SAFE and sound

You only have to turn on the TV to see how dangerous the world is: from a seemingly endless succession of terrorist attacks to natural disasters and political unrest – there’s a lot going on that can potentially affect business travellers.

And it’s not just dangers lurking in far-flung parts of the globe, the UK suffered a series of terrorist attacks in 2017 which have certainly concentrated minds on traveller safety, even when travelling domestically.

Duty of care was ranked as the second most important priority for travel buyers in 2018 in a survey carried out by the Business Travel Show. Only cost-cutting was viewed as a bigger issue.

For Alice Linley-munro, Global Travel Analyst at Oil Spill Response, duty of care is the organisation’s “number one priority” and not just for overseas travel.

“We have been looking recently at London in particular and how in the past we have not known when we have staff in the capital,” she says. “This is changing with our new tracking application.”

While technology is offering a practical solution to improve duty of care processes, there are other ways in which companies can try to mitigate these risks and ensure their travellers know what to do in an emergency situation. Expect the unexpected One of the most important starting points is making sure that employees are prepared for any problems they may face when on the road. Security specialists say organisations need to identify potential medical, security and environmental risks to any journey well in advance of travel. Emergency assistance and contingency plans should also be put in place for when things go wrong.

Offering this kind of pre-trip advice and training, particularly to more unfamiliar or potentially dangerous destinations, is seen as being a key way to offer support and reassurance to travellers.

Paul East, Chief Operating Officer, UK/ Europe & Americas at Wings Travel Management, says it’s vital to keep travellers “at the centre of the information loop”.

“Preparation is crucial to managing risk, but there is not one simple solution as it depends on the size of your organisation, number of travellers and where they travel to,” adds East. “It is important to plan an agreed strategy, prepare your travellers and use the best available tool and technology to ensure everyone in the travel operation is clear about what to do should a difficult situation arise.”

So what are the most important pitfalls to avoid when putting together a system and tools to improve duty of care for travellers?

One potential misstep can be to focus too heavily on headline-grabbing events, such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters, or by setting up a system that concentrates only on travel to “higher risk” destinations.

Jonathan Brown, Risk Team Manager at global assistance specialist CEGA, says: “Some organisations will attempt to prepare employees for worst-case scenarios and overlook basic precautions, such as providing staff with an emergency assistance contact number or with advice about effective hygiene to avoid disease.

“Others may assume traditionally safe destinations are largely risk-free. But there are good arguments for deploying tracking even in destinations close to home. In the wake of recent European terror attacks, many businesses were unable to establish whether their employees were in the vicinity or to find out if they needed assistance.”

Duty of care and traveller safety continues to be one of the biggest issues facing travel buyers, writes Rob Gill

Having clear lines of responsibility and  action plans for dealing with incidents is also vital as duty of care normally falls across multiple departments, such as travel, human resources and security.

Alex Cousins, Director of Client Services at CTM, says: “Companies need to ensure the approach is ‘owned’ by someone, and that should disaster strike, there is an agreed and understood documented process and escalation route. It’s all well and good knowing where your travellers are, but it’s even more critical that there is someone responsible for communicating with them, and they know when, how and what needs to be done to evacuate them, seek medical help, and so on.”

Tracking tools Technology is helping to increase the quality and reliability of tracking tools, many of which now operate through mobile devices and use GPS (Global Positioning System) to pinpoint the location of employees.

“The ability to locate travellers is constantly improving, particularly as travellers increasingly use mobile devices to ‘check in’, providing real-time information on their whereabouts,” says Rob Condina, Regional Security Expert at International SOS and Control Risks.

“We introduced Travel Tracker Incident Support recently, which automatically initiates communications with potentially impacted employees after a major incident.”

Most tools provided by security and assistance specialists can send alerts to travellers about health, security and environmental risks that could affect their trips. During an emergency, these platforms can also “push” messages to travellers so they can confirm whether they are safe with one click. On more sophisticated platforms, travellers can also request medical or security assistance with the screen swipe.

Steve Blows, Director at Review Travel, says: “There are some fantastic third-party, military-style tracking providers available that do a fantastic job at locating your exact position. This level of software is best suited to particularly high-risk destinations.

“I expect that as time goes on, and the sophistication of such systems improves, they will be rolled out on a much wider scale.”

But it’s also important to undertake a realistic evaluation of the risks your travellers face and use the appropriate solutions.

Andrew Newton, Head of Corporate Travel at Direct Travel, says using basic tools such as text messaging could be the best solution for some companies who do not really need a system offering 24/7 monitoring.

“GPS use is not standard across the industry and, in many cases, may not be necessary,” says Newton. “It’s important that we don’t go overboard. Most companies can comply with reasonable duty of care requirements without Big Brother tactics.”

Aside from tracking, there are also other tools and data sources that can be harnessed to improve duty of care. These capabilities are often enhanced by the corporate client, security specialist and TMC sharing important traveller data such as booking, itinerary and contact details.

Adrian Parkes, CEO of the GTMC, says: “Companies can also check real-time data from company credit cards if they require a clearer picture of employee activities and whereabouts.” Compliance With traveller safety and security becoming such a big issue, buyers have an opportunity to further promote the importance of booking within company travel policy.

Russell Hurst, Head of Client Management UK & Ireland, for American Express Global Business Travel, says: “If travellers book a hotel through an alternative source – such as direct – then it’s not in the system and there will be gaps in the data.” He adds: “The higher the level of compliance, the higher the level of duty of care is going to be.

“There’s a massive opportunity to communicate the message about driving duty of care through increasing compliance.”

There’s still plenty of progress needed on delivering this message, though, with an American Express GBT survey finding that 61% of UK business travellers do not always follow policy. Meanwhile, the fact that only one-third of business travellers think their safety is “always” in their employer’s mind suggests there’s work needed on both sides of this debate.

Technology is helping to increase the quality of tracking tools, many of which now operate through mobile devices and use GPS to pinpoint the location of employees”