In some situations, it is actually more risky to travel in large groups, since they carry the risk of becoming a target of protestors, extremists and criminals, who often choose highly visible and largely attended events to maximize the impact of their message. In fact, according to the US Department of State’s Worldwide Caution issued on April 10, “Extremists may elect to…target both official and private interests. Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, shopping malls, and other tourist destinations both in the US and abroad where US citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.”

Another risk inherent in large group travel that many companies don’t consider is the mixed demographic of the group, especially as it pertains to comfort levels with international travel. “For example, junior employees may be leaving the country for the first time, and are more prone to taking risks,” notes Tom Davidson, VP of sales and marketing at On Call International. “It would be wise to assign them to a group containing more seasoned travelers. In this way, senior employees can help model and reinforce the importance of appropriate behavior for junior employees.”

On Call, headquartered in Salem, NH, provides medical evacuation and emergency assistance to travelers anywhere in the world.

Sports Lovers, Beware

As indicated by the US State Department warning, mass gatherings such as high profile international sporting events can become popular venues for those with anti-government agendas to air their grievances. The recent World Cup in Brazil, where over 2,000 activists took part in anti-World Cup protests, as well as the June 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, when over a million people participated in demonstrations to protest government corruption and financial mismanagement, highlighted these concerns. Many of the protests turned violent and several resulted in fatalities.

Travelers in large groups at such events should also pay heed to the risk of being injured within such a confined, high-density crowd. Even what normally starts as a minor demonstration has the potential to spiral into violence and create dangerous conditions where injury – especially by trampling – can occur. Furthermore, protests can clog traffic arteries, making travel to and from hotels and airports a significant security concern.

Another risk factor in large group travel to international sporting events is the transmission of communicable disease, since large numbers of people are concentrated in one area and germs can spread quickly. For some travel managers, keeping track of multiple employees’ health concerns during the Olympic Games in Beijing was no minor task. With each employee possessing a unique set of pre-dispositions or pre-existing conditions, it was important to be able to find employees wherever they were, locate appropriate medical care if needed, and overcome linguistic and cultural barriers along the way.

Additionally, protecting intellectual data was a concern that surfaced during the recent 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. With reports of cyber terrorism hitting the news, some travel managers were particularly worried about tracking their group’s proprietary information on a virtual level.

It’s a Duty of Care Thing

Fortunately, travel assistance and security providers offer a wide variety of services to help mitigate risks associated with large group travel, such as traveler tracking services. Other services are more sophisticated, such as having canine explosives detection teams, armed VIP protection or transportation and traffic management teams on the ground with your group.

No doubt, the provision of these kinds of services during large group travel is a duty of care issue. “Traveler tracking is an efficient way to keep track of employees in large groups and help meet duty of care,” says Charlie Terry, SVP of product management and product marketing at iJET International in Annapolis, MD. “It can be performed via an employee’s itinerary – that is, verifying the traveler is where he is supposed to be via air, train and hotel – or it can be done via mobile phone, wherein the traveler checks in manually by sending his or her latitude/longitude, often at frequent intervals. This type of tracking is often used in high Country Security Assessment Rating (CSAR) areas,” Terry explains.

Adequately preparing groups before they travel is another duty of care issue. This includes reviewing the threats inheent in the destination, especially if employees are unfamiliar with that location and do not understand security and cultural risks there. In order to effectively train travelers before departure, companies can perform desktop exercises to practice various scenarios such as a fire, bombing, evacuation or a medical emergency, including how to access third party medical and security assistance.

“Also, in addition to performing desktop exercises and site reviews, we provide intelligence before and during the entire duration of the trip to monitor any unexpected factors that may arise such as civil unrest, harsh weather, crime or anti-government protests,” Terry adds. “These factors often impair a group’s ability to move around freely. We also provide specialized trainings, such as for all-female groups, who may require extra information on the cultural and social norms of the destination.”

