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Everything evolves, including our travel needs. Our former policy was drafted in late 2021 and has been slowly tuned as the company has grown and appetite for in-person work has ramped back up. We have invested in our in-office culture (office captains, lunch trains, moves to fresh offices in SF & MTV), experimented with multi-site Hackathons, and added the new ritual of Codathon.
With this refresh, we hope to better articulate our approach to travel and give Codans clearer guidance on how they might leverage travel for work. We are proposing this policy to support our cadence of coda-all events, the expected increase in team gatherings, and our balance of having a distributed team and office hubs.
Guiding Principles
Connecting Codans in support of Coda. With a distributed employee base, we want to enable all employees to work productively together, and feel included and connected to their teams
Supporting hybrid culture. Leverage both our in-office culture and the flexibility of having a distributed team of talented folks.
Resource conscious. Mindful that both time and money are limited resources, we want to be thoughtful about both travel spend and the amount that we ask employees to disrupt routine to travel.
What’s changing?
Prior policy gave a lot of flexibility on when travel was allowed → now we are making it more clear that travel should be centered around company/team events, travel for remote Codans, and business critical reasons. More clear definition around the types of travel and when/why Codans might leverage those trips More clearly articulated approval process Team gatherings should happen at one of our beautiful Less about the exact # of trips that are allowed, but focusing on the when and the why What isn’t changing?
Guidance and spend limits for booking hotels/flights via Navan is still the same
What’s included in our travel policy:
We cover the following types of trips. Depending on role and location, Codans may or may not engage in all of the categories.
Who is invited to travel?
Where do we expect them to travel to?
What’s not included?
Logistics & Limits
These are staying fairly consistent. still applies for booking travel using Navan (fka TripActions). All travel related expenses must be submitted via Airbase. Meals: You can expense up to $25/meal when meals are not provided (ex. if lunch is provided at the office during Hackathons, can expense breakfast/dinner). Meals for travel are handled in Airbase, separate from our Benepass lifestyle budget. Transportation: Business purpose transport is covered (UberX, Lyft, etc), but if it’s going to be >$100, please consider a more economical alternative or request permission for the trip. If you suspect a rental car, parking, insurance, etc will be less than ride shares, please book that. Airfare & Lodging: Guidelines are found in Navan. When possible, please chose the most economical choice (airfare vs. driving, etc), and if a cost is going to be far beyond another option (ie. mileage vs. airfare), please reach out to Finance for pre-approval. Exceptions
We understand that the above policy might not capture every single edge case imaginable. If you are unsure if your travel plan fits within policy, or if you would like to request an exception to the policy, please discuss with you manager and org lead to get their support. Then, reach out to Finance for approval.