We will follow Umbrella Ltd’s Security Manager John as he is preparing a traveler who’s about to travel to a high-risk country. Due to the recent events where a competitor of Umbrella Ltd was fined for a breach in their Duty of care, Umbrella Ltd has strengthened its Travel Risk Management Policy. They have implemented procedures around pre-trip information, travel itineraries, relevant advice for high-risk destinations, and training material. The intent is to increase their efforts for proactive work within People Risk Management.
Introducción
Diana works in Business Development for Emerging Markets at Umbrella Ltd. In three weeks, she is traveling to Libya to set up an upcoming market entry project. Hence, when security manager John arrives at the office at 8:30 AM, he received a Risk trip warning email regarding Diana and her trip. It is a daily email subscription compiling the latest information specifically about new high-risk travel bookings, that has been added to the Safeture Platform by a Travel Management Company (TMC). It tells him that a travel booking has been made for Diana who is scheduled to travel to a destination that is classified as High in terms of country risk level.
Challenge
John is responsible for evaluating and approving travel to high-risk countries from a security perspective. Thus, he needs to check destination risks, travel means, accommodations, and medical conditions to ensure that all aspects are compliant with the company’s Travel Risk Management Policy.
Solution
To ensure that it is safe for Diana to go on this trip, John enters the Safeture Platform, goes to the Travel data module, and clicks on “Bookings overview.” Diana’s upcoming travel is presented to him, including information about the flights and her contact information. John is also presented with Diana’s planned accommodation information, including address and duration. In the Security Overview module, John clicks on Libya and finds that the most serious risk categories are:
- Civil unrest
- Infrastructure and Transport
- Insurgency and Armed Conflict
- Political stability
- Terrorism
He continues his evaluation by going to the Información del País module and checking that the most distinctive risks do not contradict the company’s policy. John identifies occasional inconsistencies. To manage these, he enforces additional travel services. Firstly, a meet-and-greet is arranged for when Diana arrives at the airport in Libya. Secondly, she is assigned a Security Detail for the entirety of the trip as road travel
within the country has been proven to be dangerous. When noting that there are no more contradictions, he decides to approve Diana’s trip.
In addition to John’s preparatory work, he initiates a dialogue with Diana as a precautionary action for her upcoming travel. It is of great importance that a traveler is as knowledgeable and equipped as possible for any unexpected situations. Therefore, he prompts her to familiarize herself with the Safeture Mobile Application if anything unexpected were to happen during her travels, she would then know how to navigate the app. For example, she could:
- Open the Safeture app
- Click on the globe icon
- Then the risk tab (figure 1)
- Read up on Libya’s country information
He also informs Diana that if she would like to immerse herself in the meanings of the risk categories, she can read the definitions under “Risk Definitions” (figure 2). She also has the possibility to check the safety of her hotel by going to Providers (figure 3), then the accommodation tab.
Part of John’s dialogue with Diana is to discuss privacy settings in the app and encourage her to share her location data, as it can have a vital impact on how much they can help her in potentially dangerous situations.
John also wants to have a dialogue about education around traveling to high-risk destinations, like Libya. He emphasizes that he is well-aware that Diana has traveled to these kind of destinations before,
but stresses the importance of following the updated Travel Risk Management Policy as a step in improving the company’s proactiveness. Therefore, he opens the platform in the Web Portal, enters the Users module, clicks on “Manage” E-learning and sends Diana an invitation to the e-learning courses. Diana conducts all courses in the mobile app and passes all associated tests. As a final preparation, 48 hours before departure, Diana receives an automated pre-trip email that summarizes her travel based on her travel itinerary.
Outcome
Although a few minor hazards occurred during the trip to Libya, both John and Diana were well equipped for handling them, and Diana could perform her work duties as planned. John came to the conclusion that having all information and all necessary arrangements in place prior to the trip, created much better conditions for handling unexpected situations.
In the efforts to further develop Umbrella Ltd’s security processes for the pre-trip phases, John could see a clear improvement after Diana got back from Libya.
In his evaluation, he concluded that the company now had a higher level of preparedness due to pre-trip advancements in for example:
- Distribution of pre-trip information
- Enhanced usage of travel itineraries
- Advisory processes around high-risk destinations
- Training materials for business travelers
- Automating pre-trip emails
Interested in learning more about how Safeture supports pre-trip preparations?
