How safe are your business travelers?

All business travelers are at risk when they travel, we are all too aware of that today. Every employer has a duty to ensure that business travelers are at the least possible risk. But how can you contribute to this from your role as a Travel Arranger? A good travel policy offers you the necessary tools!

How does a travel risk management strategy help with responsible travel choices?

The interpretation of a travel risk management strategy is different for every organization. It is tailored to what is important to your organization. The following strategic components can help you ensure traveler safety:

• Risks

The risk management strategy describes the risks involved in international business travel and how they are dealt with. These include: health and medical risks, security risks, psychological and individual risks, financial risks and reputation.

COVID-19 is a risk to which we are now paying extra attention. How do you deal with this? Careful information provision is more important than ever, from the moment of booking to just before departure, exhaustive information is essential. With the help of the risk management strategy, you know what information you need to check, what the right sources are for this and when you need to communicate this.

• Procedures

The procedures and protocols are at the heart of the travel risk management strategy that apply to international business travel. This is also called a travel policy. It contains all the guidelines that must be met when organizing and booking business trips. Think for example of working with preferred suppliers, which (safety) requirements a hotel and an airline must meet, how insurance and vaccinations are arranged, where someone can go in emergencies, etc. You can assume that when you book travel within your organization’s travel policy, it always benefits the safety of the traveler. After all, the travel policy choices are based on this, among other things. When you work with a travel management company you can be confident that they will always offer the best proposals based on your travel policy.

• Incident management

How to act if an incident occurs during a business trip? Your risk management strategy will outline the steps to be taken, such as: monitoring safety situations, tracking and locating travelers, 24/7 support, evacuation plans. Incident management can be the responsibility of the organization itself, but also (partially) of the TMC. Often a TMC has systems in place that help with the practical implementation. Munckhof for example has a traveller tracking system, its own 24/7 support service and a real time online dashboard to act efficiently and effectively in case of an incident.

A jack of all trades

Everyone within the organization needs certainty when it comes to business travel. A theoretical framework is therefore one thing, but acting on it is another. As a business travel organizer you can play an important role in this. First of all by knowing the travel policy yourself and acting upon it, but also by sharing it with travelers and giving feedback to management about your experiences.

Are you curious about how your current travel policy scores? Then take our Travel Safety Assessment free of charge. This will give you insight into the maturity of your travel program in terms of Health, Risk and Safety. Based on the results, you will know exactly which areas you can improve.

Contact our employees for the Travel Safety Assessment