Events such as the terrorist attacks in Paris illustrate why buyers should review their emergency action programmes to safeguard their businesses and travellers in a crisis
We are constantly being told that the world is becoming a more unstable and unpredictable place – there is war and civil unrest, terrorist attacks and outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Ebola or Asian flu. Geopolitical risk has been a buzz phrase for the last few years and shows no signs of going away.
All of these incidents could potentially affect a company’s operations and its business travellers. Even if they are not directly involved themselves, a feeling of being in danger could lead them to panic and choose to take actions that – ironically – may put them in more peril than necessary.
There have been plenty of stories of how business travellers have had to be rescued by a specially chartered flight from locations hit by a natural disaster, such as the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, or the Ebola outbreak in western Africa last year.
Dealing with these incidents puts pressure squarely on the travel buyer and can test the robustness of the travel management programme to its limit. But what is the key to handling these situations successfully to help employees stay safe and allow the business to continue functioning effectively when under severe strain?
Be prepared
Putting pre-emptive action plans in place for emergency situations is becoming more of a focus for many companies. These plans have specified action points and clear areas of responsibility for key managers within the company, and are triggered when a major incident happens.
Claudia Unger, director of research and intelligence for BCD Travel, says: “An increasing number of businesses realise that they can lessen or avoid legal and financial consequences by proactively working ahead of time to reduce employee risks during business trips.”
Matthew Judge, group managing director at security specialist Anvil Group, adds: “We always advise clients to draw up pre-prepared action and evacuation plans. The more prepared an organisation is, the quicker it can respond with proactive actions to manage an incident. When there is no framework in place, or an incident is mismanaged, it has the potential to escalate into a crisis.”
These action plans lay down step-by-step practical procedures, such as establishing designated ‘safe areas’ or routes within a location, as well as detailing the safest and easiest ways to get staff out of the danger zone. They should also set out how the company will communicate to staff in a crisis, both for those in the affected destination and within their office locations.
“It’s important to consider what to communicate to employees to calm their anxieties when they have been rightly worried by a situation that has occurred,” says Judge. “Even when it is highly unlikely the incident will impact them directly, they may still believe it will and need reassurance.”
The outbreak of Ebola was a good example of how staff became anxious about their safety – even though the actual risk of catching the disease was extremely low, unless they were visiting medical facilities in the affected regions.
If a traveller to an infected area goes down with flu while on their trip, it is only human nature to assume it may be Ebola and begin to panic. Similarly, if a company has staff travelling to destinations affected by disease outbreaks, this may cause apprehension and concern within offices when these employees return from a trip. Supplying information, if done correctly, to office-based staff about the disease should help to reassure them that they are not at serious risk themselves.
Security specialist International SOS (ISOS) launched its latest Pandemic Information online platform earlier this year, which tracks the outbreaks of infectious diseases around the world and gives advice on the best practices for reviewing pandemic response plans. “Often, early in outbreaks, limited information about the threat – or potential threat – leads to speculation and rumour,” says ISOS medical director Dr Doug Quarry. “Staying informed and having an up-to-date pandemic business continuity plan provides a clear roadmap to reduce your risks in the early days of the unknown.”
Clear communications
These issues show the importance of having clear lines of communication to all staff, whether travelling or not, in an emergency situation. The practicalities of ensuring those clear lines should be tackled in any emergency action plan. “Access to this plan should be given to travellers so they are fully informed of what to do in an emergency,” says Shona Bradshaw, strategic business manager at Chambers Travel. “It will also advise them as to their responsibilities when travelling on behalf of their company.”
Louise Kilgannon, director of global business consulting at American Express Global Business Travel, adds: “The plan should detail a process flow and clear accountabilities. The tendency in a crisis situation can be to panic, which may lead to miscommunication and confusion around responsibilities.” As well as clear communication channels, she says, a crisis management team should be identified “so that the right people are communicating internally and externally”.
Having regular reviews of all action plans to ensure they remain “fit for purpose” is also crucial, says Nick Cocking, HRG’s head of client management for Europe. “Make it part of a rigorous review process so the plan doesn’t just sit in a drawer for three or four years,” he says. “When you suddenly need it, you may get the plan out and realise that the people with specific responsibilities may have left the company.
“There should be an annual review as a minimum. But it should be more regular – maybe every six months – for very large organisations that have people travelling every day to difficult parts of the world.”
