Douglas O'Neill: Five security vs. privacy considerations

Employer's duty of care is founded on the moral and legal obligation to protect their staff from harm and get them out of trouble if crisis strikes.

When it comes to travel and meetings, technology is making it ever easier for businesses to track their teams. But employees may feel their privacy has been compromised if the all-seeing eye of head office has them covered 24/7, even if they are on a work trip.

The advent of GDPR, data breaches and the Cambridge Analytica scandal have thrown a spotlight onto personal privacy. Running a business that respects individual rights is where every corporate wants to be. Yet travel data collected by businesses and their travel management companies (TMCs) cannot avoid being sensitive, from payment card information to passport details and home addresses.

Add tracking to the mix, and "security vs. privacy" becomes a valid debate.

1. Why safety must be front of mind

The world is getting ever more dangerous — and the more people travel for meetings and conferences, the greater the risks. It sounds alarmist but it's a fact of business life. As an article in The Economist has noted: "The citizens of the West have grown used to the idea that their security services can protect them from the worst that might happen. Faced by a new range of threats and with counter measures apparently of rapidly declining effectiveness, that may be about to change."

It's true that the chances of being caught up in a terror attack remain tiny but city-centre lockdowns, earthquakes and floods, medical emergencies, wildfires or snow dumps are more common. Impacts range from blocked roads and cancelled flights to hotel evacuation and unsafe drinking water. In the case of a mugging, employers may face the double challenge of helping a staff member recover from the trauma while handling the commercial fallout from the theft of business-sensitive documents.

Knowing where employees are is the fundamental first step to a rapid response.

2. How to track travellers and meeting delegates

When disaster strikes, at the most basic level a TMC can identify who is in the area by analysing flights and hotel bookings. It can contact them to make sure they are safe and, if they don't reply, contact the authorities or a private security operator to launch a search.

Traveller tracking takes this further. The term 'traveller tracking' can sound invasive, but in reality, it can be a vital tool to maximise travellers' safety anywhere in the world. Should a crisis occur, travellers can be located, contacted and protected as quickly as possible.

Tracking tools allow employers to

• See real-time information on each traveller's location
• Follow team members' scheduled journeys and destinations
• Search for specific travellers and their scheduled bookings

Best practice is also to integrate delegate registration into traveller tracking to identify meeting delegates' locations in emergency situations, because duty of care to employees attending business meetings and conferences is as important as those who are travelling.

Going further, more technology can be introduced to

• Plug the gap between airport and hotel check-in by integrating transport apps such as online taxi firms
• Use GPS to track staff to within a few metres
• Capture data from meeting calendars, diary appointments and business card use

The tech is available at a cost. And what cost do you put on safety?

All these techniques can provide a comprehensive overview of a traveller's movements and location against their schedule.

3. What's possible vs. what's acceptable

When people are in the office or on-site employers know what they are doing and where they are; it's company time and staff expect this.

But it's more complicated when they are travelling or attending meetings.

Attending overseas conferences, for example, can be full-on. They're "working" from the moment they come down to breakfast and start talking to other delegates. But what about evenings when there may be informal networking dinners or events…and sessions in the hotel bar that stretch past midnight?

Will they expect you to be using GPS to track them then and will they be happy that you know exactly where they are during these more social occasions that delegates may regard as the "reward" for the long hours they are putting in?

Are you going to question them over an 11am trip to the beach — only to discover that the 11am seminar was put back until 7pm so they've juggled their schedule to fit in some much-needed leisure time?

4. Securing employee buy-in

Getting employees to accept the company has their welfare at heart, not an invasive interest in their private life, is crucial. If companies adopt a duty of care mindset that is all embracing rather than limited to legal minimums, staff know their safety is paramount and understand what that entails.

And CEOs can reassure themselves that they are making the right decisions in knowing where their team are.

Companies can secure employee buy-in by investing in preparation/protection and through communication.

Preparation: A corporate that regularly sends staff into dangerous areas will minimise risk by training them in how to react during a terror attack or kidnap situation. Two British diplomatic staff caught up in the Westgate Shopping Mall siege in Nairobi in 2013 survived the four-day assault by Islamist terrorists because they did not panic, turned their phones to silent, did risk assessments and had a high state of awareness of what was happening around them.

Training for non-terror scenarios might include how to escape from or help casualties in a debris-strewn, smoke-filled building that has collapsed after an earthquake. First-aid training might include simulation of a motorway pile-up with multiple vehicles.

Communication: It is important to remind staff of the risks of travel through case studies, local government travel advice and in-country guides created specifically for the organisation. As well as tracking tools, TMCs have the experience and expertise to provide guidance on likely risks and what to do in an emergency.

Explaining to employees WHY and HOW their travel will be tracked can be reassuring if they know WHAT the stakes are and WHO will help them in a crisis.

5. Business benefits

Tracking travellers to ensure a rapid response when duty of care suddenly becomes a live issue also has business benefits. Research by security company Chubb discovered a clear link between holistic duty of care that embeds employee well-being as a core corporate value with workplace effectiveness; companies going the extra mile beyond minimum regulatory requirements were one third more likely to report greater profitability, reduced employee absence and safer working.

When staff know their employer "has their back", benefits include:

• They feel valued ­= increased motivation
• They feel protected = better retention
• They feel involved = higher engagement

And if corporates publicly promote the efforts they make to care for their travellers and meeting attendees, they can enhance their reputation as well as gaining a valuable recruitment and marketing tool.

When it comes to safety vs. privacy, both are critical and they are not mutually exclusive. Best practice means using the right tools, defining what is acceptable and securing employee buy-in through careful preparation and communication.