BUSINESS RESILIENCE TRENDS WATCH 2019 REVEALS RISK MANAGEMENT IS OUT OF STEP WITH THE NEEDS OF THE MODERN WORKFORCE

The latest edition of the award-winning ‘TRAVEL RISK MAP’ for 2019 has been launched today. Produced by International SOS and Control Risks, two of the world’s leading risk specialists, it reveals the latest medical and security risk ratings of destinations worldwide.

Alongside the Travel Risk Map, the Ipsos MORI ‘Business Resilience Trends Watch 2019’, shows that a significant number of business decision-makers expect travel risks to rise next year. However, this demonstrates a decrease year on year for the past three years:

• 47% say travel risks have increased over the past year. A drop of 16 percentage points (pp) from last year. Down from 63% from last year and 72% the year before.
• 45% say that risks have stayed the same over the last year (2018), an increase of 14 pp from last year (31%) and up from 24% the year before.
• 43% expect travel risks to increase in 2019. Down from 52% predicting risk increase in 2018 and 57% in 2017.

Sally Napper, Security Specialist at International SOS and Control Risks commented: “Almost half of decision makers believe that travel risks will increase next year. Our research reveals that the evolving travel habits of the modern workforce are being overlooked by many organisations. Ensuring policies stay relevant to the needs of a modern workforce helps to keep your people safer and better informed, and also demonstrates the continuing importance of adaptive risk management programmes - and could help win board approval and support for other initiatives.”

Organisations struggle to keep up with modern workforce needs

While employees’ demands and expectations are constantly evolving, the survey finds that travel policies are not keeping up with the changing needs of a modern workforce:

• Only a third (33%) of organisations cover cyber security in their travel policy
• Just over a quarter (26%) cover considerations for female travellers
• 18% cover bleisure travel and 14% shared economy service
• Considerations for travellers with disabilities or mental health issues are covered by 10% and 11% of travel policies respectively
• Considerations for LGBTQ travellers are covered by just 9% of travel policies

Dr Doug Quarry, Group Medical Director, Information and Analysis, at International SOS added: “Assessment of travel health and safety must look at the individual. It’s not just about the destination – the personal profile of the traveller, including gender, age, sexual orientation, and mental health status, can change the risks they will face. Businesses that focus on ensuring their travel policies reflect a modern workforce will better meet their Duty of Care and sustainability.”

Challenges facing organisations in protecting their mobile workforce:

As in the previous ‘Business Resilience Trends Watch’ research, educating employees about travel risks (63%) has remained the greatest challenge for ensuring the safety of travellers and has become an increasing issue, up by 10pp. This is followed by:

• Confirming with employees that they have read pre-travel information (44%)
• Tracking employee travel (42%)
• Communicating with employees during a crisis (42%)
• Having adequate resources to manage health and security efforts (40%)

Actions being undertaken by organisations to protect their mobile workforce:

Including a travel risk assessment in the travel approval process is the most common response to health and security concerns over the past year, selected by 42% of respondents. The next most popular responses include:

• Implemented travel safety training and security training (39%)
• Introducing pre-trip and during trip advisory emails (38%)
• Updated travel risk policy (excluding diversity related issues) (36%)
• Monitor and analyse type and quantity of health and security incidents (29%)
• Implemented programmes to locate travellers (29%)
• Provided annual health check-up’s (28%)

Dr Quarry, continued: “Education and training are essential to reduce travel-related risk. It is surprising that we are still seeing less than half of organisations taking these basic steps to satisfy their Duty of Care. These programmes increase the chances that employees’ assignments will run smoothly – safeguarding the employee and also the business investment involved in the travel.”

Opportunities to build future resilience - what businesses could be doing more:

Alongside not covering key points like mental health and diversity issues in their travel policy, there are other things that few businesses are currently doing:

• Only 9% updated their company sustainability programme to include their travel risk programme
• Only 11% monitored the number of road traffic accidents
• Only 21% implemented a programme for people to understand their existing health issues while away on business

To embed the Travel Risk Map, click here, and to download the Business Resilience Trends Watch 2019 infographic, click here.

The Travel Risk Map and Business Resilience Trends Watch 2019 will be presented in webinars around the world.  To register, click here.