After the Covid-19 pandemic, corporate travel management has witnessed a drastic change, and travelers’ safety has become the primary concern. Now almost every business traveler only feels comfortable when traveling with proper measures. Hence, travel companies have realized the significance of efficient risk management business travel. Corporate travel risk management is typically the practice of anticipating the risks that business travelers can face during a business trip and taking appropriate measures to keep them safe. This article compiles essential things the travel manager can do to improve corporate travel risk management.
- Formulate an allowable travel framework
The first important step towards efficient corporate travel risk management is avoiding non-essential business trips. Therefore, a travel manager should formulate a framework specifying essential business trips and employees who could go on those trips. Necessary corporate trips can be identified by looking at the various business tasks and picking out only those that require employees in person or on-site.
- Specifying a flexible travel policy
Having a flexible corporate travel policy is the need of the hour during these uncertain times. Therefore, a travel manager must update the company’s travel policy to incorporate strong risk management business travel guidelines. A flexible travel policy usually accommodates employees’ expectations and flexibility to travel nuances while maintaining the enterprise’s bottom line.
- Determine the destination’s safety
Determining the safety of the destination that employees are going to visit is another significant step toward improved corporate travel risk management. Some factors to consider when researching destination safety are public health situation, political climate, public transportation availability, social circumstances, and safest areas to book accommodation.
- Conduct health assessment before traveling
Before choosing and sending employees for a business trip, make sure to determine if they are fit to travel. To determine the same, companies can invest in a complete pre-travel health assessment of each employee, especially pregnant women, employees with pre-existing allergies or lifestyle diseases, or individuals who experience travel-related symptoms like motion sickness or jet lag.
With the help of checkups, a company can protect corporate travelers from carrying any diseases to the destination. During the pre-travel checkup, a physician assesses travelers’ health, provides immunization if necessary, and suggests preventive measures per the destination.
- Create an inventory of preferred transportation and accommodation options
Both transportation and accommodation are vital considerations when it comes to risk management business travel. Therefore, companies must ensure the safety of booked flights and hotels. To do the same, travel managers can create a list of preferred flights and hotels complying with the global safety standards of the World Health Organization (WHO). The flights and hotels should follow the covid protocols, such as contactless service and maintaining high-level hygiene.
Conclusion
Post Covid, many employees still are anxious about getting back on the road, and they have several health and safety-related concerns. Therefore, travel managers must take all the necessary steps to regain employees’ confidence in corporate travel. They can start by incorporating the above-discussed steps in their corporate travel risk management program to improve travel risk management practices and ensure travelers’ safety.
