5 Tips for Keeping Your Employees Safe While Travelling

Travelling can be an enjoyable adventure, but it also comes with various risks. That’s why employers need to ensure the safety of their employees as they travel.

Fortunately, there are several ways an employer can reduce the risk occurrences and also save costs in the long run. This is a great way to ensure business continuity and productivity since employees feel safe and valued. Here is what to do to ensure employee safety during a trip.

Set Travel Policies

Every organization needs to have a sound system with travel policies that employees need to adhere to. You can introduce a central travel booking system that allows you to monitor the entire process during the trip. This will help you identify any red flags that might occur in the course of travel.

Once you create the travel policy on how to keep employees safe on business travel, ensure you educate your employees about it. Let them adhere to it anytime they travel. Nobody will know of their whereabouts during the trip if they fail to comply with the travel policy.

Implement Security Intelligence

Whether your employees plan to travel locally or internationally, you need to ensure that you set high-security measures based on the location they will be traveling. In this case, you need to implement a live intelligence monitoring system from a credible source.

If your employees plan to visit another country with high-security risks, ensure you only approve the travel when you are sure of your employees’ safety. For effective results, you can let your employees download an app that they can check-in within the specified timings to confirm that they are safe. You’d instead take precautions and ensure that your employees are safe rather than assuming the process.

Do a Travel Risk Assessment

Once you determine your employee’s travel destination, you need to assess and evaluate the associated risks based on the gender of the employee, the age, and past traveling experience.

Also, determine the familiarity of the employee with the country and ask the employee relevant questions. For instance, find out how well the person understands the location they’d like to visit and whether they speak the country’s local dialect.

Assess the crime rates, terrorism, kidnapping incidences you may have heard of, and the cultural differences. The assessment results will help you know what advice to give to the employee.

If the employee is conversant with the area, it becomes easy for them to associate with the locals. However, it may be challenging to let your employees travel to a place they hardly know.

Train Your Employees on Travel Safety

Educating your employees on safety measures should be a priority, especially when visiting high-risk locations. Once you access the risks, use the analysis to inform your employees about various risks and take mitigation measures.

It would be best to teach your employees how to react when faced with unfavorable situations, the areas they should try and avoid, and where they can walk freely.

Let your employees know the best hotel destinations with fewer risks and which transportation mode they should use. Sometimes, your employees may need a local escort who speaks the local dialect or work with a local security team for close protection.

Set Channels to Raise a Distress Call

Sometimes, no matter how well you take safety measures into account, things can still go wrong along the way. In this case, employees should be able to reach out to you within the shortest time possible.

That’s why mobile apps come in handy. Ensure each employee installs the app and train them to raise the alarm should anything happen to them. They can still use the app to confirm their safety after the issue is mitigated.

The Bottom Line

Taking measures in advance is the best way to ensure that your employees keep safe during the trip. The tips above will help you plan a practical employee trip that will give you peace of mind no matter where your employees go.