Page 32 - ISosFoundation-FERMA-KPMG_Workers on the move 2017

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WORKERS ON THE MOVE: MANAGING NEW RISKS 2017
PINSENT MASONS (United Kingdom)
A robust, new travel risk management programme built from scratch gets complete support from the board
Rosie Mohammad Claire Law
Head of Travel Risk Assistant
Q1 How has the importance of managing health, safety and security risks for your international/cross-border travellers evolved over the last two years?
A: We were certainly aware of our duty of care, but until about three years ago, we did not have a speci c travel risk process in place. Previously, if somebody was travelling to a high-risk country, the business was aware of it because it was tracked through our travel management companies. However, we did not carry out a travel risk assessment. The board was keen to look at this area, but it was not as the result of any incident.
Since then, we have built up a new, robust travel risk management programme from scratch, called our “Travel Safe Programme”. It has complete support from the board, which is very important for making it e ective. As a law rm, we like to have a standardised and streamlined approach, so we collaborated with our
international o ces. We analysed our travel data and found that our international o ces were the ones travelling to more of the high-risk countries. We had to explain to them why we wanted to introduce a standardised process; travel management is at di erent stages in di erent parts of the world. Rosie involved the local head of o ce and o ce managers, which really helped.
The o ce managers in our international o ces manage the local relationship with the our service suppliers and arrange training to our local o ces on ad hoc basis. We also have a set of travel super users, key legal PAs, based in the UK, Australia and Johannesburg. They help us deliver the key messages on travel and travel risk. It is continuous education. You have to keep it alive.
Q2 Towhatextentisthistheresultofchangesto:yourbusinessortoexternalfactors?
A: As the company expands its global reach, travel to higher risk areas is inreasing. Today, anywhere can become high risk; that is the way the world is. We wanted to provide a service, de nitely for people going to areas of high and extreme risk, but also to all our travellers. We have a duty of care and we are concerned about the well-being of our travellers.
Pinsent Masons is a full service international law rm with o ces across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.
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Risk pro le: The rm has more than 3,000 employees. There are approximately 1,800 travellers with about 37,000 trips annually. Most travellers are going to principal cities, but the rm is expanding globally.