7 solutions for travel risk management

When you’re managing a team that needs to travel for work purposes, there’s no such thing as being over prepared. That’s why travel risk management is such an important element to keep in mind.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics when it comes to corporate travel risk management, seven key points to master it and the benefits of getting it right.

What is travel risk management?

Travel risk management is the process many companies utilise to protect their travelling employees from any risks that might occur. From analysing any potential dangers to knowing how to act in case they happen, travel management isn’t just about prevention, but also about monitoring and responding appropriately.

Companies with teams that partake in business travel should have a travel risk policy in place created by HR and legal specialists. This policy should already be created even before the first instance of corporate travel and should be continually updated based on the learnings from each previous trip.

TRM (Travel Risk Management) programme

Seeing as corporate travel risk management is, at the end of the day, a security measure, you should consider creating an intervention programme that covers these three main steps: prevention, monitoring and responding.

In depth, each point consists of:

1. Prevention – in this initial phase, you need to start the preparations before the business trip. This can include knowing the destination, having a meeting with your travelling employee and making sure you meet all the important aspects of duty of care.

2. Monitoring – during the business trip, you need to be available to help your employee in case of any emergency or problem they might encounter in their travel.

3. Responding – in this final phase, you need to not only be available to help your employees, but also take note of any problems they encounter and add those scenarios to your travel policy.

To make it easier to create this TRM programme, we created a few points to keep in mind when managing travel risk.

7 key points in managing travel risk

The seven key aspects and their easy solutions you should consider when thinking about travel risk management are:

1. Assessing the risk before the business trip

Travel risk management starts long before your employee leaves on their business trip. If you prepare and engage in travel risk planning, you’ll have to navigate through fewer problems later on.

When creating a travel risk assessment, be mindful of the following aspects:

• Every aspect of security – would your employee be safe at that destination, considering their religion, gender identity or sexual orientation?
• Overall health requirements for the destination – are there any mandatory vaccines or any epidemics they should be aware of?
• The political climate of the destination – are there any protests, change of power or political unrest at the destination country?
• Safe forms of transportation – would reaching the final destination pose any risks?

Solution: set news alerts and threat monitoring for the destination your employee will travel to and adapt for the situation accordingly.

2. Mitigating existing risk

Some destinations will present higher risks that you can’t avoid. What you can do, however, is do your best to minimise the danger your employee might encounter.

From adding a stronger business travel insurance policy to finding alternative routes in case of cancelled flights or finding a contact that can accompany your employee to key meetings – you should always prioritise their wellbeing.

Solution: consider the needs of your employee, based on what imminent dangers they might encounter and think of outside-of-the-box solutions to meet them.

3. Communicating with your employees

Proper communication is key when it comes to travel risk management. You not only need to communicate your existing policy to your employees before they travel, but you need to be present or available during their business trip, so you’re able to respond to their needs in a timely manner.

Anything from a dedicated contact person to a business travel safety advisor, who can operate a hotline or a chat would work in providing speedy and relevant solutions.

Solution: create a dedicated email address or hotline for any travel risks employees might encounter.

4. Stay up-to-date with the latest regulations and laws

Laws and regulations, like everything else, tend to evolve over time. Because of this, any policy you might have created might become obsolete if you don’t keep them constantly updated.

The legal team of your company should keep your travel risk policy up to date, as well as make sure that your business travel is up to code. Your employees should also be informed of the proper business travel safety regulations.

Solution: encourage your travel risk planning team to collaborate with legal companies and attend conferences discussing latest trends so as to stay in the know.

5. Be mindful of duty of care

Duty of care is the legal responsibility of taking care of employees and not exposing them to harm. This means that you shouldn’t expose your team to any situations that might be dangerous or result in their harm, even if you’ve taken all the necessary precautions.

Solution: don’t overstep your employees’ comfort and send them in a dangerous situation. Find solutions or alternatives for that business trip, like finding another, safer location or trying to do everything remotely.

6. Personalise and adapt from case to case

Travel risk management should cover a multitude of scenarios and instances, but you can’t guarantee to be prepared for everything.

That’s why you need to be able to adapt and overcome any situation you may face. It’s important to maintain flexibility and be ready to adapt your travel risk management from situation to situation.

Solution: ask returning employees how their trip went and analyse their experiences, either via surveys or one-to-one meetings. That way, you can create a bigger library of incidents and experiences that can help you move forward.

7. Training your employees on the best practices

Travel risk management is usually a term HR and legal departments face, but not necessarily the rest of your employees. It’s important to educate your team in understanding their rights, as well as their responsibilities.

Solution: given that you know your employees best, adapt the communication style to the most effective one – a meeting, an email, a presentation – and let them know that your company will always have their backs if anything happens during a business trip.

A successful and safe business trip is also dependent on how well-organised it is. On a jam-packed business trip, every moment counts. Making sure you have a seamless connection between your flight, accommodation, and office means you can have an easier time preparing and your employee will have a smoother travel experience.

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