Tips for Effective Travel Risk Management Implementation [Infographic]

Wallace https://hyryde.com 4m 1,105 #travel

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Safe Traveling Tips

Ensuring a safe, comfortable, and productive trip is crucial for many of today’s travelling employees and business leaders. With laws and regulations concerning Duty of Care becoming tighter than ever, and new travel risk emerging here and there, travel buyers and managers must take a proactive approach in in preparing all the travelling employees regularly.

While mitigating risk can be a real challenge, there actionable steps you can take to ensure an effective and holistic travel risk management program. Here are the key takeaways from the infographic below from Hyryde which give us few actionable tips to ensure an effective travel risk management implementation.

1. Prepare. The first step to ensure a seamless travel risk management is to make sure that every person assigned in the project understand their role. Also, it is important to identify all the travel considerations inherent to your organization e.g. VIP leaders, number of traveling employees with disabilities.
2. Implement. Managing risk includes the use of 4T’s of hazard response: Treat, Transfer, Terminate, and Tolerate. All the strategies and actions that will be taken should be communicated thoroughly to all traveling employees.
3. Manage. To guarantee the continuity of the travel risk management program, several factors should be established and conducted regularly, such as the multi-disciplinary travel risk management committee, evaluation of practices against the industry standards, seeking feedback from upper management and frequent travelers, and review of the policies in case an accident during take place.

To know more about this topic, check out the infographic below.

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TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE TRAVEL RISK MANAGEMENT

For most people, traveling is just an easy task that requires no special effort – just pure fun and excitement. But for companies and organisations where travel risk management is of central importance to keep their business and employees competitive in the market, ensuring a seamless and secure traveling is more than just a plain old job.

SAFETY, SECURITY, AND CONVENIENCE

To ensure a responsible travel management, businesses should keep in mind two major aspects: Employees’ safety and security.

These aspects often focus on prominent issues like natural disasters, terror incidents, and kidnapping, to less dramatic but far more frequent incidents such as car collisions and medical incidents abroad.

On a bigger perspective, effective travel risk management also includes factors such as convenience and connectivity.

The stress that employees may suffer from poorly-planned travel management i.e. delayed flights, lost baggage, less productivity, and being away from loved ones should also be taken into consideration.

With a lot of moving parts, travel risk management calls for an effective collaboration throughout the key divisions of the company – from travel, HR, legal, to risk management, security, and procurement.

Otherwise, a single oversight can expose both the traveler and employer to multiple risks.

COMMON RISKS FOR THE TRAVELERS

• Standing out from the local population
• Driving in unfamiliar locations and conditions
• Fatigues
• Unfamiliarity with local health risks and medical facility
• Does not speak the language of the country

COMMON RISKS FOR EMPLOYERS

• Unexpected illness of Employees
• Damaged reputation
• Loss of data/equipment carried by travelers
• Legal repercussions due to failure to observe proper Duty of Care/health & safety legislations of the country
• Potential misuse of travel expenses
• Reduced productivity due to inadequate technology or support for travelers

Despite increased exposure, a lot of travelers are still lacking effective preparation to reduce the risk, and generally, have a poor perception of their employer’s travel safety program reflected on the statistics below:

• 80% think their company has a legal obligation to ensure their safety while traveling abroad
• 54% carry no specific contact number for use in crisis abroad
• 52% would consider legal action if they were not supported properly
• 46% work for firms with no clear travel security policies
• 36% have little confidence that their company would provide correct information during overseas emergencies
• 22% have no idea who to report in case of an emergency

STEPS TO EFFECTIVE TRAVEL RISK MANAGEMENT

1. prepare

• Assign Management Responsibility
  • Key departments should drive the strategy within four different roles: initiator, senior sponsor, stakeholder with accountability, and project manager.
• Determine Risk Types
  • Involves identification of risk types specific to your organisation
• Assess Risk Exposures
  • Evaluate your organisation’s capability to manage travel risks and develop a matrix to plot your company’s exposure to specific threats

2. IMPLEMENT

• Mitigate/Manage Risk
  • Each risk can be mitigated using the $T’s of hazard response
    • Treat: Controlling through proactive actions that reduce or minimise its impact prior to its occurrence
    • Transfer: Transferring risk through insurance, or payment to third parties who are prepared to take the risk on behalf of the organisation.
    • Terminate: Eliminating the risk through altering risky process or practice
    • Tolerate: Risks are taken when the mitigation activity is not cost-effective, or the risks of impact are so low that they are deemed acceptable to the business
  • Communicate
    • The strategy, actions, and responsibilities should be conveyed thoroughly to all traveling employees

3. MANAGE

• Audit
  • Involves monitoring techniques to ensure the continuity of the Travel Risk Management:
    • Establishing a multi-disciplinary Travel Risk Management Committee
    • Benchmarking regularly against best practices and peers
    • Seeking input from upper management on potential destinations
    • Gathering feedback from travelers on risk-related issues
    • Reviewing policies when incidents happen

To sum it all, here is a checklist to ensure an effective Risk Management Program of your company.

• A travel policy developed by key stakeholders and experts and is communicated to all affected parties.
• Training and education programs for travelers, arrangers, and managers that cover general travel risks and ways to mitigate them, as well as the risks that are present on a specific country and culture briefing.
• Pre- and on-trip information report from reputable sources, covering destination risk assessments, medical information, and country profiles.
• A travel tracking system that enables you to communicate with your employees at risk in crisis situations
• A global chauffeured transportation service to ensure safety, comfort, and on-time arrival at destination
• 24/7 assistance services for personal support to travelers
• An incident management plan that will serve as a guide in avoiding and responding to crisis situations
• An insurance, medical, and security program that covers frequent but low-key travel risks i.e. baggage lost.
• A crisis management plan that is regularly updated and integrated with your travel agency’s crisis management

These are the tips that you should follow to ensure a seamless and secure international traveling of your employees.

To learn more on how Hyryde can help your business have a great journey with no bumps on the road, contact us at UK T: +44 (0) 207 117 6023 / US T: +1 855 901 0303 or send an email to [email protected].

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