or the ability to access education and support services quickly upon arrival.
Cost control is on everyone’s priority list, and with knock-on effects from other areas of travel and mobility, it becomes even more challenging. Benjamin Oghene mentioned a real-world example from one of their clients who was losing up to €1 million per day during a project in Croatia because their employees couldn’t be on-the-ground due to immigration delays. Other instances that can strain budgets are accommodation availability. However as Jamie Finnie emphasised during the webinar, “Cost is not a race to the bottom. It’s about making sure that duty of care and all of these things are not sacrificed in the name of getting the cheapest price.”
Compliance responsibilities are often split between business travel and mobility teams, depending on the organisation. This fragmentation leads to unclear accountability and inconsistent enforcement. The result is a patchwork approach to compliance, particularly when policies differ between local and global levels. Without centralised oversight, gaps emerge that can compromise the effectiveness of compliance programs.
Another major barrier is the lack of robust, centralised data. Without access to timely and consistent metrics, companies struggle to forecast needs, adjust policies, or justify deviations. Accommodation policies, for instance, might require a specific length of stay or budget, but if local availability doesn’t align, the policy becomes unrealistic. Additionally, regulatory frameworks like CSRD now require organisations to track and report on their carbon footprint, which becomes nearly impossible without standardised, integrated data sources across vendors.
Aligning global accommodation policies with DE&I goals requires offering travelers meaningful choice, prioritising safety, and embedding inclusion into supplier selection, while also respecting local cultural differences. Clear feedback channels and reliable accessibility data are essential to ensure policies are both inclusive and practically effective.
Policy breakdowns often stem from internal culture. When senior leaders request exceptions, it sets a precedent that weakens overall compliance. Sigrid Nauwelaerts emphasised that shifting this mindset requires long-term change.
Perhaps the most overlooked challenge is how a failure in one area—such as immigration—can set off a chain reaction. These cascading effects can amplify cost, damage employee experience, and disrupt entire mobility programs.
“If something happens within the immigration side or the compliance side, it then has an impact on everything else in the chain, and the whole chain falls down. Talking about the anxiety for the employees and the effect on their wellbeing is such a critical thing.” – Beverly King
At AltoVita, we believe a global policy should be a flexible framework, not a rigid rulebook. Policy compliance succeeds when global standards, around duty of care, cost control, and sustainability and more, are combined with locally tailored execution. Our platform is built to help organisations manage that balance intelligently, efficiently, and consistently: