Traveling for business comes with inherent risks, and as a travel manager, it’s your responsibility to ensure the safety of your employees. Whether it’s a routine business trip or a long-haul journey, managing travel risks is essential.
In this blog post, we explore 13 thought-provoking questions that you can use as a starting point to evaluate your travel risk management strategies.
1. Do we have a Travel Risk Management Policy in Place? Is it Regularly Reviewed and Updated?
Having a travel risk management policy is essential to ensure the safety of travelers. It defines procedures that a company must follow before, during, and after trips to prevent risks.
The policy also serves as a valuable resource for educating and training employees about travel risks. It is important to update the policy regularly for it to stay relevant and to include learnings from past incidents.
2. Are Travelers Adequately Trained for Travel Risk Awareness and Preparedness?
Proper training equips travelers with skills that can help them identify travel risks. They learn about personal safety strategies such as securing personal belongings and avoiding high-risk areas or activities.
Moreover, training improves critical thinking specific to travel risks. As a result, travelers can better avoid risks when they are on the road.
3. Do we have an Emergency Response Plan in Place for Various Risk Scenarios?
Different risks need responses that are specific to that incident. For example, the response plan for a natural disaster may focus on evacuation, while a medical emergency plan may emphasize access to healthcare.
By developing separate response plans, travel managers can avoid confusion. Each plan can outline the actions, protocols, and resources needed for a particular risk scenario, leaving no gaps in preparedness.
4. Do we Provide Travel Insurance Coverage for Our Employees?
Business travelers are on the go and can face health issues and unforeseen incidents such as theft. Travel insurance covers the cost of medical treatments and financial losses that occur during the trip.
In addition, in case of flight delays and cancellations, travel insurance can reimburse the expenses associated with it. Ultimately, insurance provides peace of mind to travelers and allows them to focus on their work.
5. Are Travel Vendors Vetted for their Safety and Security Measures?
Working with travel vendors that have robust safety measures helps mitigate travel-related risks. They are more likely to have well-trained staff and proactive risk management protocols.
To vet vendors, you can read online reviews and industry ratings. You can also check their track record of providing a safe experience for travelers. To do this, you can connect with companies that have worked with the vendor in the past.
6. Have Previous Incidents and Risks been Effectively Handled?
Evaluating whether past incidents have properly been handled can improve your travel risk management in the future. By looking at how previous incidents were managed, you can find out if there are any recurring patterns that may pose a risk.
This will allow you to address any underlying issues. Further, you will also be able to identify any gaps in the travel risk policy and update it to make it effective.
7. Do we have a System in Place to Track and Monitor the Whereabouts of our Travelers During their Trips?
Tracking business travelers allows you to monitor their location in real time and ensure their safety. To monitor travelers, companies often use a business travel management solution that includes GPS technology. This way, in the event of an emergency, you can know the exact location of travelers and provide quick assistance.
8. What Resources do we Provide to Our Travelers to Enhance their Safety while Traveling?
To increase safety while traveling, travel managers can provide travelers with certain resources. These include travel safety guidelines, destination information, and emergency contacts. Further, travelers can also suggest apps that provide weather and disaster alerts.
9. What Metrics do we Track to Measure the Effectiveness of our Travel Risk Management Program?
Travel managers must evaluate whether the travel risk management program is effective or not. For this, they must track certain metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are a measure of the degree of success of the risk program. Some KPIs to track are:
- Incident Response Time: The average response time from the moment an incident is reported to the initiation of appropriate actions.
- Compliance with Travel Risk Policies: Percentage of employees following guidelines and procedures in the policy
- Incident Frequency: Number of risk incidents that occurred within a certain time period.
- Emergency Response Evaluation: Effectiveness of response procedures
- Financial Impact: Cost of the incident, including cost of healthcare and safety measures.
10. Do Our Travel Risk Management Practices Align with Industry Standards?
Industry standards are guidelines created by experts in the field. They are based on their knowledge and experience to help companies manage travel risks effectively. By following these standards, companies can make sure they are using the best methods available. This reduces the chances of missing important steps in managing risks.
11. Are we Leveraging Technology Solutions to Enhance our Ability to Identify and Respond to Travel Risks in Real Time?
Technology can help mitigate risks in several ways. For instance, with AI, travel managers can analyze large volumes of data and identify potential risks in the future. Further, travelers can use safety apps that offer features like geolocation, emergency alerts, local safety information, and SOS functionalities.
12. Are we Conducting Post-Travel Debrief Sessions with Travelers to Gather Insights and Identify Areas for improvement in our Travel Risk Management Approach?
Debrief sessions allow travel managers to identify gaps in their travel risk management approach. Travelers can provide input on any issues they encounter during their trip, which may indicate areas that need further attention. Eventually, this feedback allows travel managers to assess the alignment between their intended purpose and actual impact.
13. Does our in-house Risk Management Team have the Necessary Capabilities to Handle Travel Risk Effectively, or is Outsourcing Risk Management a Better Option?
Companies are responsible for the duty of care of travelers and must take stringent measures to ensure it. Therefore, they must identify whether their in-house risk management team has the expertise to manage risks.
Sometimes, an in-house team may not have the same level of specialized skills and experience as a dedicated risk management service provider that focuses solely on travel risk. Moreover, the company may not have the resources to provide risk support to travelers 24/7. In such cases, it is better to outsource travel risk management.
Risk management service providers often have access to advanced technologies designed for travel risk management. These tools can enhance risk assessment, real-time monitoring, and incident response, providing an advantage over in-house teams. Plus, they are available round-the-clock to assist your travelers.
Enhance your Travel Risk Management
Having a dedicated support team to help travelers while they are on the road is crucial in today’s world. Imagine the peace of mind knowing that your employees have access to immediate assistance, no matter the time zone or location. For this, you can consider partnering with a travel management company (TMC) that offers you the comfort of a 24/7 travel support team.
ITILITE is a modern-day TMC that you can work with. Our travel support team has experienced professionals who are well-versed in handling a wide range of travel scenarios. We boast an impressive industry-best response time of just 10 seconds.
Moreover, not only do we prioritize a quick response, but we also excel in solving the issue quickly. With an average resolution time of 60 minutes, our team is equipped to provide 24/7/365 support, minimizing any disruptions your travelers might face.
To know more, book a free demo today!
