GUEST BLOG: GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: THREE WAYS TO SUPPORT EMPLOYEES IN DISTANT DESTINATIONS

Corporate travel assignments in emerging and remote destinations can see employees facing a risky cocktail of sub-standard medical care, inadequate infrastructure and unpredictable health and security threats.

Yet, these employees expect their employers to protect them, regardless of where they are in the world.

We’ve put together three ways to do just that:

Be proactive, not reactive

Disease could be rampant, political instability brewing, or hospitals hard to access.  Cultural differences could even cause serious offence.

Employees who know the risks of a remote assignment overseas, and how to mitigate them, are less likely to get into difficulty - and more likely to feel reassured. In turn, employers will be closer to meeting their duty of care obligations.

In practice, this can mean (among other things) carrying out pre-travel medical and security risk assessments, preparing for all eventualities, and educating staff about everything from local medical care, to evacuation procedures, terrorism and incident avoidance.

It can also mean predicting and mitigating real-time threats to employees’ health and safety, once they are abroad; for example, the risk of illness to family members, adverse weather, or even a political coup.

Trust in technology

Mobile devices are multiplying faster than we are. But they are also playing an important part in preparing, informing and protecting employees working in remote areas abroad.

A mobile app can give users access to a complete online travel risk management programme, worldwide. And this can incorporate real-time medical and security intelligence and alerts, risk mitigation and integrated global assistance; all available at the swipe of a screen and tailored to destinations and needs.

By providing location-based monitoring, check-in and tracking tools, mobile technology can also give employers a birds’ eye view of their global staff and assets in relation to real-time threats; enabling them to locate and assist those in remote areas quickly, if emergency strikes. 

This sort of hand-held risk management provision can reduce the frequency and severity of emergencies overseas.

Forget fragmented assistance

A medical emergency abroad can quickly spiral out of control if the right advice is delayed, or the wrong decisions made. And no more so than in a remote or emerging destination, where low-grade medical provision can soon turn an accident or illness into an emergency.

The “golden hour” after an incident can be crucial. Leave it any longer to help an employee in difficulty and it may be too late. But, what if real-time security threats need to be gauged before an ambulance sets off? If secure transport and armed escorts are the only way to get a patient to hospital?  Or if a natural disaster has made the route to a medical facility dangerous?

In these cases, a fragmented medical and security assistance supply chain and lack of incident planning could delay responses. And, it’s not just employees who suffer. Employers could find themselves providing inefficient and complex emergency responses that are unnecessarily costly.

Some health and security risks in remote and emerging destinations

·      Road traffic accidents

·      Limited or inferior medical care

·      Mosquito-borne diseases

·      Unsafe tap water

·      Heat-related illnesses

·      Counterfeit medicines

·      Rabid dogs

·      Muggings and pickpocketing

·      Car-jacking

·      Passport theft

·      Political instability

·      Credit card cloning

·      Break-ins

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate assistance services at CEGA, a Charles Taylor Company and provider of global assistance, travel risk and claims management services.

CEGA and Solace Global Risk are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service Intrinsic Assistance at the Business Travel Show on February 20^th and 21^st 2019, Stand B340.  Travel bookers, buyers and managers can register for a free pass here: https://www.businesstravelshow.com/register

www.cegagroup.com       www.solaceglobal.com

GUEST BLOG: SHOULD BUSINESS TRAVEL MANAGERS TAKE “PERMANXIETY” SERIOUSLY?

“Permanxiety” is the latest buzzword in the global travel sector. It describes the near-constant state of anxiety felt by travellers; about everything from terrorism to racial tension, Trumpism to technology, and culture wars to climate change. And, according to global travel intelligence platform Skift (who coined the term) there’s a burgeoning belief that it could soon become the world’s new shared social experience.

Traveller anxiety: the new normal?

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) more than half of business travellers feel that, nowadays, any destination could be high-risk, almost half are worried about terrorist attacks abroad, and over 20% classify North American and Western European countries as only “somewhat safe”.

Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives reports that a third of travel managers are seeing a rise in enquiries about business traveller safety.

Despite these worries, the global travel industry is booming: the GBTA anticipates a rise of more than 6% in corporate travel spend this year and the World Tourism Organisation predicts that, by 2030, five million people will be crossing international borders for leisure, business or other purposes - every single day.

In short, travellers are travelling more. But they are also worrying more about their travels.

Managing worries

Business travel risk management isn’t just about planning for emergencies, it’s also about reducing anxiety, or even 'permanxiety', for travellers. It’s about identifying and mitigating risks associated with every stage of a trip overseas, and helping travellers feel informed about, and supported during, real-time threats.

From pre-travel reports, training and intelligence gathering, to in-country travel tracking and real-time risk alerts, there’s no end of risk management products available to help prepare, inform and locate travellers overseas, and to reduce anxiety.

It’s all about providing access to these products in the most efficient way.  

Meeting expectations

In a recent GBTA survey, 44% of business travellers said they expected their employers to use tools like GPS to locate them in an emergency overseas. And at least two-thirds would expect their company to proactively contact them within two hours of an adverse event abroad.

There is an increasing hunger in the corporate travel sector for joined-up risk mitigation products that provide services like these, in the context of comprehensive risk management programmes; tailored to support travelling employees and meet duty of care obligations. All accessible in one place.

Employers should be able to harness integrated technology that enables them to anticipate employees’ medical and security threats abroad; to know exactly where employees are in relation to threats; and to counteract the dangers. They should be able to prepare staff for every eventuality, giving them access to one-source medical and security advice and emergency assistance, whenever they need it. And they should be able to reduce the anxieties and risks of not having these measures in place.

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate assistance services at CEGA, a Charles Taylor Company and provider of global assistance, travel risk and claims management services.

CEGA and Solace Global Risk are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service INtrinsic at the Business Travel Show on February 20^th and 21^st 2019, Stand B340.  Travel bookers, buyers and managers can register for a free pass here: https://www.businesstravelshow.com/register

www.cegagroup.com       www.solaceglobal.com