Strengthening your organization's Duty of Care

Business travel can be risky, to say the least. From flight delays, medical emergencies, natural disasters and more, there are countless factors that can jeopardize your traveler’s safety. Then, to add these risk factors to intricate or more complex travel, like groups, multi-stop routes and more, things tend to get even riskier.

It’s important for organizations to ensure that they are exhausting all efforts to ensure the safety of their all personnel. In case you didn’t know, this all goes into an organization’s Duty of Care.

As defined by International SOS, “Duty of Care refers to the moral and legal obligations of employers to their employees, contractors, volunteers and related family members in maintaining their well-being, security and safety when working, posted on international assignments or working in remote areas of their home country.”

Though most organizations have a good grip on how to ensure the protection of their personnel, there is always room for growth. Here are just three ways an organization can strengthen their Duty of Care.

Travel Policy
To begin on improving your organization’s Duty of Care, it’s important to take a look into your travel policy. Does it allow personnel to use shared economy spaces like Airbnb or Uber? Have you included a risk management policy within the document? Who is the key point of contact in the event of an emergency? As you revisit your policy, you should ensure questions like these are clearly defined in a way that doesn’t leave room for confusion. This removes any scrambling and confusion that may happen during an emergency.

Technology
As we continue to adapt to a more technologically advanced society, companies are developing new, and more innovative systems that make assuring safety more feasible. Travel risk management companies, like International SOS, offer great tools to track the whereabouts of travelers, communicate with mobile workforce and more. Tools like these offer an added layer of security for travelers and peace of mind for travel managers/arrangers.

Travel Management Company
A travel management company (TMC) has the sole purpose of assisting you throughout the travel process. From the moment you create a traveler profile to the first step you take when you arrive back home travel counselors are there throughout to support your travelers. Also, TMC’s can partner with risk management agencies for added security by providing travel information for the agency to provide real-time monitoring, generate destination reports and much more. Should an organization choose to use an agency, like International SOS, TMC's can feed pertinent information to risk management companies to mitigate any travel issues. EWA offers weekly reports of on the road travelers, to get a better understanding of where all your travelers are.