Op-Ed: IT Advances Enhancing Corporate Travel Security

In the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world of the global executive, traveler safety and duty of care responsibilities now are a prevalent consideration.

Over the past five years, the number of incidents involving business travelers in very dangerous situations has sparked a new way of thinking by both employee and employer. Incidents such as 9/11, the tsunami and the London bombings caused many corporations to re-think their crisis management and incident response plans after identifying the shortcomings that only incidents of this size can reveal.

Although terror attacks and natural disasters cannot be stopped by technological innovations, advances in IT development can provide a great deal of protection to those traveling on business, as well as reassure employers that employee whereabouts can be tracked to aid safety and security at all times. Moreover, developments in IT innovation provide the means to contact them anywhere in world.

Although the philosophy behind such technology is nothing new, the fact that IT advancements have now reached such a high level means corporations can measure risk every step of the way. Crisis management and traveler-tracking systems can be tailored to meet individual corporate requirements. The best systems will include not only air movements, but also rail and hotel-only bookings combined with additional intelligence offerings, such as pre-, active- and post-trip travel records, country-based risk intelligence, government and embassy warnings, as well as international security updates all centralized within one system.

This is only the tip of the technology iceberg. Developments in IT mean travelers and employers also can obtain additional intelligence, such as health warnings, country threat assessments and even weather reports. These solutions should also be designed to assist corporations in meeting duty of care obligations by providing a process and structure to keep employees informed of changes in policy and the threats to their safety.

In the United Kingdom, the much-anticipated introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill will also mean a completely new way of thinking by businesses, thus ensuring company employees' safety and security is at the forefront of any business decision. The bill received its second Commons reading on Oct. 10, 2006, and has passed through the committee stage, which ended on Oct. 31, 2006.

Most responsible organizations already see that making the safety and security of their employees paramount ensures that productivity and business activity can continue, thus ensuring the end result is achieved without harm, danger or loss to the employee and business performance. Technology and advances in IT are providing the solutions to these corporate safety and security issues.

Even though it can be difficult to prove corporate manslaughter, the rising number of convictions against company directors in the United Kingdom shows that a lack of safety and security measures has resulted in an increase in employee fatalities. Indeed, employee deaths in the United Kingdom in 2001 numbered over 200, while the number of non-fatal major injuries was recorded at over 27,000. These numbers may or may not be surprising to some readers, but the true value of loss to businesses can be equated to hundreds of millions per annum.

Over the past several years, the world has changed in relation to both business practice and the stability of countries across the globe, notably Iraq and Afghanistan, where businesses are sending employees to help with the rebuilding of infrastructure, such as utilities and communications, even though these countries are essentially still war zones.

Business is still business, which means employees will still be sent to regions where a genuine threat exists to both employees and businesses operations. There are also natural considerations to take into account, such as changes in weather patterns, as well as disasters.

There is little doubt that the world will remain a hostile place, certainly for the foreseeable future, and international business and partnerships will continue to flourish. At least advances in technology can provide some protection for the traveler and reporting and support for business travel decisions.