Matthew Judge is international VP of travel risk management at Everbridge
Business travel is back on the agenda for most organisations but instead of resuming the fast-paced, globetrotting behaviour that characterised some pre-pandemic trips, many employees are now arriving earlier at their destination, leaving later, building in more ‘me-time’ and lowering their stress levels.
While this is making for a more relaxed business visit, too many executives believe their organisations are not paying enough attention to the safety of employees when they are travelling on its behalf.
This became evident in a year-long survey carried out by Everbridge among 200 global C-suite executives. When questioned, 79 per cent said that they felt their employers had not put in place adequate measures to safeguard travellers. In addition, 81 per cent believe their organisation needs to improve the way its travel risk management programme is evaluated and reviewed.
These findings clearly show the division between what is expected of companies, as defined by the travel risk management standard ISO 31030, and what is being delivered, with only a quarter (24 per cent) of respondents reporting that they had a solid programme in place.
Changing risk environment
During the pandemic, travel risk management understandably focused on the health threat posed by Covid-19, but other factors pose a greater risk now: severe weather events and natural disasters are occurring more frequently due to climate change; the war in Ukraine is creating volatility and has triggered a widespread food and energy crisis; and as governments struggle with the impact of inflation, civil unrest is breaking out across multiple countries.
The World Economic Forum said in this year’s Global Risks Report: “As 2023 begins, the world is facing a set of risks that feel both wholly new and eerily familiar.” This lack of certainty should create an urgency among organisations whose employees are travelling. But instead, compliance with the policies, processes and procedures that mitigate travel risk is lacking, and one of the main reasons for this is inadequate communication.
While most companies will make every effort to comply with the ISO 31030 guidelines, only 19 per cent of the respondents to the Everbridge survey said that policies and procedures had been effectively communicated and understood. The danger, therefore, is that employees will act outside established policies and create additional risk for the organisation.
Communicating risk
It can be challenging to engage stakeholders to ensure policies and procedures are composed correctly, reviewed regularly and updated as needed. But the biggest issue lies in the silos that exist within companies. Just over a third (36 per cent) of the Everbridge survey respondents felt that their travel risk management policies were aligned with other organisational policies, suggesting that the cross-departmental collaboration that companies enjoyed during the pandemic has since been abandoned.
How can departments work more cohesively together so they can create and enforce policies, processes and procedures that act in accordance with the wider governance framework to protect their organisation and their employees? The answer is that travel managers, HR managers and those responsible for insurance policies, work in tandem and share information.
A great example of why this is important occurred recently at a company we are now working with. It experienced ten separate incidents in three months of employees falling ill on business trips to the same overseas destination due to contaminated water. Each one triggered an insurance claim, but instead of using the claims data to identify the pattern and communicate the risk, the company kept sending its employees to the same place.
Breaking down silos, gaining a better understanding of the data at their disposal, and communicating more clearly is how companies can proactively mitigate risks and build a more resilient workforce. The introduction of ISO 31030 has removed much of the guesswork when it comes to policies, processes and procedures, but it is still incumbent on companies to do everything they can to think ahead so they can fulfil their duty of care.
Technology-based frameworks
One solution is to use a third-party company which can deliver a technology-based framework or toolkit to embed travel risk management across the organisation at scale. This approach provides everything from tools like e-learning and videos through to putting in place triggers to authorise an agreed set of procedures when employees are in danger.
Most importantly, a digital-first programme allows companies to comply with the seven key areas of the ISO 31030 standard: understanding risk context; managing travel risk effectively; travel risk assessment and treatment; incident response; specialist support; communication and consultation; and programme monitoring and review.
Crucially, the technology can tap into numerous intelligence sources to provide a 360-degree view of the risks that travellers face. It can provide insight on political, economic, commercial and security risks, and evaluate hazards in a specific location or country. It also provides companies and their employees with pre-trip health and safety advice.
But it’s not just about being well-prepared. If an employee is faced with danger, technology empowers operators and teams with the appropriate information to make better decisions and coordinate with responders, interact with employees in real-time and deploy teams to provide on-the-ground support and bring the employee to safety.
Communication is at the core of this technological support, allowing travel risk policies to align with broader organisational governance, and make it easier for all stakeholders to understand their organisation’s risk profile. As the world faces up to increased risk from multiple new sources, the ability to implement and review compliant travel risk management policies has never been so important.