So, you’re off on another business trip overseas. The excitement is building. You have your Passport to hand. Not to mention a company credit card offering plenty of scope for settling those necessary expenses, and the salivating prospect of starting a business relationship that, potentially at least, could earn you a large contract and some Brownie points with the Board.
You’ll be home in time to see the family at the weekend, too. Everything’s looking great. Or is it?
Stop and think for a minute. With pressure to perform in the workplace increasing all the while and schedules ever busier, maximising your time necessarily means focusing on the business rather than thinking about yourself. How much genuine planning and preparation have you made for your trip? What’s going to happen if something should go wrong when you’re abroad?
Your immediate response if faced by danger or a threat of some kind might be to phone the company. Help will be at hand, but how prepared is your Department or the organisation as a whole for dealing with an emergency that’s being played out overseas?
Responsibility rests on the business’ shoulders
While it’s only too easy to trot out the provisions laid down by the new Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, there’s now a very real responsibility resting on businesses’ shoulders in terms of them looking after their employees. Sadly, the good management and welfare argument of investing in the safety and security of people never impresses the finance director. A couple of years behind bars for members of the Board shouldn’t do, either, but that’s now the reality if a reasonable Duty of Care towards staff sent abroad to work cannot be proven.
Despite the economic gloom surrounding us all just now, travelling on business is an activity that will continue. It has to. So many companies are heavily (or even totally) reliant upon overseas markets for their place in the global economy. Travel’s an essential element of business. Today, there’s no part of the globe that someone will not travel to in order to ‘seal the deal’.
Many seasoned business people have been travelling all over the globe for years, and are highly experienced in dealing with the types of problem that can arise. However, several thousand business travellers questioned by ourselves as part of a recent survey in response to a course we’ve been developing showed a distinct lack of knowledge in terms of what their companies will do to protect them when on foreign shores.
As to how they might look after themselves in a crisis, many of the interviewees were not quite as confident as they first thought. Humans have a natural survival instinct within them which, more often than not, translates into: “It will never happen to me. Oh no”…
What can go wrong? In the past, I’ve commanded senior posts in the Royal Military Police and gained extensive background knowledge of counter-terrorism, close protection and investigations. I’ve also been deployed in such places as the Middle East and Africa. Not only that, I commanded the Royal Military Police Close Protection Unit during the critical years from 2001-2003 following the 9/11 attacks, the intervention in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. In short, I’ve learned a thing or two about what can go wrong!
Four main areas of risk
There are probably four main areas of risk for the corporate business traveller:
The first three of these risk areas are probably prevalent in almost any country in the world. The last is something of a rarity, but it’s likely you’ll feel the full effects of a disaster if you don’t bother to research where you’re going. While the survival instinct still kicks in as normal, sad stories – such as the honeymooning couple recently murdered in Antigua – bring the extreme threat of travelling abroad to the fore.
These risks demand to be considered at two levels. The first of these is the business level. What steps has your employer taken to mitigate those risks as much as possible? The second is at the individual level. Does the traveller have the necessary knowledge that allows him or her to deal with the unexpected?
At a business level there’s no common standard that applies to advising on how to protect travelling employees. It appears that only the really big corporate businesses – who may have 5,000 people ‘in the air’ at any given time, and boast a Corporate Security Department – possess good internal travel security and booking procedures. Many other large and smaller companies without benefit of such structures (and who rely on people training) need to consider how best to protect their members of staff.
Larger corporates will usually have in place a travel security system linked into an agent who satisfies all of their travel requirements. These systems can ‘track’ travellers by having all travel information booked by the agent cued across to a central database. Key personnel in the business are then able to see who is travelling where, when, on what flights and in which hotels they’re staying. Most systems, though, are passive in nature. It’s the Next Generation of solutions that will probably incorporate live or real time tracking for key personnel.
The technology already exists to do this, of course, thanks to GPS systems, mobile telephones and the seemingly ubiquitous Blackberry. Not great news for the salesman who has told you he’s in a “deep and heavy meeting” when you can decipher only too well that he’s on the golf course. Really and truthfully it’s how to monitor the information generated that’s the contentious issue.
Live alerts from systems of the future
The ability to send live alerts as incidents occur is going to be another facet of future systems. Again, such SMS messaging already exists, but often the information will be limited. ‘Bomb in Islamabad’ may be enough to invite a business traveller to switch in CNN or BBC News Worldwide to see what’s happening, but the next step is to give clear, tailored advice direct to the individual.
Businesses that don’t harbour such systems but still have significant numbers of people travelling may not be able to afford them. Some may not even have thought about whether they need to look after their members of staff and, therefore, might not have begun to consider how best they could achieve this end goal in a different way.
