By Christine Connolley, Crisis Program Manager, Global Crisis Management
Not every travel risk management program is alike, but most effective programs are built on three critical components: effective planning, reliable support, and regular program review.
While it’s not possible to cover all the multi-faceted contents of each building block in a few paragraphs, we’ll dive into a few crucial pieces to consider when building traveler safety into your business travel program.
Pre-trip planning
As the old saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail, and that is never truer than with your organization’s travel risk management program. How should you prepare your traveling employees for what to expect during business travel? That can vary depending on your industry, type of organization, and destination – but in general, information is the key.
Providing pre-trip briefings to traveling employees with in-depth information on the destination they plan to visit can be a valuable resource. These briefings should include information on:
- Political, social, economic, and cultural conditions
- Natural hazards
- Information on health conditions and availability of medical care
- The levels and severity of crime
- The reliability and safety of transportation and infrastructure
Be ready to support
The next step is providing support. Your organization must be prepared to support your employees while out on the road and ready to respond if they require assistance. It’s important to be prepared to respond to high-profile incidents like terrorist attacks and natural disasters, but keep in mind these incidents have a low likelihood of occurrence. While sometimes overlooked – it is just as important to respond to smaller impact risks that occur on an individual level with much more frequency. These are typically isolated incidents, like car accidents or medical emergencies. This kind of support can be achieved internally through a supporting department, like Human Resources, your Global Security Operations Center, or through a contracted third-party assistance provider.
Review to ensure effectiveness
An organization’s travel risk management program must be dynamic and agile to respond to new challenges. Periodic review of the program end to end, including program stakeholders, supporting teams, suppliers, budgets, and program communications can both improve the program, and more importantly, support the organization’s efforts to keep your traveling employees safe.
How do you stack up?
How do your organization’s travel risk management program’s building blocks stack up? With the Traveler Security Program Assessment, our travel risk management experts can perform an objective analysis of your program and provide insights and results on your program that are both specific and actionable. The Traveler Security Program Assessment is available as a stand-alone service or as part of a bundle with other Advito offerings, such as Employee Engagement. Contact Advito to learn how we can help.