Travel security risk management involves all organization stakeholders in the assessment of potential risks to travellers and mitigation of risks for their safety.
Travel Security Risk Management Preparation
Preparation for the management of travel security will involve asking organization stakeholders a number of questions in order to assess travel risks and then to formulate a plan. Involved are:
- Determining the risks to organization personnel in all areas where they work or may be tasked to travel to for work. Risks can be in the areas of health, environmental, natural disaster, or security.
- When travel is involved, do organization personnel have access to security and health information for work destinations at the country level and down to city area risks? It isn’t enough to set this information out, it must be constantly monitored and updated based on developing information in other countries.
- Are detailed written policies for travel security risk available to all personnel globally. This policy should set out risks and actions to protect all involved including:
- domestic employees
- international employees
- subsidiaries
- subcontractors
- when and how dependents will be included
- Does the security management policy should cover procedures for short term trips, longer term assignments, and off-duty leisure activities?
- Are there clear assignments of responsibilities by role for travel security risk management, and these assignments should become part of the appropriate job descriptions?
- The COVID pandemic brought out shortcomings in many travel security programs, so does every plan address travel risks related to pandemics globally.
Once these preparation steps are complete, the organization can move forward with a prevention measures plan.
Travel Risk Prevention
A well-crafted risk prevention plan will involve not only mitigation actions, but also managing these actions based on travel destination.
Procedures and Policies
- There should be a process in place for assessing risks based on destination before approval of organizational travel.
- Clear guidelines should set out how security or health risks will be handled in response to an incident. The security plan should have an assessment of availability and quality of local medical care. The same should be outlined for destination local emergency services and first responders.
- Clear policy instructions as to travel conveyances, flights or ground, should be set out and followed by all travellers. A hotels or other accomodations policy will have risk assessments for local accomodations and instructions for travellers as to selection of accomodations.
- Every organization employee or subcontractor should have regular fitness medical examinations and certification of their health suitability for travel. This includes an assessment of their ability to perform assigned tasks and that their destination poses no significant risk to their health or that of any dependents travelling with them.
- There should be procedures in place to check the health of personnel returning from global travel.
- Guidelines for how to react to health issues during travel should be in place and set out in travel packets specific to destination.
Training and Communication
Training for risk avoidance should be specific to destination at both a country and local level. Regular assessment of the training policies and procedures is important, so monitoring of common destinations for changes in risk is necessary. At the time of this writing, are COVID-19 policies in place? Along that line, there should be information and training as to actions during future pandemic threats.
As concerns communications, the organization should have the ability to locate their personnel at all times. This includes at the least, current mobile phone numbers. If not company phones, policies must be in place to instruct personnel in reporting changes in their personal mobile phone numbers.
Systems should be in place to allow managers to quickly locate and inform their personnel in the case of a threat or health emergency. Do your personnel have access to clear instructions as to communication with the organization during an emergency situation. Personnel should have round-the-clock access to support when travelling both locally and globally.
Travel Security Program Compliance
It is crucial to the safety of all involved to have a system in place to assure compliance with the travel security policies and procedures. All training activities should be documented with updated training for any changes or new threats. All travel assignments and health evaluations should be documented. This includes who authorizes and assigns travel in each instance. Ensuring that personnel are complying with the policies is enforced through regular reminders, training, audits, and disciplinary action.
Conclusion
Travel security has never been more important, as global risk has increased in recent years. From pandemic risk to terrorism, organization personnel must be protected through implementation of travel security risk planning and procedures. Mitch Price brings travel security expertise to Kimmons Investigative Services, having managed programs for two Fortune 150 companies. For more information or answers to your questions, send in this form and we’ll get back to you quickly.