Travel Reimbursements for Job Candidates

With an increasingly competitive labor market for new hires from the best universities and graduate programs, simplifying the process for job candidates to travel for onsite interviews is important, particularly when candidates may not have easy access to cover big-ticket items like hotel and airfare expenses.  Have you considered the different approaches that might make this process better at your company?

When questions like this come up, it can be helpful to have clear insight into the policies of peers.  Fortunately for members of Peeriosity, it is easy to get objective and unbiased feedback from peers who are interested in sharing their views and helping a colleague, with the option for participants to see the identity of others, and with the ability to easily contact peers using Peer Mail^TM, an e-mail tool that is integrated into the Peeriosity solution.

Recently, Peeriosity’s iPolling^TM was used to explore whether or not companies have a Travel & Expense policy ^[1] that specifies how job candidates are covered and the range of options companies currently use to reimburse job candidates. Responses were posted in real-time, with visibility to company responses available to all Peeriosity members, allowing for direct communication with peers using Peeriosity’s integrated Peer Mail^TM capabilities.

The first poll question addressed the issue of whether or not companies have a T&E policy ^[2] related to recruiting candidates, 53% indicated that they do have a policy, while 47% responded that they do not.  For about 2/3rds of the companies with a policy for job candidates, the policy is a standalone document that is separate from the employee policy.

Here are the details:

Even though having options for job candidates can make the interview process less complex, for 64% of responding companies the process followed is for post-travel reimbursement through Accounts Payable.  So, in other words, the job candidate needs to come up with the money to cover all interview expenses, and then wait to get reimbursed, typically after complying with receipt submission and approval requirements.  While this is the traditional approach used at many companies, the good news is that other options exist that were mentioned by poll respondents, including having an HR Recruiting team member make the reservations using a virtual “business travel account” card or having a unique virtual card for each job candidate.  Here are the details:

Unlike traditional benchmarking, Peeriosity’s iPolling^TM capabilities allow members to very quickly examine this issue in detail, providing a range of experiences and viewpoints that can be reviewed to develop an appropriate and workable answer.  Tapping into the experience of peers eliminates guesswork and allows members to quickly access the collective experiences of a large community of users who are facing the same challenges.

Here are a few of the comments from responding companies:

• The manager responsible for the position or the HR recruiting team covers the airfare, hotel, and car expenses on their T&E card ^[3]. Any additional items (meals, incidentals, etc.) incurred by the candidate are settled through Accounts Payable.

• We have business travel account (BTA) cards used by Recruiting for candidate airfare. These charges load into our SAP T&E system and are accounted for like other travel expenses. Out-of-pocket items are reimbursed ^[4] through Accounts Payable after the interview.

• We use both a virtual card (created for each candidate) and post-travel reimbursement. Currently, our virtual card is limited to use only with hotel bookings.

• We are reviewing options to move away from the pure AP route to prepaid or virtual cards.

Does your company have a separate policy for travel for job candidates?  How are job candidates reimbursed for their travel expenses?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

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 “iPolling^TM” is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from participating or accessing content. Members have full visibility of all respondents and their comments. Using Peeriosity’s integrated e-mail system, Peer Mail^TM, members can easily communicate at any time with others who participate in iPolling.