Learn how to navigate evolving travel risks, leverage travel management companies and build effective risk policies for your corporate travel risk management programme.
Business travel today faces a complex array of risks, from geopolitical instability and airspace closure to natural disasters and extreme weather. For travel managers and corporate bookers, evaluating these risks and ensuring traveller wellbeing can be challenging. Reed & Mackay Global Operational Director Tony Peckham shares expert insights on the critical questions businesses should ask to strengthen their travel risk management strategies.
Why you need a company-wide travel risk assessment
Modern travel risk policies must go beyond traditional health concerns like malaria or typhoid. With increasing weather disruptions and volatile destinations, companies must integrate comprehensive risk evaluations into their travel policies. A proactive approach ensures employee safety and business continuity.
How travel management companies (TMCs) enhance risk management
TMCs play a vital role in corporate travel safety by offering centralised risk alerts and real-time updates, providing peace of mind pre, during and post trips. Reed & Mackay’s Incident Management Unit provides clients with early warnings. TMCs track itineraries, monitor weather disruptions and issue alerts before risks escalate.
Top questions to include in your travel risk assessment
- Do you know your employees’ locations during emergencies?
- Are your information sources providing real-time external risk alerts?
- Can you respond quickly to incidents affecting travelling employees?
- Is 24/7 communication available for traveller safety and health concerns?
- Does your TMC have accurate contact details and rapid response capabilities?
- Can your TMC arrange specialist travel through trusted partners?
Partnering with special risk management partners
What’s important to remember is a TMC isn’t a travel risk management company; specialist partners that assess extreme risks are needed.
Always ensure your TMC is working with trusted risk management partners. Here, we work with WorldAware (part of Crisis24), with International SOS and with Healix, a company that offers a medically trained professional view.
A question we’re seeing more of is what should happen during the closure of an office in a ‘risk’ zone and the repatriation of staff. While Reed & Mackay can assist the client with onward travel, the actual repatriation from the ‘risk’ zone itself falls within the specialist capability of a risk management company, who would have the requisite expertise to handle such matters. So whatever the client is looking for, we have the specialist risk management contacts to recommend our clients partner with.
Advice for travel to unfamiliar or remote destinations
Conduct thorough due diligence when sending employees to locations without a company presence, as there’s both the health and safety elements to consider. If the business has people on the ground of where the travellers are going, ensure you ask for their advice.
Nevertheless, if a corporate traveller is going to visit a client in a destination they don’t know much about, it can be difficult to ask their client directly about the risk. That’s where a TMC, and the risk management partners it works with, can guide you.
Additional considerations for female business travellers
Assessing accommodation female travellers will be staying in is particularly important. Check the destination of the hotel and its surroundings. Ensuring the safety of female travellers should be high up on the agenda. Companies need to do their due diligence and recognise this as part of its duty of care towards its travellers.
And ask your TMC for guidance with risk assessments. For example, if there isn’t a company car to collect you from the airport or between meetings, there are car suppliers we recommend that send the traveller a driver’s photo before they depart, so they know who they’re travelling with. Working with our partners, we can advise if something is suitable for a traveller.
Effective travel risk management requires a combination of proactive planning, reliable partnerships and real-time intelligence. By asking the right questions and leveraging the expertise of TMCs and risk specialists, businesses can safeguard their travellers and maintain operational resilience.
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