When Rotary International was planning a large meeting in a country that could experience disruptive strikes and demonstrations, they turned to iJET. “We plan these large meetings years in advance and began discussions about a year and a half before the meeting,” says Robert S. Mintz, manager of corporate relations and global travel for Rotary International in Evanston, IL. “iJET helped us identify the threats that might pose the greatest risk to our meeting and developed a detailed evacuation plan of assembly/pick up locations for our team should they need assistance. They also established a communications network that allowed us to push a broadcast text message to all staff who were assigned local cellphones that required a return receipt so we were sure they got the message and the system worked. About 96 percent acknowledged the test message within 10 minutes and thankfully the meeting was uneventful from a risk perspective and a success with the audience,” Mintz explains.

Cover Your Crowd

“Companies can also help meet their duty of care obligations by providing employees with the appropriate business travel coverages, including security, repatriation and evacuation,” states On Call International’s Tom Davidson. “Offering a mixed array of products can sometimes be the best bet; this array of products can range from the most basic services such as VIP transport to a very sophisticated and expansive solution that is completely customized to a group’s needs.”

Davidson provides a detailed example. “For instance, one of our clients had a group of 375 employees travel to Fiji; 75 spouses accompanied the employees, bringing the total group number to 450. After conducting a thorough analysis of their needs and the destination, we realized medical capabilities in Nadi maintained a Level 2 tertiary care ranking (Level 3 is the highest),” he says. “We reviewed a list of ailments that were treatable at a Level 2 clinic, knowing that anyone who needed a higher level of care would need to endure a 13-hour flight to New Zealand. After this analysis, we decided we would dedicate an air ambulance for 10 days in Nadi in case the situation arose that someone needed a higher level of care.”

On Call, which has an in-house chief medical officer, medical director and staff of doctors, also flew in a physician, who set up shop on site in Fiji and played a key role in identifying potential concerns. All employees traveling in the group had access to his cell phone number. In this case, the customized solution put the client at ease and mitigated potential medical risks, allowing the company to meet its duty of care objectives.

Keep the Job Going

While duty of care towards employees is crucial, another issue of concern in large group travel is business continuity. “Companies must consider what it means for their future if the concentration of intellectual property in one location is destroyed,” states John Rose, COO of iJET International. “For example, suppose a pro-sports team puts 100 percent of their intellectual property (the players and coaches) on a single aircraft. If that plane crashes, the $2 billion valuation of the franchise goes to $0. It’s a risk they have to take, but a risk nonetheless,” he explains.

Similarly, the entire sales team, or executive committee, should not be sent to one location and never together on one flight, so they are not affected by one singular crisis. “An executive team should be broken into half and half; this is one of the lessons we learned from Haiti, when the earthquake wiped out an entire hotel in one particular location,” adds On Call’s Davidson.

Learning from these lessons is important, especially as trends in group travel are expected to grow. According to the Global Business Travel Association, spending by US businesses in 2014 is expected to increase to $288.8 billion. One of the reasons for this growth is increased spending on group trips, which will rise by 7.2 percent to $124.1 billion in 2014. In the end, organizations need to evaluate their capacity and skills in managing large group travel. If undertaking the effort in-house, companies should ask, do we have the risk management maturity? If utilizing a travel management company, is it experienced enough? “Take a step back and see if you can handle it,” advises Davidson. “If not, then don’t engage in large group travel without seeking the assistance of a provider who has the knowledge, experience and skill to do so successfully.”

Though duty of care has existed in common law for a long time, the application of duty of care laws to the corporate travel community is a relatively new trend. The laws hold that it is the obligation of a company to maintain reasonable care of its employee during the course and scope of his or her business travel. In the corporate travel sector, duty of care extends to the safety and security of a company’s mobile employees.

