Intro
Addressing Risks and Safety for the Well-Being of Business Travelers
Business travel is a great contributor of revenues or making new business connections for a company.
Even employees going on business trips can use corporate travel as career leverage.
But despite having many advantages, any business trip, especially involving a politically or religiously
tense destination, includes a notable degree of risks. Away from the usual office set-up, one can face
risks of varying degrees of complexity that one should be updated on.
Let’s explore risks and issues for corporate travelers. While also getting to know what it takes to address
them and provide proper travel risk management.
Details
Risks and Safety Issues for Business Travellers
Any business traveler can be met with the following risks or safety issues while traveling for business.
▪ Accommodation Troubles
Getting around safety and, most importantly, with peace of mind is a must-have at the end of shaking hands at a business conference and listening to long, boring, yet profitable talks. As a corporate traveler, you obviously don’t want to end up in a dingy hotel with a neighborhood filled with thieves and scammers. We understand, since accommodation safety has become such a great concern that three in 10 corporate travelers emphasize safety over hotel benefits like reward incentives. So as a corporate traveler, you need to select a hotel or venue that has strong policies relating to duty of care in the workplace. To ensure you have accommodation safety during corporate trips, research well (or ask your employer to settle with a reliable corporate travel management company, yes, like us). We understand why safeguarding is important in health, social care, and other fields. Despite being in the travel management industry, we know safety is just as important for corporate travelers doing business away from the familiarity of office and home. Only after proper and comprehensive research of hotels in your destination, our team gives you customised assistance.
▪ Food Scarcity
A proper supply of healthy food is necessary during a business trip. One can spend time without
indulging in lavish food preparations, but getting healthy food is a bare necessity. The unavailability of proper food can make you feel lethargic during a business trip. Without healthy foods, one has a high chance of settling for unhealthy choices. Junk or nutrient-empty food can make you ill and rarely gives you a chance to focus on the business trip.
▪ Disease Factors or Pandemic
COVID-19 has taught us the importance of having health and safety policies in place for corporate
travelers. Imagine from a business perspective that you have sent your employees on a business trip to promote your service and most importantly, close deals. Now, if a pandemic arises in the business travelers destination, your employees can either get stuck or face problems returning.
Keeping the difficulty of the pandemic situation in mind, you must give security updates and guidance to corporate travelers as their employers. Most importantly, you should stay in touch with your employees as the health crisis arises in the business travel destination.
Further, if you hire a travel management company, they will give you updates during a health crisis. The hired management team preps you with updates for flight cancellations or any issues you could be facing. Based on the resources available, they assist you in having the best possible stay or return during times of uncertainty.
▪ Sanitation Issues
Every business destination around the globe may not have proper hygienic conditions. Notably, with approximately 71% of senior corporate employees experiencing hygiene issues abroad, getting healthy conditions for living in a business destination is a great concern. Without proper availability of hygiene, corporate travelers have a high chance of falling ill or returning with an illness.
▪ Political Uprising
Any volatile condition caused by political events can bring security concerns for corporate travelers. Political drama or unrest creates transportation issues in affected locations and disrupts the usual way of life. Let alone for corporate travelers. Native residents can have difficulty accessing basic amenities to lead a healthy life. 2019 can be marked as the year of political unrest. The said year experienced mass protests in different parts of the globe, including France, Latin America and the Middle East, to name a few. The political protests in 2019 negatively affected the lives of corporate travelers and even halted the planning of many business trips. So, you, as a corporate traveler, must travel with updated information and proper planning. Importantly
before travelling to any location for business, make sure you know the political situation there. If the trip is avoidable, opt for postponing the corporate trip. If the business travel program cannot be delayed, travel with information on backup plans, like what you should do in case of a price rise or food scarcity. Getting a trustworthy travel management company comes in handy as they provide you with all the necessary details.
▪ Natural Calamities
No one can predict the news of natural disasters, and thus these disasters take everyone by surprise. Any occurrence of natural disasters has the potential to cause immense damage like property loss and health damage. One can keep an eye on the news to stay updated and act as fast as possible. Employers should try their best to stay in touch with employees on business trips and make way for their safe return. A travel management company can provide reliable resources to oversee safe flights or arrange the return of corporate travelers from the trip.
Addressing Safety Risks on Business Trips – No travel management goes without integrating duty of care, proper education and a specific approach.
