Understanding the impact of business travel risks for your clients

In today's globalised business environment, business travellers can face an increasingly complex landscape of travel risks, from accidents and fraud to kidnappings and terrorist attacks. These risks highlight the importance of effective risk management, preparation for business travel and the security measures that companies and business travellers should take to make sure employees are safe when travelling.

What are the main challenges to managing travel risks?

• Medical fitness and disclosure challenges - employers have a duty of care to make sure that employees are fit to undertake travel for work. However, privacy laws and ethical considerations make it difficult to mandate medical disclosures and problematic for companies to hold medical data. Businesses often use independent medical providers to encourage employees to seek advice about their own fitness to travel or general medical support. This can bring its own challenges if the company isn't aware of any concerns regarding an employee's fitness to travel.
• Personal activities during business trips - today’s business travellers often blend business duties with personal activities, a trend known as ‘bleisure’. While embracing ‘bleisure’ can be a valuable tool for recruitment and retention, it raises the challenge of employees engaging in personal activities outside of business obligations, exposing themselves to risks not covered by corporate insurance policies.
• Coordination between medical providers and insurers - medical evacuations and repatriations require detailed coordination between medical providers and the business travel insurance policy. Disputes over coverage responsibilities can lead to delays, financial burdens and reputational risks for companies. Employers can mitigate such risks by making sure that all international assignments include predefined medical evacuation protocols, with written agreements with emergency medical providers in place.

To help protect your clients’ companies and keep their employees safe, businesses should have a travel risk management plan. This includes checking medical and safety conditions and having clear guidelines around medical evacuation protocols. If they don't, it could lead to costly insurance claims and hurt the company's reputation and employee trust in travel policies.

The ISO 31030 Travel Risk Management (TRM) Standard provides a best practice framework for businesses to evaluate and manage their work-related travel risks effectively. It encompasses policy development, program implementation, threat identification, risk monitoring and prevention strategies.

We're pleased to offer a free Travel Risk Management Maturity Model Self-Assessment, powered by our Specialist Partner, GSA Global. This self-assessment provides an overall summary of how a business is performing against the ISO Standard. Investing time to make sure that travel management policies and procedures meet the best practice criteria in the ISO 31030 framework can help offer solutions before problems occur.

GSA Global can provide additional services and independent travel risk assessments and audits for organisations of all sizes. These solutions are available to Aviva customers at preferential rates - find out more.

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