Page 10 - Best Practice in Travel Risk Management 2019 - Forum Findings

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The Future of Travel Risk Forum by beTravelwise
For example, if an organisation has someone with a mental health problem travelling in a country with a different language to their own then it should ensure that its response plan includes the availability of someone who speaks their own language.
Some organisations are also setting up wellness programs in part because they recognise
that chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease are now major risks to business travellers’ health.
Today’s employer will find that its duty of care is likely to include assessing whether an employee’s pre-existing health condition puts them at risk, says Hillier.
For UK-based organisations a useful checklist is set out in the PAS 3001 standard, says Renshaw. (See page 16 for further details)
But in multinational organisations, travel risk managers may find setting standards more complex.
For example, countries like Australia and Canada have extraterritorial health and safety legislation.
This means that if you employ their citizens you may find there extra hurdles you have to jump. And the number of countries providing similar protection for their mobile workers is on the rise.
“The message is not that you should be expected to know about all these issues,” says Renshaw.
“But it is likely you will be judged against what is being done in the industry and what is written in the standards.”
His company, International SOS has published papers on best practice covering universities that send students abroad and on mental health, for example. But there are plenty of areas with no standards and where organisations will
need to demonstrate they have done a risk assessment and that they offer support.
In terms of support, there are two practicalities. What you advise a traveller who is in distress and what you can provide to them on the ground.
In nine out of 10 cases we provide advice only, says Renshaw. Instead of calling an insurer after someone has sought medical advice, we aim
to give them healthcare system specific advice, using regional experts.
“What I would advise someone who is stuck in China is very different from what I would advise someone here,” he says.
In Beijing, people with mental health issues are sent to a police station rather than a hospital.
There will be lots of language difficulties and dealing with a case like this can quickly become complex. “We had an instance where we had to send a Chinese doctor to extricate an executive from a psychiatric unit before we could get him home,” says Renshaw.
While travellers may expect organisations will send helicopters to rescue them from wherever they are, that is not the case. Advice is more likely.
It is reasonable for travellers to expect is that their organisation will know about the destinations that they have been sent to. For example, if you are sending a traveller to a malarial area, you should provide them with some advice before they travel.