Importance of Travel Risk Management

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Travel Risk Management is one of the most important things to consider for both professionals and tourists. With the history of pandemics now in everyone’s record of experience, the urgency of health hampering can be understood easily. It is clearly established that an entire population losing health would most definitely contribute to business losses. Travel Risk Management is slowly gaining importance across businesses from several sectors.

Employees need to be taken care of

Travel Risk Management guidelines were released by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) towards the end of the year 2021. The guidelines for the organisation basically show the way in which the employees should be protected at the time of travel. Business travel and meeting the requirements of the business is a responsibility that each and every employee has to take. On the other hand, the companies are liable to create a structure in which employees will be protected. The ‘Duty of Care’ responsibility includes legal boundaries as well as ethical obligations to travel. The staff is travelling to represent their organisation in an unfamiliar environment. The company is speaking to a potential new market through the employee. Thus, taking care of that group or that person is a business requirement.

Management of travel risks

Travel risks can be immensely difficult if the foreign country is unknown to the company. The contingent pandemic situation has driven companies to anticipate more than they could ever think of. Besides, road accidents, disease outbreaks, natural disasters and epidemics there is also the possibility of ticket cancellations, unexpected robberies and finally medical emergencies. Timeliness, accuracy in intelligence, analysis and advice are the core resources of any employee. Organisations are moving forward to open discussions with employees regarding the typical type of support they need. The companies are also devising training opportunities for the employees to identify the risks quicker than possible.

Moving as per capacity

Companies are advised to decide on travel routes as per their capacity. In other words, if a company is deciding to make business travels then they must be capable of covering all good and bad for an employee easily. This is closely related to but not limited to financial capability. Identification of threats and opportunities along with risk identification is equally important. Companies are designing the training schedules in such a way so that employees learn to avoid dangerous situation rather than control it. The employers have to abide by three basic regulations. These are the ability to handle business travels, conduct a thorough Travel Risk Assessment and set a company-specific ‘Duty of Care’ policy.

‘Duty of Care’ policy is something that now is a legal obligation for any organisation. It contains a statement of commitment to the employee regarding business travel. Additionally, there are major possible issues such as political instability, hygiene and health-related activities, accommodation security, third-party contractors and finally female employee safety. Only 18% of the policies specifically target the security of female colleagues while Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) states that 83% of women face more insecurity than their male colleagues.

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