Why is a safe travel policy important for businesses that operate internationally?
A safe travel policy is important to ensure the safety of employees whether they are in the normal workplace or traveling around the globe. By doing that, you’ll address their duty of care.
How does a safe travel policy work with a business’s existing insurance products?
There are many different insurance products that touch on international travel. They range from the events like kidnap or hijacking to business travel accidents, medical evacuation and general protection of employees’ assets when they are actually traveling. What is important is that some of those policies actually have a response mechanism tied into them.
What tools are included in a safe travel policy and how do they work?
There are three real building blocks. The first part is to work with your insurers and risk management professionals to figure out what you already have in place, identify any gaps, and then plug those gaps.
There are often duplications and overlap in policies, which causes uncertainty in the event that an incident takes place. That is why you need to establish what is already in place. Then, build procedures and plans to enhance those existing policies and procedures and insurance products that are already in place. Once you’ve done that, you can establish a more coherent, robust policy.
From there, your insurers and risk management professionals will try to put in place a mechanism by which all employees can access information about the countries to which they are traveling. If their destination breaches a certain risk level, you can assess the risks and determine how to proceed.
How are the risk levels calculated?
Aon provides an online country information service, which grades risks by looking at what is going on in that country, the capability of the terrorist organizations and their modus operandi. It’s not determined by how many instances have taken place; it’s a subjective look at what is the capability and what is going on in that part of world.
What training is required for individuals who are traveling?
There are two prudent types of training employers should give to their traveling employees. The first aspect of training is general awareness of the way you’re traveling. Employees can learn some of the ways they can lower their profile as business travelers.
Second, once you know where you’re going, you need specific knowledge of what’s going on in that environment, such as its problem areas, regions to avoid and possible terrorist organizations and their tactics. You need training on how to mitigate your risk in that particular environment. Those are the two levels of training that we would recommend to companies.
Justin Priestley is the executive director for Aon Crisis Consulting. Reach him at (207) 570-1717 or [email protected]. Christine M. DeLuca is the managing director of Aon Risk Solutions. Reach her at (216) 623-4131 or [email protected].