In days past, bottom-line cost was the main business driver behind the implementation of a travel policy. Cost control, not traveler security, was paramount. It was common to hear corporate travel managers ask, what is the expense in booking tickets from a non-preferred vendor? What is allowable in terms of hotel stays?However, as economic growth has spurred travel to emerging markets and unfamiliar places, the rules of the game are changing. Safety has now become just as powerful a driver as cost.

This policy shift has prompted travel managers to ask questions in a different way. For example, what is the danger in reserving a car for my employee with a non-preferred rental car company? Are rental cars that are used well-maintained and up to date? How safe is it for my employee to stay in a hotel that has not been vetted? What is the hotel’s security policy? Clearly, the language surrounding travel expectations is changing to reflect a growing desire to mitigate threats and lower costs, but also to protect a company’s greatest assets – its people.

Duty Of Care 101

In most cases, duty of care implies that the employer is legally liable if an employee travels for business and needs any kind of intervention or assistance. “A responsive travel policy that strongly emphasizes duty of care has several layers,” states Bruce McIndoe, CEO of iJET, an intelligence driven provider of operational risk management solutions headquartered in Annapolis, MD. “These layers address the financial protection of the company, an integrated risk management component that emphasizes prevention, and the clear communication of norms and expectations regarding travel for employees.”

The United Kingdom sparked international interest in duty of care when it passed the Corporate Manslaughter Act in 2007. The law establishes significant consequences for companies who intentionally or unintentionally put their employees in harm’s way without taking sufficient precautions. The sub-phrase, “without taking sufficient precautions,” is key. “In a court case, it is not enough for a company to plead ignorance – and it is this ‘should have known’ theme that drives the need for corporations to establish relationships with the corporate intelligence community,” according to Stephen Barth, founder of HospitalityLawyer.com in Houston,TX. HospitalityLawyer.com brings together legal, safety, security information, resources and solutions especially designed for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. “Furthermore, many corporations wrongly believe they are ‘covered’ under workers compensation laws, not realizing the limitations of such laws in wrongful death situations or in damage limitations,” he continues.

The Language Of Liability

There is no doubt that in addition to cost and safety, liability is a major concern behind duty of care policy. A recent online article entitled “Corporate Travel Safety” describes the work of Dr. Lisbeth Claus, who is a professor of human resources at Willamette University and author of the Duty of Care and Travel Risk Management Global Benchmarking Study. Claus’ research found that of the 39 cases she reviewed “in which an employer was sued by an employee (or his survivors) over failure to provide duty of care, the employers lost 34.”

Liability issues often spur travel managers to think about how to frame duty of care. For example, suppose a business traveler in Sao Paulo needs cash immediately and goes to his nearest public ATM. While withdrawing money, he is robbed at gunpoint by masked men. If the traveler has not been clearly informed by company policy that a particular activity (in this 33 Business Travel Executive FEBRUARY 2013 case, the use of public ATM’s) is considered risky, and is discouraged or unacceptable, then the company has breached its duty of care to its employee. Had the traveler known not to use public ATM’s in Sao Paulo, he would have obtained cash in another way and not become a target for armed gunmen.

This is also known as the “duty to inform” – “a person engaged in a special and potentially dangerous activity must know or inquire of possible hazards or of any special duties and responsibilities inherent in that activity that might affect their ability to exercise reasonable prudent caution.” Thus, a travel manager must inform an employee of what is expected regarding actions to be taken (such as immunizations), potential hazards (e.g. diseases, armed robbery), and any prohibitions (such as using public ATM’s). Ideally, the employer would communicate areas where the employee must take responsibility.

To explain this further, iJET’s McIndoe offers the following real-world example: “In one instance, an employee, while on a business trip to Vietnam, went on a white water rafting trip. The trip was on a weekend, tacked on after the business workweek. During the rafting expedition the employee was injured, hospitalized and had to be flown back to the US on a commercial airliner, with costs totaling $22,000. The employee sued his company citing that he was never informed of the fact that his company policy did not cover him after formal business hours. Had he known, he would have taken out a personal insurance policy that covered him throughout the entire trip.”

