On any given day, business travelers can be faced with a
number of incidents that may threaten to jeopardize their trips or their lives.
Inclement weather and schedule changes are common, but what if an employee
arrives in a city where an unexpected natural disaster occurs? Or where
repeated acts of terrorism, civil unrest or violence have marred a country’s
general safety for travelers?
By and large, these events are uncommon, but the past decade
has shown us that they are possible and can pose a serious risk to business
travel. The terrorist bombings in Mumbai and Jakarta, Haiti’s devastating
earthquake, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul volcano eruption and ensuing ash cloud,
the repeated union protests in France over pension reform and the ongoing
drug-related violence in Mexico are just a few examples of situations that can
influence a business traveler’s success at accomplishing their intended tasks.
Often it seems that preparation and planning are futile. The
disheartening fact is that risks associated with travel ultimately can threaten
a business’ bottom line and, in extreme cases, put employees in
life-threatening situations. Therefore, a comprehensive travel risk management
program is necessary to help mitigate the risks that business travelers and
expatriates face abroad and can greatly improve employees’ safety and security.
What’s more, legal imperatives such as duty and standard of
care make it nearly impossible for an organization not to address these issues,
as they hold businesses liable for not doing everything “reasonably practical”
to protect the health and safety of employees, particularly when so many other
organizations of the same size and ability are doing so.
After the events of 9/11, many companies implemented
traveler-tracking solutions either through their travel management company or
by partnering with a third-party vendor. Many of these solutions were just
retooled pre-trip reporting solutions, which, while useful, did little to
actually protect travelers. Rather, they largely were used after an incident
occurs to see who might be impacted.
Implementing A Travel Risk Management Program
Travel risk management is more than just reacting quickly
and efficiently to events as they happen. In fact, only one component of a
comprehensive TRM program is reactive: incident response. And today, most
organizations already have some level of emergency assistance—typically medical
or travel—in place.
The key to developing a sound TRM program is to understand
that it needs to be actively managed, particularly in response to increases in
volatility like we have seen since 9/11 in Mumbai, Mexico, France, etc. This
means being proactive in helping your employees avoid travel problems. The
proactive components of a well-managed TRM program are the ones that must be
planned, in place and, more importantly, practiced before travel begins.
Below is an overview of the five key components necessary to
create a strong, comprehensive and proactive TRM program.
Planning
An organization needs to develop the overall TRM policies,
procedures and plan as well as link them to key organizational plans, including
an overall crisis management plan and emergency response plans. The key here is
to plan now so you don’t have to react later.
Training
Training encompasses three levels: employee training,
professional/advisor training and crisis management team training. Employee
training covers all basic pre-travel knowledge areas, including essential
issues ranging from pre-trip planning to skills on the road.
Professional/advisor training covers the systems and processes used to
implement a TRM program and crisis management team training ensures employees
and management are prepared and knowledgeable on what is expected of them
during an emergency.
Monitoring
Monitoring includes the systems and staff that provide 24/7,
real-time monitoring of world events looking out for potential threats to your
travelers. Monitoring occurs on two levels:
Pre-trip itinerary
monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring should begin well before an employee
leaves the office. An organization needs to systematically perform a threat
assessment on each traveler’s itinerary, which includes informing the traveler
of the local laws, culture, and entry/exit and customs requirements that might pose
a risk. A procedure to quickly and automatically identify higher risk locations
should be implemented and practiced. Additional attention needs to be paid to
these trips with strategies put into place to mitigate the higher threat
environment such as secure ground transport, careful hotel selection, etc.
Traveler tracking and
notification. The need for qualified and specific information on a
traveler’s location and safety throughout the duration of their trip is
paramount. An organization should incorporate solutions that collect
information across multiple travel providers with the ability to manipulate
data, push and pull content, manually enter trip data, and provide assistance
and real-time notification tools as needed. The National Business Travel
Association’s Travel & Meetings Risk Management Committee issued a
comprehensive guide for selecting a traveler tracking and risk management
solution in August, which can be downloaded from NBTA’s nbta.org website.
Incident Response
Employees need to have someone to contact day or night for
help. In an emergency, whether travel, medical or security, employees should
have an easy-to-use process for seeking assistance. For example, by providing
one global number and/or point of contact to assist the traveler reduces
response failures and traveler frustration. And whether managing this response
center internally or using an integrator like iJet to coordinate a
multidisciplinary response from multiple vendors, it is imperative that an
organization be prepared to respond to a wide range of incidents, including
medical evacuations, kidnap situations, civil unrest and workplace violence.
Feedback
After any incident, it is important to have an “after-action
review.” Ask yourself: Could you have prevented the problem in the first place
or more efficiently handled the incident? If so, then modify the policies,
plans, procedures or mitigation strategies as required to help travelers avoid
similar situations in the future.
TRM Is A Continuous
Process
As the world becomes increasingly complex and businesses
continue to expand operations globally, it is the responsibility of every
organization to act proactively to protect itself and its employees. The
improvements in traveler tracking and monitoring are steps made in the right
direction, however this does not solely constitute a TRM strategy. Traveler
tracking is merely one tool within an overall risk management program. Only a
comprehensive TRM strategy, which plans, trains, monitors and reacts to
unforeseen incidences, will ensure that both the employee and the organization
are actually protected.
Furthermore, developing a comprehensive, proactive TRM
program is not a one-off project. Nor is it something to jump into without
careful consideration and assessment of the organization’s current benchmarks.
It is an ongoing responsibility that should be under continuous evaluation by
identifying weaknesses and improvement by refocusing time and resources where
needed. By establishing a continuous process, and training employees to follow
it, an organization can significantly mitigate its risk, not just in terms of
travel, but all manners of global risk.
This report appears in
the Jan. 24, 2011, issue of Business Travel News.