Duty of Care for Domestic Business Travel

2024 is proving to be a year of resetting, redefining and reestablishing numerous components to business travel programs. The safety and security of your travelers is paramount to your organization and to Travel Incorporated.

The trend, however, is becoming much more focused on the inclusion of domestic safety protocols as opposed to a prior conception that Duty of Care was primarily for international travel support.

In this issue of TI Insights, we explore the benefits of expanding your Duty of Care program, including options for technology, tools and services that can be incorporated for your consideration.

Emergencies can happen anywhere and at any time. While it may appear to be more complicated or challenging when your traveler is in a foreign country, the possibility of your employees being impacted by a force outside of their control while traveling domestically should be not only expected, but well planned for.

In the first two months of 2024, within the United States we have seen aircraft malfunctions, hotel explosions, domestic terrorist and firearm mass casualties, train and subway derailments, union strikes and a significant increase in natural weather disasters all of which impact business travel.

Traveler Well-being, Retention and Morale

Having a traveler-first approach to duty of care ensures the traveler’s well-being whether they experience an accident, illness or personal emergency. It is important as you review your Duty of Care program, that your travelers are provided with easy access and clear steps and procedures for communicating a medical event as well as the company process for payment authorization and reimbursement of expenses incurred.

Companies with a foundational Duty of Care program have identified their employees are more likely to feel valued and supported by their employer as they know their safety and well-being is being taken seriously, contributing to higher employee morale and retention rates.

Corporate Obligation and Reputation Management

The legal obligation for employers to provide a safe working environment for their employees carries over to when their employees travel for business purposes. A failure to provide clear guidelines and mechanisms to proactively identify impacted employees as well as to provide easy and accessible communication can result in legal liabilities for a company if the employee faces harm during their trip.

By demonstrating a commitment to duty of care, your business exemplifies your prioritization of the safety and welfare of your employees, which can enhance your reputation both internally and externally.

Travel Incorporated understands and appreciates the uniqueness of each of our clients and the specific needs based upon your corporate culture and traveling profile. There are numerous options available that we have outlined below:

Duty of Care Tools and Services

Travel Incorporated provides a suite of products that provide traveler monitoring based upon their booked itineraries. These include:

Real time, and future date, traveler monitoring: Whether you want a comprehensive map view of all travelers in real time (including mid air), or filter based upon those with travel plans to a specific city and date (for example if a hurricane is approaching in 5 days), Travel Incorporated provides the tools to easily identify the locations of your travelers based upon their booking data. TI also provides emergency contact details with a single click and easy identification of VIP Travelers.

Pre-Trip risk management:  We have developed a pre-trip notification system whereby we provide your risk management team with a tool to identify which regions are at risk, as well as the level of risk per region. This tool will identify any booking made to a location deemed at risk alerting your Risk Management department or stakeholder of the booking. This allows the manager and traveler to discuss the purpose of the trip and then assess if the purpose is justified during the void window

Third Party risk management partnerships: If your needs expand beyond the above to require medical emergencies or extraction services, Travel Incorporated partners with multiple third party risk management firms. Once our clients contract with a third party, TI sends daily booking feeds to the service on your behalf to ensure this partner has all of the traveler details within their system.

By prioritizing Duty of Care for domestic business travelers, employers can mitigate risks, fulfill legal obligations, safeguard employee well-being, and ultimately contribute to the overall success of their business operations. Travel Incorporated is here to guide you and consult to identify opportunities available based upon your unique needs.

Contact your Client Success Manager for more information.