Global business travel is at an all-time high – currently accounting for approximately 14 percent of all international travel. However, the current global situation underlines the risks that can be involved in business travel both from a medical or from a safety and security perspective. That means it’s important for organizations to have proper contingency plans in place in case employees become exposed to hazards or threats within a foreign country and require support from their employer to return home safely.
Hazards and threats
The emergency management field defines three categories of hazards that pose threats to people. Natural hazards such as unavoidable acts of nature – earthquakes, floods and wildfires. Technological hazards are accidents, or the failure of infrastructure systems that can result in events like train derailments, nuclear radiation releases, or power outages. Human-caused threats are intentional acts such as military actions, terrorism and civil unrest.
All of these hazards and threats can cause harm or disruptions for travelling employees who may not have the resources at hand or the knowledge on how to effectively respond to such situations.
A traveller who has not been properly briefed on local risks, for example, might be more vulnerable to being kidnapped by staying in an unvetted hotel or hailing a taxi in the wrong part of town. A major airline disruption may leave a traveller stranded with no immediate means of leaving the foreign country, and therefore exposed to further risks.
In either scenario, the employee’s organization should have some concrete contingency plans, as well as a crisis management framework, to deal with these growing risks of international travel.
Duty of care
It has been well-established in common law that employers owe a duty of care to their employees in terms of ensuring their safety and security while engaged in business-related activities. This duty of care requirement extends across international borders when employees are required to travel as part of their job.
One precedent-setting duty-of-care case occurred in Australia, when an employee travelled to Papua, New Guinea, to visit a client and was assaulted by a thief during the business trip. An Australian court ruled that the employer was negligent in its duty of care by failing to provide the necessary security-awareness training to the employee on local crime conditions and how to mitigate such risks accordingly.
Organizations can reduce their liability exposure and increase their duty-of-care requirements by implementing a robust travel security program with proper approval controls and constant monitoring of international conditions in place.
Some of the best practices of a corporate travel security program include:
1) A travel security program endorsed by executive management
2) The creation of a designated job function responsible for travel security
3) The development, communication and regular updates of the travel security policy
4) The implementation of a travel management program to track employees and monitor global situations in real time.
There are companies now offering services that can track the movements of employees in high-risk areas as well as provide apps on smart phones by which an employee can signal if they are in distress and in need of immediate assistance.
Death by natural causes while abroad
Nobody wants to think about it, but an employee may die of natural causes while overseas.
Again, organizations should have plans in place to repatriate the body and provide support to the employee’s family. Depending on the jurisdiction in which the person has died, as well as their own religious burial requirements, this can prove to be a logistical nightmare for the organization if proper contingency arrangements have not been implemented in advance.
With increasing climate change and unstable geopolitical environments, it’s clear that employees travelling for work are being exposed to more risks than ever.
Canada’s Global Affairs department issues international travel advisories that should serve as a baseline benchmark for Canadian employers sending employees overseas.
The realities of today’s operating environment require any business’s security risk management procedures to protect its employees via a robust travel security program.