After Paris attacks, 7 questions to assess program readiness
Do incidents like the recent attacks in Paris and the ongoing battle with Ebola make you wonder if your corporate travel program is ready for a crisis? If so, then you’re already thinking strategically, says a BCD Travel expert on travel risk management.
“Companies should review their plans anytime there’s a major security threat or disruption,” advised Martin Weisskirchen, BCD’s vice president of Global Crisis Management. “It’s essential not only to have a plan, but also to make sure it’s in line with the kinds of evolving risks travelers are facing out there.”
Weisskirchen offers a few questions travel managers should ask themselves to gauge their company’s readiness.
1. When did you begin to think of the situation in Paris as a potential travel crisis?
BCD Travel’s Global Crisis Management team constantly monitors worldwide news, so Weisskirchen and his colleagues were keeping an eye on what was happening in Paris from the start. But they went into crisis-response mode—which triggered related action plans—the moment local authorities declared a security alert.
2. Were you aware of your travelers’ locations, and, specifically, who was in or headed to Paris?
“This is a significant duty of care issue,” Weisskirchen said. “The company needs to know where its travelers are.”
3. Did you contact your travelers in and around Paris to see if they were safe?
Corporate travel programs need to have a way to contact travelers on the road, which is why having up-to-date traveler profiles that include mobile numbers is so critical, Weisskirchen said. Increasingly, corporate travel programs are thinking of travelers’ “duty of loyalty,” in tandem with companies’ duty of care. That means they expect travelers to check in with the company if they’re in a potentially dangerous or disruptive situation. So, the responsibility for communication goes both ways.
It’s essential that communication processes and responsibilities are clear. Who calls travelers? That’s a question that should be raised when planning for travel risk management—not during an incident. “Companies should not just assume that their travel management company will call their travelers, unless it’s a defined service in their contract,” Weisskirchen said.
4. If you contacted your travelers, did you have instructions for them on what to do if they encountered danger or trip disruption?
Again, this is an essential component of a thorough travel risk management plan, Weisskirchen said. “What do you want your travelers to do in a crisis? This is a decision that needs to be made well before a crisis emerges.”
5. Did you know who within your company had responsibility for your company’s response?
“This is the No. 1 problem we see when a travel crisis happens,” Weisskirchen said. “Companies don’t know who’s in charge of what, and they lose time and cause unnecessary friction just at the moment when it’s most important for everyone to work together efficiently.” The plan can be for one person to lead a crisis response or for a team from travel, security and human resources to work together to coordinate the response. What’s important, he said, is clarity.
6. Did you have a plan in place to get your employees out of Paris, if needed?
Would you have expected travelers to call your TMC and find their way home? Would you have wanted your TMC to look for ways to get all your employees out of Paris based on a central request coming from your company? If you don’t have clearly defined answers to these questions, Weisskirchen said, it’s time to get with your TMC to think through response scenarios and devise a plan.
7. Once the Paris situation diffused, did you regroup to consider what worked and what didn’t?
“A travel crisis can take many forms, from a terrorist attack to a tidal wave—and the threats and possible disruptions constantly change,” Weisskirchen said. “Use every crisis as a learning opportunity to make sure your company and your travelers will be better prepared for the next one.”
Want to know more about how BCD Travel can help you stay on top of travel risks and disruptions? Talk to your account manager and download Travel Risk Management: Keeping Business Travelers Safe and Secure.
