Tips for ensuring safety and security for employees on overseas group trips
As an employer with a duty of care, protecting your team before, during and after a business trip is crucial.
As a result, it’s so important to take a careful and structured approach to identifying and managing risks when employees are travelling for work.
In order to do this, you need to consider the chosen destination, nature of the trip, travel arrangements and emergency preparation plans.
UK government guidance specifically highlights preparation, security briefings and contingency planning for higher-risk environments, and you can find this online. However, a company-wide health and safety strategy is also key.
With that in mind, here are our tips for ensuring safety and security for all employees when travelling on overseas group trips.
Ensure safety is built into your travel plans from the start
The safety and security of your employees should be considered from the earliest planning stages, not just once your group flights and accommodation are booked.
For example, start off your safety planning by assessing destination-specific risks and checking official UK government travel advice for your chosen destination. This will help you to identify potential political unrest, extreme weather, health risks and local security concerns.
You should also establish who is responsible for employee welfare, travel decisions and emergency communications early on to make sure they know their roles and what they must do to protect the team.
Work with dedicated group travel specialists
When the time comes to book your team travel arrangements, the best thing you can do to ensure safety is to work with trusted group travel providers, such as group flight consolidators and group travel agents.
Look for group travel specialists with good customer reviews and testimonials, along with those who offer additional support and advice that can keep your employees safe while they’re away.
For example, at BTG Travel Management, our team is available to contact 24/7 to ensure your employees can always reach an advisor in the case of an emergency, such as a delayed or cancelled flight.
Not only this, but as a group flight consolidator, we do our best to ensure that your teams share group bookings and are seated together on the flight, or are at least on the same flights and connections.
Prepare employees before departure
One of the best things you can do to protect employees is to provide them with the information and resources they need to travel confidently. To do this, you should:
Check their passport validity, visas and entry requirements before they travel
Confirm appropriate travel insurance and medical assistance
Share itineraries, accommodation details, local emergency numbers and key contacts
Brief employees on local laws, customs, cultural expectations and common scams
Provide a concise pre-trip safety briefing and checklist
Doing all of the above can help to prepare them before departure and make sure they are equipped with everything they need to travel safely and seamlessly.
Keep the group organised as they travel
Group travel introduces additional challenges that solo travel doesn’t, and one delayed flight, a missing passport or a separated colleague can affect the whole party.
That is why it is vital to have an accurate passenger list and accessible itinerary, to set up meeting points and headcounts at airports and during transfers, and to have a clear plan for missed connections or last minute emergencies.
You should also make sure every traveller knows who to contact if they are separated from the group and how to account for late arrivals, independent movements and changes to the schedule.
Prioritise safe ground transport and accommodation
Every travel decision you make can affect employee safety; that is why it is so important that you prioritise safe transport links and accommodation. You can do this by:
Using reputable, pre-arranged airport transfers and local transport providers.
Checking hotel location, security arrangements, fire safety and emergency exits
Sharing safe transport guidance for evenings and unfamiliar areas even when travelling as a group
Avoiding unnecessary travel through areas flagged as higher risk
Making sure employees know how to get help at their accommodation if they need it
This will ensure that when they land in their chosen destination, your teams can feel safer and more confident moving between the airport, accommodation and any business meetings or events.
Protect employee physical health and well-being
You need to go beyond just safety when moving about to address any physical health concerns you or your employees may have.
As soon as you start booking the trip, you should check vaccination, medication and destination-specific health requirements to ensure all employees are protecting their physical health.
You must also ensure that employees know how to access medical support and emergency treatment. If there’s a first aider on the team, make sure they know who this is and also be sure to share local emergency service numbers with them.
Make sure everyone knows the emergency and disruption plan
Employees and organisers need to know what they should do if the unexpected happens, this might include:
Flight cancellations or delays
Missed connections or sudden itinerary changes
Medical emergencies
Lost passports or theft of belongings
Civil unrest or natural disasters
Rapidly changing travel restrictions
They need to know who makes decisions about rerouting, sheltering in place or returning home in the case of these emergencies.
They must also know how to contact the employer, travel manager, insurer or relevant authorities and therefore need to have access to the relevant contact details.
Don’t forget about digital safety
There are some less obvious risks of international business travel that you also need to consider. In today’s modern era, when we store lots of sensitive information on our devices, digital protection is also critical.
Before your team leaves the country, encourage them to choose strong device passcodes, multifactor authentication and approved VPNs where appropriate.
Remind them to avoid doing sensitive work on unsecured public Wi-Fi and keeping devices secure and close to them at all times. This will help them to protect confidential documents, company information and personal data.
Maintain communication throughout the trip
Effective travel security includes knowing employees are safe and making sure they feel supported throughout the entirety of the trip.
This can mean regular check-ins appropriate to the destination and risk level and ensuring employees can report concerns without hesitation with near enough instant response times.
This also means considering fatigue, jet lag, stress, accessibility and individual support needs and confirming that everyone has returned safely at the end of the trip.
Keep your team safe with BTG Travel Management
At BTG Travel, we pride ourselves on our excellent communication and group travel management, tackling issues or emergencies as quickly and smoothly as possible.
If you book group flights through our expert team, they will be available before, during and after the trip to ensure your team travels safely.
If you’d like peace of mind, along with a whole host of other benefits that come with using a group flight specialist, get in touch with our team today.