Page 7 - Best Practice in Travel Risk Management 2019 - Forum Findings

PAYING ATTENTION TO
DIVERSITY IS A WIN FOR TRM
As TRM programs develop beyond a one size fits all model, working with your organisation’s diversity groups is an opportunity to raise your profile and effectiveness.
Instead of being the team who always says no, you will be the people who keep employees safe and well when they travel, says a panel hosted by Sam Roper, beTravelwise’s Security Adviser.
Risk managers need to check how robust TRM programs are and to balance the relative emphasis placed on the home culture and the
destination risk.
“TRM programs of the past tended to be generic and about macro-level risk advice. They would focus on the country rather than the city being visited,” says Roper, an experienced solo female traveller with 10 years’ experience of advising organisations on risk.
“But today’s traveller is concerned with what is going to happen for that four- to five-day period that she is in that city. What can I eat? Is the water safe? What do I need to know because of who I am?”
Different travellers have different levels of experience and different risk profiles. In the past, the typical traveller was white and male.
Today, travellers include people who are women, LGBT+, disabled and/or from an ethnic minority.
The content and tone of the information provided must balance the needs of all.
“What you are saying is critical,” says Roper, “because at best you may offend someone if you
get the message wrong and at worst you have put someone into danger.”
For example, a 25-year-old white male who has never left the US and is travelling to Europe for the first time would have different vulnerabilities to a well-travelled ethnic minority individual visiting Russia for the first time.
“We need to ensure that the biases we already have and our subjective views based on our own experiences, risk profiles and backgrounds don’t cloud the information and advice we are giving our travellers,” says Roper.
The content and tone of the information provided must balance the needs of all.
Different organisations face different challenges. Jase Keen, EMEA/APJ group manager for
security at software company Citrix, has built a TRM program from scratch in the 18 months since he joined.
Headquartered in the US, Citrix operates around the world and has a host of different cultures from the various companies acquired to grow the business over the past 30 years. His program accommodates the company’s culture, the way its people work and the threats that exist in some of the places where it works.
“The biggest eye-opener to me was discussions with the company’s LGBT+ forum and hearing from them about how they were treated when they got to various places,” he says.
How do you get the balance right between the duty of care and not putting people off business travel?
Culture is important, says David Jovic,
travel security manager at telecommunications company Vodafone. Its TRM program is based on the belief that Vodafone does things right. While policies are balanced with an agile engineering culture, identifying personal risk
is a key driver. Keeping business travellers safe and well makes business sense.
Best practice in travel risk management 2019
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