Protecting your employees abroad
Did you know that if your employees are going on a business trip, you have a legal and moral need to maintain duty of care?
Even though they’ll be out of the office, this obligation extends beyond the building walls as you’ll need to take all necessary steps to ensure their health and safety, as well as wellbeing.
While this seems easier to manage when everyone is located in-house, there are some approaches to improving duty of care that you should implement when business travel is taking place.
How does duty of care relate to business travel?
Duty of care relates to how companies must ensure an employee’s health, safety and well-being. Not only can this bring benefits to the company through the team member having greater satisfaction and improved mental health, but employers in the UK must adhere to health and safety and employment law which touches on these aspects.
This shouldn’t be forgotten about when an employee embarks on a business trip either, especially as there are many risks which can go overlooked. For business travel specifically, consider the following which are just some of the potential items to note:
- Visiting and driving in unfamiliar places
- Fatigue and jetlag can impair judgements.
- Threats to health in particular areas of the world.
- Natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes
- Working alone in remote places
- Terrorist attacks
Steps to take for protecting your employees abroad
If you’re at the start of your business travel process, or are simply looking for a refresh on the must-do’s, we’ve highlighted some of the main points below.
Pre-travel planning and risk assessments
Ahead of a business trip, there are steps the company needs to take before it can begin. At a minimum, the business must carry out risk assessments for the traveller, provide employees with relevant information and training, as well as having a written policy outlining their approach to health and safety.
While the risks you should include in the risk assessment will vary depending on the travel undertaken, you may need to think about the following:
- Conflict zones, like wars, or locations where risk of civil insurrection, strife or terrorism is evident or high
- Regions where there is risk of disasters, such as earthquakes or flooding
- Regions of high common criminality and violence, including towards foreigners
- Regions of health and medical risk or hazards of food and drink
- Losing travel or identity documents
- Lack of access to resources such as money, food or accommodation
- Illness or medical emergencies during travel
- Unreliable communication infrastructure or communication failure
- Adverse weather conditions
- Inappropriate behaviour such as issues of cultural insensitivity
- Longer-term health issues through excessive travel such as traveller friction
It’s at this point where a pre-travel checklist could be assigned to the traveller which could include aspects like:
Make a note of your passport number and take a photocopy, provide your emergency contact details, make sure your mobile phone can be used abroad and has roaming enabled, familarise yourself with the local culture and etiquette, take more than one type of payment method, ensure your traveller profile is up to date, make a note of the nearest British embassy, and check the latest travel advice provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
You should be providing the traveller with specific destination advice too, as well as ensuring they have any vaccinations that may be required along with insurance.
P.S. We have a mega-guide on the topic of managing business travel risk and duty of care for SMEs which you can read here for full in-depth details.
Supporting employees during business travel
While an employee could be grateful for the opportunity to get out and about and learn more or meet potential new customers, there are aspects which could be daunting or add additional pressure.
Firstly, there’s the stress of travel to account for where a combination of long journeys and early flights (followed by time zone changes) can lead to tiredness and potentially burnout.
Then, there’s typically limited access to healthy food options during business travel as the employee will likely be living out of a hotel room until the travel period is complete, while also upping their exposure to health risks and blurred work-life boundaries too.
In a study, “45% of people interviewed reported increased stress during international trips. A further 31% said they experienced emotional exhaustion on a weekly basis…” A quarter of the interviewees said it exacerbated existing mental health issues too, such as anxiety and depression.
To avoid this from happening, there should be ongoing support for that employee throughout the duration of their travel. If they are working in isolation or handling major projects, check-ins throughout the day would be beneficial and reinforce to the employee that they can call the office with any questions as and when they need.
Sometimes, teams fall into the trap of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ which isn’t helpful to the traveller in any way.
You should also be open to working hours being adjusted if needed, while making sure breaks are being taken throughout the working day. Some other simple ways to help employees while they’re on a business trip include:
- Create an environment where employees know they can speak up about any concerns
- Regularly check-in with the traveller, so they know they’re not alone
- Adjust the working day and expectations, as productivity can look different when travelling
- Avoid scheduling early morning starts after late arrivals or evening events
- Allow expenses like taxis, meals, or other safer transport
Going beyond these elements, the company must know where the travellers are when they’re travelling on company business. If you’re working with a travel management company, you’ll likely be able to utilise their traveller tracking software (if they have one, like us here at Good Business Travel) to make sure you have data in real time.
Post-trip follow-ups between employee and business
Even when everything goes as planned and no crisis management has had to take place, the support shouldn’t stop there. When the employee returns to work, the company should first expect time for recovery if there has been long travel included.
Account for jet lag and fatigue by offering flexible hours or a few days of a lighter workload, while they get back into action. The team member should be encouraged to rest too, while re-establishing normal work patterns and corporate boundaries.
Once they’re settled, but within the same week of their return, a post-trip survey should be completed and a check-in to take place either by their manager or HR. During this step, both the physical and mental wellbeing should be asked about and feedback gained about what worked well and what didn’t.
When an employee knows they can provide an honest account, it’ll help capture any potential issues so these can be rectified ahead of the next person going on a trip. Some possible questions to ask are:
- How are you feeling after the trip?
- Did the business trip negatively affect your physical or mental health?
- Do you feel like you’ve had enough rest during the trip and following?
- Was the travel schedule manageable?
- Did you feel safe throughout the period?
- Did you know who to contact in an emergency?
- Is there anything that caused stress or anxiety on the trip?
- Are there any risks that weren’t highlighted or concerns we should follow up on?
How to make business travel and employee care more seamless
If all of the above sounds overwhelming or time-consuming to introduce, then think about partnering with a travel management company.
At Good Business Travel, we are experts in business travel and can make your corporate commitments a smooth process as we tailor your trips from start to finish. We don’t just view business travel as moving from point A to B, but see it as ensuring that when you reach your destination, you’re at your best and ready to take on challenges and meet clients.
We also employ the latest technology to make travel management as efficient as possible, meaning you don’t have to handle and learn to tackle multiple systems for one trip. We already have it covered.
To help your business travel get a whole lot easier, reach out to us here and we’ll handle the rest.