Global organizations have personnel working in and traveling to many different regions around the world, which leaves them vulnerable to several threats to their safety and security.
“In today’s litigious society, corporate governance and duty of care are paramount to a company’s crisis management strategy,” says Justin Priestley, executive director for Aon Crisis Consulting. “Businesses need to react to incidents in a timely and consistent manner, protecting their people, assets, balance sheet and brand reputation.”
Smart Business spoke with Priestley and Christine M. DeLuca, the managing director of Aon Risk Solutions, about how companies can protect their employees from the unique risks posed by global travel.
Why are companies increasingly concerned about travel risk management?
As companies develop their operations and seek to find resources from further afield, the onus is on the organizations to ensure they have a clearly defined process to assess the risks and then manage those risks.
If you have a safe travel program in place, in an instant, you have a very clear line of communication and a decision-making matrix. Without that, unfortunately, what we’ve seen is individuals coming out of an instance — or out of captivity if they’ve been kidnapped — and blaming the organization.
What are some of the risks global organizations face by having their employees working in and traveling to different regions?
Most of them revolve around security risks; a lot of clients are trying to identify their risk profiles for personnel traveling to certain parts of the world. Security risks could be anything from petty street crimes to more sinister incidents like kidnapping or hijacking.
What can businesses do to ensure they are prepared for these emergencies?
First, companies need to ensure they have a process in place to provide relevant information to their employees about the risks in the countries to which they plan to travel.
You need to perform a risk assessment on the environment in which business travelers or expats will be operating. Once you understand what those risks are, you look at the appropriate mitigation measures that should be put in place. That could be anything from giving the individuals awareness training to providing on-the-ground security that will help them mitigate those risks.
Giving employees the necessary information to understand what the risks are prior to deployment is fine, but, clearly, organizations need to have measures in place by which they can deal with instances if they take place. These measures could include ensuring individual travelers understand who they can call in the event of an incident and, more importantly, ensuring that there is a recognized structure and plan within the company to deal with those particular incidents.
