Page 15 - Best Practice in Travel Risk Management 2019 - Forum Findings

Best practice in travel risk management 2019
The term ‘tracking’ is not used by everyone. Some organisations use the American term ‘geospatial awareness’.
But that does not necessarily work, says Grant Cambridge, deputy global security leader at professional advisers EY.
Just 1% of the thousand employees that visit high-risk places for the EY agree to geospatial awareness. Instead, the security team relies on education. If someone is visiting Afghanistan or Libya they are expected to give active consent at the point of booking the trip.
However, those travellers who agree to be tracked are increasingly asking that they
can switch it off when they want. One way is
to have a private mode that is delivered by having an SOS button so that tracking can be quickly reactivated if there is a problem. But Monshin says newer iterations work by only the current location being stored, with the previous locations being deleted by the software.
At Unilever, business travellers are only made aware that the tracking is in place if they get an informal email from their line manager asking
if they are OK following an incident. “No-one questions tracking if they are in the face of a typhoon,” says Herd.
As well as the travel itinerary, the data that needs to be held is limited to first name, last name, email address and nothing sensitive.
“I am a big fan of people tracking my every movement,” says Harwood. She uses WhatsApp, which shares her location using Google maps.
Using WhatsApp feels informal and voluntary and its availability as a tool is something that could be built into travel awareness information and training, she suggests. Travellers could choose their app and share their location
with someone who knows what to do if a problem arises.
Herd agrees and says he has recommended to various teams in Unilever that they set up a group on WhatsApp to keep in touch.
There is demand for instant messaging solutions, says Monshin. This allows tracking within small teams, which is useful in some situations.
Instant messaging is also a useful tool for bleisure travel - when people are adding personal travel on to a business trip.
For example, Unilever sends people on five- week assignments to places like Kenya. On the weekends the travellers may want to go on a safari. The Unilever TRM policy says that everything that happens between a business flight out and a business flight back is its responsibility.
Herd says its advice is usually that you are authorised to go on your time but make sure your host knows where you are going and you are using an approved company for the safari. There are also times when his team refuses permission.
Using approved suppliers is where companies need to have clear policies, says Howard. While the sharing economy, with services like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb, offers convenience and savings, it also brings new risks.
Looking forward, changes the panel expect to see include the increased use of digital data in for travel documentation and greater use of artificial intelligence and bots providing travel information. As a result, it will be even more vital that security teams have good quality data on their travellers.
Organisations need to get the culture right, says Cambridge, and then ensure they have the technology to help.
However, a big risk could be that you are too reliant on technology. Harwood took part in a crisis management drill in Tokyo recently. The scenario was that after an earthquake all the computers and phones were down for 48 hours. “The managers just looked at us and said what do we do,” she says.
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