Assessing risk
Pre-trip training can be one way of ensuring travellers know what to do in an emergency, particularly to ‘high risk’ destinations that may be suffering from civil or political instability, or an increased threat of terrorist attacks. Declan Meighan, global security director at travel assistance firm Healix International, says: “When a trip is authorised and approved, you have to assess what kind of risk there is, and what kind of country it is – is it low or medium risk? Is it going through political instability?
“If you’re going to Afghanistan, you are obliged to do ‘hostile country training’, which is a residential course. But whether you are going to Baghdad or Barcelona, the legal obligation is the same. There are just different levels of training needed for different destinations.”
Meighan admits that training courses can be “cost-prohibitive” for some companies, and a cheaper alternative is pre-trip training question and answer sessions that can help to evaluate risk.
The most important type of education for buyers may be to train employees to book within travel policy, as even the most robust of emergency planning will fall down if travel departments cannot quickly locate travellers in a crisis. Not having up-to-date traveller profiles with the most recent contact numbers will also cause serious problems.
“It is crucial always to book all trips through TMCs to ensure traveller tracking and support is available where applicable,” says Rob Haynes, programme management director for Carlson Wagonlit Travel. “Travel managers should also ensure that travellers have their corporate travel insurance policy, medical information, emergency contacts and vaccinations up-to-date.”
Top challenges
A survey of more than 500 travel buyers focusing on travel risk management, carried out by BCD Travel, found that the top three challenges for buyers are not having “clearly identified ownership” of travel risk within their company, followed by a lack of senior management support, then low levels of policy compliance.
The responsibility for dealing with an emergency situation clearly falls between several departments – typically travel management, human resources, security, and health and safety – as well as external suppliers, such as TMCs and travel security specialists. But who should take the lead on this and ensure that all departments are working together?
HRG’s Nick Cocking says that travel buyers are “playing a bigger role” in this process, which is both an opportunity and a threat to their reputations within their organisations. “There are lots of moving parts and stakeholders in building, endorsing and supporting these plans,” he says.
“When something happens, there are even more moving parts with the dynamics of dealing with travellers, internal stakeholders and TMCs. Buyers are now at the centre of this wheel. If they have a highly visible and robust plan, they will build huge credibility around the travel management programme as well as gaining high-level support and recognition.
“But if the plan is not there, or has not been reviewed or communicated, and it puts travellers at risk when they don’t need to be, that will cause a hugely negative reflection on the travel manager and the programme. That’s why it’s so important to get this right.”
Amex’s Kilgannon also believes buyers should be “playing a lead role” to prevent crisis situations from “disrupting a programme entirely”. She says: “Regular drills will help to keep the plan fresh in peoples’ minds. We would hope that a company does not need to use the plan regularly, but when it does, it should become second nature.”
With all this talk of instability and global crises, buyers have an opportunity to prove their worth by ensuring they have robust and effective crisis management plans. Otherwise they could be in the firing line if the systems put in place fall apart in an emergency situation.
Case Study
BCD Travel recently worked with a client to bring its travel and security departments closer together, to create a more robust risk-management programme
A major international consumer retail brand traditionally made its security department responsible for handling the safety of its business travellers. But security waited for travellers to call them if they got into trouble and also did not have access to booking records. This meant it could take up to four days to find out if an employee was in a certain location.
The company decided this practice was unacceptable so the travel and security departments began working together to manage jointly travel risk.
Travel manages the process on a day-to-day basis and deals with routine interruptions such as delays or cancellations; but security steps in when there is an incident that may potentially threaten the health and safety of an employee. Human resources and corporate communications also become involved during these incidents.
Travel and security work in the same building and copy each other in on all correspondence, while security will explain to travel why it may decide to take no action over some incidents.
Travel risk management remains part of the travel department’s business plan and it has to formally review the policy, including holding regular meetings with other stakeholders.
The company also works with security specialist Anvil Group, which provides information on travel risk, as well as pre-trip advice, traveller tracking and communication platforms.
BCD sees getting senior level buy-in at the company for the changes as “extremely important”, because security is not a “top-of-mind issue” and the retailer does not have a “culture of strict compliance”.
Business continuity: takeaways
- Work with other inhouse departments and external travel suppliers to draw up detailed action plans of how to cope with emergency situations.
- Communicate these plans widely around the company so that travellers know what they should do in a crisis.
- Review and update these plans regularly to ensure they are still ‘fit for purpose’ and that key stakeholders are still in place to fulfil their responsibilities if necessary.
- Use these plans to emphasise to staff the importance of booking within travel policy so that you can locate and contact them quickly in an emergency.
- Ensure that traveller profiles are kept up-to-date with the most recent contact information, including the best mobile phone number or email address for each employee.