Another principle revolves around the duty to warn, which is less broad than the duty to inform. “Duty to warn” indicates that “a party will be held liable for injuries caused to another, where the party had the opportunity to warn the other of a hazard and failed to do so.” Since the language of liability can get complicated, it may be wise for companies to consult with risk management providers such as iJET or seek legal counsel beforehand.

Plan, Protect And Respond

In a world of competing interests, strained budgets and constant demands on time, how do companies meet their duty of care obligations? First, they can look to existing laws. They can also seek out similarly situated businesses and evaluate what their standard of care is. “In the travel industry, we have begun to set benchmarks and best practices for what a reasonable prudent business, university or NGO would establish in regards to duty of care in their travel policies,” explains Barth. “For example, do these policies promote awareness, education and training? Are they pro-active or re-active in nature? Are they spending dollars just on insurance, or on any kind of prevention programs?”

 There are three levels of creating a duty of care travel policy:

• planning a policy that is specific to your company’s and travelers’ needs.

• protection clauses in the policy that inform, warn, track and/or protect travelers.

• response clauses including evacuation or other insurance services.

Planning is the first stage where corporate intelligence companies and comprehensive risk management providers can tailor a policy to suit a company’s size, scope and travel demands.

Protection clauses must then be analyzed to see what levels of services are appropriate. For example, is it enough for your employee to take a local taxi from the airport to the hotel? Or would it be more prudent for a vetted car service to pick up the passenger and drive to a (vetted) hotel? Are medical checkups required upon return from a foreign country? Other protective clauses such as “do not drink the local water in the city” or “only use bottled water” go a long way toward saving hours of lost productivity that would result from employees falling ill.

According to Barth, it is also reasonable to suggest general best practices for employees while traveling during the course of business, such as not wearing flashy jewelry which may warrant unwanted attention, or not to go out into certain sectors of the city at night time. Other specific best practices depend entirely on the threat level of the destination. In certain cities where crime is high, it may be recommended that employees going to dinner only venture out in groups of two or more. Or that they limit themselves to specific restaurants that have been vetted for food quality.

Response clauses define what measures are reasonable for a company to take on behalf of its employees to keep them safe. This includes a rapid response/evacuation plan that can react swiftly to an emergency. Other options are a comprehensive medical plan, an extraction policy, or a kidnap and ransom policy.

“Also, an employer may want to include traveler tracking as part of its response plan,” McIndoe says. Traveler tracking was highly successful during recent events such as the civil unrest that erupted during the Arab Spring, or the earthquake and subsequent nuclear fallout in Japan. “We recommend tracking for all travel, because a disruption can occur at any time…for example, a plane crash into the Hudson River in New York City or the bridge collapse in Minneapolis,” continues McIndoe. “How will you find and communicate to your travelers during these moments of crisis?”

Travel Ahead Of The Curve

In today’s fast-paced environment as corporations expand across an increasingly unpredictable planet, the workplace is not confined to one location anymore. Workforces and offices are mobile and travel is a necessary tool to get the job done. As language shifts in the industry to better capture a company’s travel needs, herein lies a golden opportunity for travel managers to incorporate strong duty of care policies and procedures intended to safeguard employees during the course of business travel.

At the end of the day, enforcing suggested duty of care best practices becomes imperative. Often times, corporate travel managers are faced with tough questions such as, “Is non-compliance punishable? If so, are employees who depart from company policy required to pay out-of-pocket for their non-compliance?”

Some travel programs encourage the creation of a “duty of loyalty” culture which rewards business travelers for booking through preferred vendors or avoiding potentially risky behavior during their business trip. Others advocate developing internal programming such as workshops, events and classes that teach the benefits of compliance with duty of care policies. This awareness and educational component empowers employees with the necessary knowledge required to manage travel expectations, and puts responsible decision – making back in their hands.