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The need for a Corporate-Travel-Security-Program, Corporate-Travel-Safety and a Corporate-Travel-Protection-Plan

Fortune 100 companies as well as small and midsize businesses (SME), assuming they do any business outside of their home city or state, need a robust corporate-travel-security-program. Corporations today are doing business more and more on a worldwide basis. You cannot stay competitive without traveling. Given the terrorist and criminal threat around the globe, corporate-travel-safety has become an important component of business planning.

Most companies develop some sort of written policy regarding travel. Employees are required to read and acknowledge by signature that they understand and will adhere to the policy. Many times travel policies are oriented toward financial rules such as the class of airline travel, hotel and expense reimbursements and other fiscal issues. However, there should also be either a separate policy or a section of the travel plan devoted to security.

Corporate-travel-security-planning can be accomplished internally or externally. Many smaller companies outsource their corporate-travel-protection. Larger companies often tend to have direct-hire corporate travel safety officers but also may rely on security travel specialists for implementation and maintenance of corporate-travel-safety.

Managing a corporate-travel-protection-program requires close cooperation with Human Resources (HR). This is particularly true with larger companies. The movements of personnel for enterprises with representation on all five continents requires careful planning to ensure that their corporate-travel-security needs are taken care of appropriately.

There are several things to consider when developing and implementing a corporate-travel-protection-plan:

  • Risk assessment
  • Training and/or briefings
  • Communications
  • Safety and security protocols
  • Hotel selection
  • Emergency notification procedures

The most important component of all is the risk assessment. The security needs employees traveling to London are entirely different from the security needs of someone going to Bujumbura. The corporate-travel-security-plan for London likely does not require too much emphasis on hotel selection or communications.

However, a robust corporate-travel-safety-plan will, at a minimum, have a procedure in place to review the overall threat to workers traveling to so-called safe destinations like London also. Given the terrorist threat today, keeping up-to-date with the latest political developments and government threat warnings is prudent.

Personalizing a corporate security policy and procedure can be difficult. Practically, for example, someone of ethnic Indian origin who speaks the language and understands the culture is less at risk when traveling to Mumbai than an ethnic Northern European who rarely ventures beyond the border of his or her own country. However, it may be impossible and likely prejudicial to choose a corporate travel candidate based solely on ethnicity.

The communications protocols are critical to any corporate-travel-security-program. Keeping track of corporate travelers requires planning. The company has a duty of care to be able to communicate with their employees at all times. For example, there could be a medical or family emergency requiring traveler notification. In the event of a natural disaster, being able to account for your personnel is essential.

Corporate-travel-safety has become an essential element of any company’s security planning. The threats today can affect anyone, anywhere.