- Duty of Care at Work for Business Travellers for Travel Risk Management
Before discussing the professional duty of care developed for corporate travellers, we must explore exactly what duty of care is. The answer is simple and can be understood from the said phrase itself. Duty of care at work refers to the obligation to give your employees and other stakeholders a standard of care. What exactly does it mean to impose norms of professional duty of care for business travellers from the perspective of corporate businesses and travel management companies? So, if you deserve to get care and attention from your employers while on the corporate trip (and in the office), what happens if you are met with employer negligence duty of care? More precisely (and correctly), as an employee, you should ask what you can do to avoid employer negligence in the duty of care. Explore the government website to update yourself on the employer’s role in giving you safety and security during a business trip. Before travelling to your destination, ensure your employer assists you in flight and hotel booking either by themselves or hiring a travel management agency. As an employer, you must offer your employees safe flights, stay and food on business trips. Your responsibility is to ensure your employees are taken care of outside office premises while on a business
travel program.
▪ Understanding through Safeguarding and Duty of Care Examples
Duty of care legislation UK (and other countries) holds employers responsible for giving reasonable care to their employees. The duty of care extends as long as employees serve as a company resource. That means any employer is accountable to a good degree for what happens to an employee, even on a business trip. Examples of how organisations can help employees settle during business trips can help employees and employers understand the importance of trip safety.
▪ Proper Education
Any well-planned business travel program can only operate effectively with a responsible employer. A business holds (or should take) the responsibility of ensuring the welfare of employees away from the usual workplace. You can ensure full-fledged risk management for corporate travellers with proper research and planning. During times of uncertainty, the employer should make arrangements for extending the period of stay in business destinations or cutting the business trip short and guiding safe return. However, responding with the correct steps requires employers to have proper education.
If they find the whole management of foreign trips for business overwhelming, they can take the assistance of business travel management companies. These companies have the tools to help corporate travellers overcome the uncertainty of transportation and staying arrangements.
▪ Having a Sense of Specificity
Whether you are an employer or catering to the needs of corporate travellers as a travel management company, you must have a degree of specificity. Only some business destinations are prone to similar risks and safety issues.
Let’s say a business destination can have high rates of theft and murder. But future destinations included in your corporate travel program may not have the same security issues. Some business destinations have headache-inducing health issues, while some may have existing political revolutions. Every type of safety risk needs corporate travellers to stay prepared differently. In a place with food scarcity, a corporate traveller should know about proper food storage to avoid wastage. In an area with high risks of mass murders or theft, one should have police information
handy or get a license to keep protective devices like guns. But there’s no use in keeping guns in a disease-infested area where you need health tools and knowledge. The management company for business trips (and the employer also) should keep the corporate travellers updated about the condition of the business destination. With help from extensive research, the management team can guide corporate travellers precisely. They can help travelers access necessary resources like legal help, food resources and emergency accommodation for getting a safe stay.
Details
How to Have a Full-proof Travel Risk Management program for your Business Travellers?
- Focusing on Duty of Care (From the Perspective of a Travel Management Company)
Having duty of care in the workplace for clients is important. You all know why safeguarding is
important in health and social care but don’t make the mistake of thinking care only extends to patients or the healthcare sector. The concept of duty of care extends to any professional setting and is important for clients to find you reliable. While incorporating duty of care for clients (and employees) in the workplace, make sure to include locational specifications. If you are from the UK, you must focus on incorporating duty of care UK policies. Further, while booking hotels and eating arrangements, ensure the selected option follows the duty of care responsibly. Get to know eating places and accommodations well before assisting your corporate client on a business trip.
▪ Exploring Review Sites for Ensuring Safety
A management company can use review sites to explore the accommodations and other facilities that a corporate traveler needs. From the review sites, one can know how safe a hotel or restaurant is. Thus, with the help of review sites, management companies of corporate trips can make insightful and educated decisions. As you decide better as a part of a management company, business travelers can get the most out of their business trips while having a pleasant experience.
▪ Risk Assessment
Besides, the management team hired to oversee business trips should perform a risk assessment for planning how to incorporate safety for business travelers. The assessment plan should look into the political environment, travel safety and quality of food and living arrangements available in the business destination. Based on the analysis, the management team must select the best-suited options that cater to the healthy stay of business travelers.
Final Thoughts
We hope you know by now how to explain what it means to have duty of care. A corporate traveler can
meet with several risk factors in the business destination. It falls under the responsibility of corporate
employers and travel management companies to provide business travelers with the best assistance.
As a travel management company, you can address risks and safety concerns for your clients in different
ways. Proper resolution starts with research of the risk factors present in the business destination of
corporate travelers. With insights collected, you can help business travelers to have risk-free stay away
from the comfort of the office.
If you need some help with booking your next business trip, you can contact The Travel Group
