Changing World, Changing Workforce: Protecting Your Company For Travel Risks

As the world changes and businesses continue to send representatives to further and further points on the map and into areas that have unstable political or civil issues, travel risk management becomes important in an effort to protect companies and employees from undue exposure. Two of the most important elements of travel risk management include foreseeable risk and duty of care. Ignorance of these two items produces more risk exposure to companies and travelers than any other hazard. In an effort to manage this risk, companies must understand foreseeable risks and duty of care as they pertain to the travelers that represent their company. 

Foreseeable risk can easily be explained by looking at a surfer who surfs in water that is known to have sharks. The higher than normal chance of a shark attack represents a very easy to determine foreseeable risk for the surfer. However,  a business traveler riding in a taxi cab is injured when the cab slams on the brakes and the seat belt fails to hold them in place and they are injured by hitting the glass in front of them. The expectation of reasonable training, working equipment and driver skill eliminates this seatbelt failure as a foreseeable risk for the passenger.

Employee interaction on behalf of the company, regardless of whether they are interacting with other employees or the public describes the definition of duty of care. In this instance intention plays no role as it is only the actions that matter and those actions must be performed with prudence, attention to detail and carefulness of a the actions that a reasonable person would take in the same circumstances. However, deviating from normal activities in a situation exposes the employee and the company to risk. Acting on behalf of a company does not provide an exclusion for the actions of an individual.

There are numerous risks that must be considered by companies before they send their employees on business trips and these risks continue to grow with each passing year. Ensuring that the traveler is aware of corporate policies regarding travel and appropriate actions while traveling on behalf of the company as well as understanding that the business is responsible for the actions of that employee. Traveling to countries that have been previously listed as unsafe is becoming more commonplace and the risk that employees are subject to must be addressed. Areas that are affected by social and political strife and upheaval must be monitored more closely than ever. Putting groups into ethnically based cultures where there is a predisposed prejudice can open a company to extreme risk and financial liability.

Managing the risk associated with travel is a growing area of concern for international companies as well as those who transact business entirely within their own borders. Ensuring that your human resources and travel managers keep current on these trends can reduce your risk as well as to help manage future risks. Risk and Travel Management in advance and training business travelers on these policies is the beginning step to reducing your risk exposure.