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TRAVEL RISK MANAGEMENT 2015
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We raise our travellers’ awareness so they know the procedures and solutions, who to contact and how and when to do so. Having all of this clearly documented and made accessible is important, and we use our intranet site, newsletters and alerts on the home page of our intranet site when the need arises. We make it clear that there is access to guidance on line and if helpful by email or telephone. Travellers also have a travel card with 24/7 emergency numbers for health and security issues. A brochure supports this with details of everything that should be done before and during travel both as an individual and where an individual has responsibility for others. A third party specialist provider acts as a clearing house for emergency calls, some go direct to our medical emergency service or security advisers and others may come to members of the operational risk team. Real emergencies are rare, but we are prepared when they do happen.
If someone is going to a very high risk area, he or she may have a movement reporting protocol, letting us know when they are leaving their hotel and when they have arrived at the meeting venue, for example. If we don’t get that report, then we might push the button to start the response procedures.
In terms of challenges, it is knowing where everyone is. Because of the nature of the partnership, we do not have centralised travel booking for all, although the largest travel agent has a sophisticated risk management system and protocol which the operational risk team and the irm's travel team link into. This system lets us know if someone is planning to go to higher risk location, where we might wish to step in to ofer advice. We are currently looking at a system that would allow us to get a better grasp on where everyone is and encourage people to use it. The issue is proportionality of monitoring.
In general, our people are risk aware, and the lawyers who go to higher risk areas are sensitive to risk, not just for themselves but also for the people in their care.
Q5 Can you give us an example where your organisation had to deal with a Travel Risk Management issue? How did you handle it? What lessons did you learn from it?
We have had to deal with a number of travel risk issues, such as the Iceland ash cloud in 2010 and the outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa that started in 2014. With the Ebola outbreak, we evoked our communication response, brought in additional support from our emergency response consultants and updated our pandemic plan. We took advice from a number of sources, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and issued alerts for travellers on our intranet home page. We found this
worked better than sending too many emails which can get overlooked. People did call and ask for advice, and from the feedback we received, we believe that the advice was informed, sensible and proportionate and will encourage "repeat business" for the team.
Q6 What good practices would you would share with a risk manager starting the process in his/her organisation and what advice would you give?
Assess your risks and tailor your solutions – it is unlikely that one solution will it all needs. This not only ensures that your response is it for purpose but also cost efective. Check out what value added solutions you might have available without additional cost as part of your insurance arrangements.
Practice your response plans. Rehearsal is invaluable. You ind the weakness in your procedures, but nobody gets hurt.
Also, look at aggregate people risks - travel, liability and beneits - if you have teams or groups going to the same destination, especially if they are using the same means of travel. Insurance will not bring back key people, however, and essentially this should be risk assessed irst and a policy established and implemented for travel risk for aggregation Restrictions in life assurance and other covers my apply if governments have recommended restrictions in travel - risk managers need to be alert to this.
Q7 How do you justify to your senior executives that Travel Risk Management programmes are a worthwhile investment on short and long term issues?
It is not an issue, when we need to get bespoke advice, which is an extra expense, where this is justiiable and relevant. We have a central Travel Risk Management budget and on occasion, the cost might be part of the costs incurred by clients. However, at the end of the day, whatever is needed to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our people, comes irst.