Traveller welfare: The road to health

Safety in the workplace is something that corporates take very seriously, but what about outside of the office? Beverley Fearis looks at how companies should be supporting their travelling employees

Once upon a time there was a company, with its own in-house team of physiotherapists, doctors, occupational health nurses, opticians and even dentists, available at all times to look after the health of the entire workforce, from the CEO to the canteen staff.

Those who travelled regularly for the company had access to an in-house travel clinic, where a team of experts were on hand 24/7 to make sure they had the right vaccinations and immunisations, and to give them essential advice on how to travel safely all over the world.

This specialist travel clinic also carried out monthly health assessments, whatever the age of the traveller, to test for heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses, and offered additional checks before and after each business trip. From the early signs of stress to the risk of deep vein thrombosis, nothing was left to chance, and everybody travelled happily ever after.

OK, so this is the stuff of fairytales, and far removed from the realities of today's corporate world where, in some cases, business travellers are lucky to get the afternoon off to go for a jab at their local GP.

Even the most profitable of companies would struggle to provide anywhere near that level of support to their travelling employees, but that's not to say that there aren't those out there who are doing a good job at monitoring and protecting the health of their travellers.

Indeed, with Corporate Social Responsibility and the Corporate Manslaughter Act firmly on everybody's minds, traveller health and well-being is moving further up the list of priorities.

"The larger companies, where travel is a very regular part of business activity, are doing a really great job," says Martyn Anthony, head of specialist services for Bupa Wellness, which provides travel and health services and advice.

"But it becomes more of a risk and a challenge as the size of the company and the regularity of the travel decreases. Then it becomes a question of having the resources, funding and access to the right services and facilities."

According to Anthony, the FTSE 300 companies are, on the whole, performing well when it comes to looking after the health of their employees. Many have annual programmes of health assessments and are "fairly well informed" about their Duty of Care.

"When you're a global or European company, where travelling is a regular part of your business, the risks are higher and, therefore, you adopt a more structured approach, particularly with medium to senior level executives," he said.

"But if you're a smaller or medium sized company, and travel is an irregular part of your work, it's done on an 'as needs' basis. It is more likely to be outweighed by the need to buy a particular piece of kit or invest in some advertising, and it falls down the decision-making scale."

Unfortunately, in many cases, it is only when a particular problem arises or an employee falls ill overseas that the issue is raised.

"It's just like customer service in a business. You try your best, but your service tends to develop through errors you make as a business. It's not a great way to learn, but that's the way it often happens."

Number One Health is a London-based provider of corporate health care whose clients include Centrica, Carnival Cruise Lines and AMEC. Its corporate clients manager Ramatou Fall agreed that larger companies are more likely to provide good healthcare.

"Bigger companies generally have the budget and they understand their employees' needs," she says.

"With the Corporate Manslaughter Act, all companies need to understand that they have a Duty of Care and should be looking closely at health-related issues. From our experience, most companies are very open to our advice and are quite good at trying to help their employees."

She said travel health services can be tailor-made to suit a company's needs and budget, from basic immunisation services to a full programme of assessment and monitoring.

But, according to Mayfair-based wellness consultant Lyndon Littlefair, some business travellers are having to take things into their own hands when it comes to looking after their health.

"It's getting better, but there are still many companies that don't do enough, leaving frequent travellers just having to deal with it themselves," he says.

"Some of my clients' flight schedules are just silly. I don't know how they can be expected to do it. I have a client who works in the banking sector who has a big trip coming up. It's 11 days in all, from London to Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and back to London. She knows she is going to be stressed so she has come to me for some advice about how to cope. She is not getting this advice from her company."

Littlefair says business trips are not generally good for our health and frequent travellers therefore need to be properly looked after.

"The whole process of flying is stressful: you're arriving late at night, in different time zones, not able to sleep, and you don't have time to do much exercise."

He said most companies these days are good at making sure their desk-based employees are looked after, with occupational health checks and ergonomically-designed workspaces, but they don't think about the impact of hours travellers spend sitting on trains or aircraft.

"They are good at making sure their office seat is at the right height and their keyboard is in the right position, but they don't think about the fact, for example, that airline seats are mass produced, assuming that everybody is the same shape and size."

Paul Tilstone, executive director of the Institute of Travel Management, agrees. "Companies these days are good at providing guidance and services on occupational health, but it's never been targeted at the business travel community. For me, it's all part of risk management."

Sheila Hall is director of Travel Health Related Education and Care, a Glasgow-based company providing introductory courses and updates for doctors and nurses involved in the administration of vaccines and travel health advice. She believes times are changing.

"Travel health as a speciality is very new," she said. "Companies have always had occupational health teams, but now I'm being approached by more and more people wanting to expand their role to provide travel health. There is definitely a much bigger awareness."