Journal of International Peace Operations
Volume 6, Number 1 – July/August, 2010
An idyllic destination, with views of the ocean and a peacekeeping operation.
EVERY year thousands of employees within humanitarian and missionary organizations travel across the world to countries plagued by war, disease and natural disasters. In many of these often dangerous environments, risk is part of everyday life. Some risk is avoidable and some is not. Regardless, employers have both a humanitarian and a legal duty to protect their employees by reducing and mitigating this risk.
Over recent times, we have witnessed a number of high profile events around the world that have impacted the well-being of both leisure and humanitarian travelers. These have included earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, and riots and civil disturbance in Greece, India, Jamaica and Thailand. Sadly though, this year is no different from any other. Over the previous decade we have seen terrorist attacks as far afield as Mumbai, New York, Madrid, Moscow and London, natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and floods in New Orleans, and civil unrest in many more countries. There catastrophes represent only one facet of the dangers in traveling as they do not even take into account getting there in the first place; as incidents such as the Air France disaster in the Atlantic Ocean or the Afriqyah Airlines crash in Tripoli demonstrate.
The threat of civil litigation and obligations under occupational health and safety laws and regulations understandably concentrates the minds of every responsible employer regarding the safety and wellbeing of their staff from a legal and ethical perspective. In the case of work-related travel (and specifically in regards to humanitarian organizations that frequently send staff to less secure locations) this means the importance of ensuring there is a process in place to manage the welfare of employees, from pre-trip risk assessment to taking care which forms of transport and accommodation are taken and when.
As a company that specializes in the humanitarian, missionary and academic markets, Key Travel conducted a survey to develop a deeper understanding of the issue of traveler welfare. Customers were asked a number of questions, including the following:
With these results in mind it is worrying that many organizations do not yet have a systematic process for tracking where employees are going and still provide only general advice for the travelers (to check websites, such as the State Department) in relation to associated levels of risk and travel safety tips for their destinations.
Step 1: The Travel Safety Policy
Unlike the traditional travel policy, which focuses on preferred suppliers and expense management, the Travel Safety Policy sets out what the company does to protect its travelers and the steps to maintain and demonstrate a Duty of Care.
When putting together the policy, the following needs to be considered and answered:
- Which countries are safe to travel to and how to monitor this?
- Which airlines are safe to travel on and which hotels are safe to stay in?
- Who in the organization is allowed to travel and how should they seek authorization?
- What happens if a trip is booked out of policy?
- What should the organization do in case of an emergency or incident?
- What should the traveler do in case of an emergency or incident?
These are all questions that law enforcement organizations will ask you if they believe you may be in breach of the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It is, however, advisable to make your policy as comprehensive as possible. Different organizations require different steps to ensure safety and unfortunately there is no “one size fits all” answer.
Step 2: Training
Training is essential to ensure all travelers and travel bookers are aware of the policy, the implications of not conducting a thorough risk analysis and failing to adhere to the policy. Travel bookers, for example, need to know to which destinations are safe to travel, the associated threat levels and how to act or respond if one of their travelers is caught up in a dangerous situation.
For their part, travelers should be made aware that they are to “report in” if their plans change at all, so that the organization knows where they are at all times. They also need to know how to behave if they find themselves in a dangerous situation and who they can contact back at their organization when things go wrong. It is often useful to provide employees with a waterproof, plastic card with such details embedded on it and a spare in case the first is lost or damaged.
Whilst regular training is essential, short top-up briefings before employees embark on their trip are also beneficial. As with all training, simply performing it is not often enough. Short tests are therefore helpful to ensure that employees have taken the information onboard.
Step 3: Monitoring
An effective risk management policy should include a strategy for monitoring events and threat levels pre-trip, whilst the traveler is en-route to the destination and whilst they are there. The importance of this aspect cannot be over-emphasized. Some organizations believe that watching CNN is enough. But the news does not – and cannot – report every global incident, and furthermore, situations change quickly and constantly. Systems such as specialized travel alerts provide much more reliable and up-to-date risk advisories.
Key Travel’s risk management system, for example, is comprised of two core functions: the Travel Risk Intelligence System (TRIS) and the Employee Travel Monitoring System (ETMS). The TRIS provides organizations with accurate, up-to-date monitoring and alerts from across the globe and the ETMS is designed for rapid reaction. The ETMS works by picking up employees travel itineraries automatically through our booking system and then monitoring them alongside security and risk information. A threat level indicator (measured from one to five, five being the highest) is then fed to key contacts at the respective organizations, enabling them to decide whether they deem the situation to be an acceptable level of risk and whether it falls within their Travel Safety Policy.
Step 4: Response
If a situation escalates or a new emergency situation arises whilst the traveler is away, you must know when and how to get them out to protect their safety. This can be a tricky call, as when everyone else is typically fleeing an area, charity workers are going in. Whilst the aforementioned monitoring tools can be useful in this situation, they must be coupled with feedback from eyes and ears on the ground. Just because the general threat level in a country is minimal does not mean that your employees are safe.
To stay ahead of the game: if your employees are travelling to a known high risk location it is advisable to plan at least some of your response before they leave. This does not have to be detailed; but answers to questions such as:
- “what are the nearest three airports?”
- “what is the quickest, safest form of transport to use?”
- “where are the nearest hospitals?”
Planning these responses in advance will significantly increase your employees’ ability to react quickly and efficiently.
