What is the Purpose of Having a Corporate Travel Security Policy?

Covid-19 is a thing of the past now. Hence, after hitting the pause button on business travel for a couple of years, companies are ready to send travelers back on the road. According to a study by GBTA, 54% of travel managers state that business travel has returned more quickly than expected.  

However, the new generation of business travelers wants to exercise caution before traveling. 84% of business travelers are willing to travel only with proper safety precautions. 

Therefore, it’s time to take actionable steps to honor your duty of care obligations. You can start by creating a corporate travel security policy for employees’ safety before green-lighting business travel in your organization.

Let us understand the meaning and purpose of having corporate travel security policy for your organization. 

What is a Corporate Travel Security Policy?

A corporate travel security policy is a document that defines the guidelines employees and travel managers must follow to ensure travelers’ safety during business trips. 

A comprehensive travel security policy can help your employees feel safe while traveling for work. Hence, you must create a policy that defines employees’ steps to ensure their safety. Moreover, the policy must also address the roles and responsibilities of travel managers in ensuring travelers’ safety.    

Here are a few goals your travel security policy must fulfill:

1. Help the company pre-assess travel risks
2. Help employees take necessary steps to avoid any contingencies during a business trip
3. Provide adequate traveler support during emergencies

Components of a Corporate Travel Security Policy

A corporate travel security policy should contain all the aspects of travel risk management. It should explain all the steps employees must take for safety. For instance, you should ask employees to update their personal information so that travel managers can contact them quickly.  

Moreover, the policy should also mention the company’s steps to keep business travelers out of harm’s way. You should provide complete information about the business travel insurance policy, safe flight and hotel options, data security guidelines, and traveler support contact numbers.    

Following are the components that you can include in the travel security policy as a general rule: 

1. Objective

The objective defines the reasons behind creating the travel security policy. While writing the objective, you must consider the goals to accomplish through the policy. For instance, you might want to lay out a standard travel risk assessment procedure for the company.  

2. Pre-trip Measures

Travel risk management begins way before the business trip. Therefore, your travel security policy should enlist employees’ safety measures before starting their business trips. These measures might include going through the destination country’s Covid-19 guidelines or downloading the mobile app of the company’s travel management solution provider.     

3. Booking Safety Guidelines

A safe trip begins with safe bookings. Hence, your corporate travel security policy must include guidelines to ensure employees book safe flights and hotels. You must provide a list of trusted vendors and manage all travel bookings through a single travel management software.  

4. Traveler Support and Safety Information

Travel support is crucial to ensure employees don’t feel abandoned in an unknown place. Hence, you should provide traveler support and safety information in the travel security policy. You can include the company’s official SOS number and the contact details of a person present on-site. 

5. Post-trip Measures

While traveling to foreign places, your employees might pick up a destination-specific illness that turns out to be contagious. Hence, it is wise to get them adequately tested before they resume working from the office. So, the travel security policy should lay out post-trip health assessment requirements and other safety precautions.

Purpose of Having a Corporate Travel Security Policy

1. To Improve Travel Risk Management

When your employees travel for work, they might encounter some risks such as:

• Political Instability: They might get stuck at a destination facing mass protests, a coup, or general social unrest. 
• Health Threats: They might contract a location-related illness or aggravate old allergies.
• Data Security Theft: They might face a cyber attack that threatens their business and personal data security. 
• Female Travelers’ Safety Concerns: Women traveling for work might encounter incidents of harassment and assault.    

Managing such travel-related risks is the primary responsibility of a travel manager. Hence, they must conduct a thorough risk analysis and enlist all the safety procedures in the corporate travel security policy.  

For instance, they can include links to international Covid guidelines that the employees must refer to before going on business trips. Data security measures, medical recommendations, and valuable tips for female business travelers can also be included.

2. To Prepare Employees for Contingencies

Analyzing travel-related risks and providing safety measures is not enough to combat unfortunate incidents. You must also give your employees adequate training to detect severe threats and take necessary safety steps.

Your corporate travel security policy can incorporate adequate travel safety training measures for the employees. You can also include a travel risk assessment checklist to assess the gaps in their preparedness to travel and design the training module accordingly. 

While training, you can discuss various types of threats like physical, social, and data security. You can also define their resolutions. However, you must emphasize that preventing a dangerous situation is better than reaching the resolution stage. Receiving appropriate training can save employees from accidents and even help avoid a life-and-death situation. 

3. To Ensure Employees Make Safe Bookings

Safe transportation and accommodation are essential for a safe business trip. Therefore, you should ensure that employees don’t neglect the safety aspect while booking flights and hotels. You can do that by creating a list of safe flights and hotels in the corporate travel security policy and mandating the employees to book from them.     

The list should include airlines that clean their aircraft thoroughly between trips. Moreover, the flights should not be prone to frequent last-minute cancellations. Additionally, the hotels should be in a safe location with 24/7 front-desk service and comply with WHO safety guidelines.  

4. To Define Traveler Support Framework

Business travel is full of uncertainties. The employees might get stuck in an emergency while traveling to unfamiliar destinations. Hence, they must have round-the-clock traveler support available. Moreover, they should know who to contact to get help. 

Hence, you should create a sturdy traveler support framework for your business travelers. In the framework, you should include the details of the emergency contact person/ team. Moreover, you can describe the travel insurance plan.  

Afterward, you can incorporate the traveler support framework in the travel security policy document to make it accessible to employees.     

Download Customizable Corporate Travel Security Policy Template For Free

Keeping employees safe during business trips is the company’s responsibility. Hence, you must incorporate the best measures, whether in terms of health, social security, or data security. For that, you need an exhaustive travel security policy. The policy must include steps to be taken before, during, and after the trip.    

Here is a customizable corporate travel security policy template that covers all the aspects of travelers’ safety. You can download the template and use it in your company to enhance business travelers’ safety.  

Implement Corporate Travel Security Policy For Better Employee Safety 

After Covid, your employees might get anxious about going on business trips. However, a corporate travel security policy can help you create a robust system to ensure their safety. Once you have made the right travel security policy that suits your organization, you need travel management software to implement it seamlessly across the organization. 

ITILITE’s integrated travel and expense management software can help you take travelers’ safety to the next level. The platform can help you tag safe airlines and hotels for further usage and red-flag the unsafe options. Moreover, you can track travelers’ locations and get 24/7 traveler support.

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