Business trips are an indispensable part of building a business, whether forging relationships with clients and suppliers in new territories or putting in the groundwork for a mutually beneficial partnership or merger. Business travel is also on the upswing after a period of reduced activity, a necessity during the worst months of the coronavirus pandemic.

But business travel is not as simple as booking flights for staff members. It presents new risks and responsibilities for the business in question, which need adequately addressing for the safety of staff and the business. What should a business consider when planning business travel for staff?

Insurance Coverage

A primary concern for your business should be that adequate and appropriate insurance policies are put in place, that cover business trips to foreign territories. Insurance plans are crucial to either indemnifying your business against liability for injury, or ensuring that funds are available to cover costs resulting from a personal injury claim. Without such coverage, an injury during a business trip could have catastrophic financial consequences – to say nothing of the potential PR fallout from a public court case.

Safety Policy

The calculated necessity of an insurance policy does not negate a business’ responsibility, both moral and legal, to ensure the safety of its staff on a trip. Just in the same way that health and safety policies in-office or on-site are robustly designed to minimise worker injury, so too should there be robust frameworks in place to protect workers as they travel on your business’ behalf. This might start with mandated risk assessments of each trip, identifying the biggest risks, the simplest routes to mitigating them and the persons accountable for overseeing such mitigations.

Training

Training is an essential constituent part of the process when designing a safety protocol for business travel and international delegations. It is imperative not just that employees understand internal processes and frameworks relevant to safe business travels, but also that managerial staff understand their responsibilities with regard to a travel cohort. This training would involve cluing employees in on safety policies relating to specific risks, such as natural disasters or theft of resources.

Communication

Finally, and perhaps most directly impactful of all, communication is crucial to the ongoing safety of personnel on a trip in progress. Regular updates, not only between delegates but also between the travel party and the office, guarantee that all members of staff are accounted for and that their location is well-known at all times. If appropriate, GPS tags could be added to expensive equipment to ensure it is never lost, and that locations are communicated automatically to the business.