For most businesses, though, you don’t need an expensive tracking system to monitor where people are going. The key to it all is having some sound and solid procedures in place that are not overly bureaucratic but at the same time sufficient to ensure effective control. Having a central point where all travel is booked, and putting in place straightforward policies for travelling to higher risk countries are often the bare minimum requirements.
Quite a few companies maintain a standard and simple list of countries split into three risk categories – high, medium and low. The high risk countries would require Board level sign-off before a trip can commence. A medium risk country may need senior management sign-off while low risk environments would demand the attentions of line management only. In this way, effective control is maintained while ensuring that the business need is confirmed.
Individuals who buck the trend
Where this can go wrong is when individuals decide to buck the system. A recent incident involved two executives who were chasing down a deal in a central African nation that, at the time, wasn’t particularly stable. They had been told they couldn’t travel as the business need wasn’t at all commensurate with the risk. Undaunted, the executives booked their flights without using the central system and off they went.
Unfortunately, no sooner had they arrived at the hotel than a small coup took place. Somewhat sheepishly, the executives phoned home and spoke to the duty security manager who, on looking at the travel tracking system, had no record of their trip. They were told in no uncertain times just to sit tight in their hotel until the local country security manager could reach them. Two days later they were back on an aeroplane to the UK… and looking for new jobs from the moment they hit the runway.
Businesses also need to consider having in place a crisis management plan such that they can deal with any incidents occurring overseas. For some smaller SMEs this may appear to be a whole lot of work for little gain, but in truth the best plans are simple and need only be a few pages long. It’s all about thinking ahead and having information and/or services in place that can be called upon for assistance.
An understanding of medical repatriation
One of the most likely scenarios is an employee being taken ill or having an accident in a country or region where the local medical support isn’t quite the same as that which we enjoy here in the UK. Having an understanding of how – and who – can deliver medical repatriation worldwide will alleviate this. Indeed, there are several companies – including Aeromed365 – that offer such services to the client.
Other aspects of a crisis management plan need to consider evacuation from a country when something goes wrong. Remember the situation that occurred in the Lebanon back in 2006 – when the Israeli army invaded to take up arms with Hezbollah – triggered an international evacuation?
If you’re a British Passport holder then count yourself lucky. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has rehearsed procedures in place to evacuate British nationals from volatile areas, but it would help if you let them know you’re ‘in country’.
The FCO’s LOCATE system is available for travelling Brits to use. By logging on and entering your details, British Embassies and High Commissions are able to find out how many British citizens are in a given location at any particular time. However, many businesses’ employee list includes nationals from several countries. Do you know what support each country can offer your employees? It’s not great for morale if you’re heading off back to Blighty in a Royal Navy warship with your non-British colleagues left stranded on the quayside.
What about individual responsibility in this process? Do you know the outline of your company’s crisis management plan? What insurance and medical repatriation schemes are in place? What specific travel security advice and/or training is available? Perhaps now is the time to start asking these questions. Equally, individuals need to prepare themselves for their journey abroad. Planning and preparation is key to a safer trip.
Understanding the nature, background and political situation pertaining in the country which you plan to visit is a great starting point. To this end, the FCO’s web site offers advice for worldwide travellers and, while it’s often cautious and rather lacking in specifics, it’s the benchmark most travellers should and do use.
Think through the trip before travelling
Think ahead, and think through your trip before you go. Discuss this with your PA or whomever makes your travel arrangements, and ensure they know how to help you should you need to call for assistance. Seemingly simple things like checking whether or not your mobile phone will work in the country you are travelling to and keeping a photocopy of your Passport’s back pages both with you and in the office are good tips.
Decide how you’re going to travel from the airport to the hotel. Are taxis safe, or is it best to arrange for a pick-up courtesy of the hotel’s shuttle bus service?
Think about the time of day you’re going to be arriving as well. Another recent incident involved two more executives who touched down in a South American country at gone midnight. While walking from the airport terminal to the hire car compound they were robbed at gunpoint. Sensibly, they complied with the robbers’ demands and, although they lost their laptops, money and not a little pride, they lived to tell the tale. Incidentally, it’s worth pointing out here that the majority of armed robberies do not in fact end in bloodshed, but would it not have been better if they’d arrived in daylight hours and arranged for a pick up?
With some short and focused training from specialist providers, your confidence in being able to deal with a crisis when away from home will be increased.
No employees, no business
In essence, we want to make today’s business leaders in the UK think about the myriad issues surrounding safe business travel, their responsibilities and whether or not they currently have the right plans and procedures in place to protect their most important assets – their employees. Without them, they don’t have a business.
It’s high time the majority of companies small, medium and large in scope stepped up to the mark and took protection of their staff who travel overseas a little more seriously. Basic training could prevent robberies and asset loss, provide peace of mind and, maybe, even protect lives. It has been said many times before, but still holds true. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Simon Dorset is director of business development at the Pilgrims Group
