Every Organisation Has A Duty Of Care To Protect Their Employees Wherever
They May Be
It’s common for larger organisations to have risk management programs in place to address operational challenges and ensure business continuity. However, when it comes to travel, organisations often overlook the potential risks their employees face abroad from security threats and natural disaster to medical emergencies.
Without a dedicated travel risk management (TRM) strategy, companies leave their business travellers vulnerable and exposed to risks that could be mitigated. Applying the same level of due diligence to travel programs as other risk programs can significantly enhance the safety, security, and wellbeing of business travellers.
Whether integrated into existing risk frameworks or as a standalone strategy, a well-designed TRM program provides the necessary tools and framework to anticipate, assess and manage risks, and effectively communicate with travellers to empower them to make informed decisions.
Below are four key steps to develop an effective TRM program to safeguard your travelling employees while fulfilling both legal and moral obligations:
Step 1: Define and integrate a TRM program into your organisation
The first step is to gather information on how and why your organisation travels. Don’t just consider the potential risks in the destination environment, but also contextualise these based on the individual conditions and considerations for each traveller. This is usually the longest and hardest part of the process; however it will form the foundation of your TRM program.
By understanding the context of travel within your organisation and how it impacts the performance of your organisation, we can then decide on what policies, processes and structures need to be implemented to ensure all necessary Duty of Care requirements are fulfilled.
Part of this step is also defining the roles and responsibilities for the implementation of the TRM program and communicating this to all relevant stakeholders.
Step 2: What policies are needed for effective risk management
The next step is all about uncovering the risks and what policies and procedures are needed to be implemented to meet the scope and objectives as outlined in Step 1.
Take a moment to consider the following – these are the types of questions you should be asking to help shape your TRM process:
- Do you have formal communication protocols and platforms so you can reach your business travellers in the event of a crisis?
- Does your TRM policy include a framework that covers procedures and approvals? For example, when you select a hotel for your business travellers, what is your criteria? Do you let people book their own accommodation? Apart from budgets, would they know what factors to consider when booking in terms of safety?
- Another scenario worth considering is if your business travellers use airplanes as a means of transportation, how do you define what’s safe aviation? Do you also consider how many of your company people can travel in the same aircraft?
- How are you willing to prepare your travellers to go into new environments and empower them to make informed decisions should an incident occur?
Step 3: Managing the day-to-day travel activity
This is where it all comes together and the actual management of the business traveller takes place. This step provides the traveller and the organisation with operational resources and support in order to enable travel while managing and mitigating risks.
In this stage, you’ll want to be clear about the escalation procedures in the event of a crisis or incident. Leveraging technology, such as travel assistance apps, is one way to educate, locate and communicate with your travellers so that they can make informed decisions.
Step 4: Recording and reporting
The final stage provides the organisation with information and feedback on the effectiveness of the program.
Once your traveller returns from their trip, ask them for feedback. What was their experience? What went right? What went wrong? And what would they recommend, or would like to see differently?
By engaging with your business travellers, it can help you identify issues and/or opportunities to further strengthen your travel risk policies. This can be implemented as part of your regular review cycle of your TRM program.
Leveraging the ISO 31030 global standard
If these steps seem overwhelming and you don’t know where to start – you’re not alone. It can be daunting to create or audit a travel program. Luckily there are best practice frameworks, such as the ISO 31030 and experts you can lean on.
The ISO 31030 is the first global guideline created to help organisations develop a comprehensive TRM program. It is a non-bias way to ensure you are taking all necessary steps to protect your travelling employees while meeting Duty of Care obligations.
To evaluate the strength of your existing travel program and see how it aligns with the ISO 31030, access this Self-Assessment Guide here. Whether you’re responsible for employee, student, or staff safety, this easy-to-use resource only takes about 10 minutes to complete and requires no compliance expertise.
Access your free copy now to ensure your organisation is ready to navigate the complexities of travel risk management in 2025 and beyond.
