Businesses have a corporate duty of care and a legal requirement to properly prepare their employees for travel and support them during and after their trips, and the penalties for not doing so are high.

If a company’s duty of care is not robustly demonstrated or carried out then the consequences for individual employees and the company as a whole can be severe, resulting in legal proceedings and reputational damage which, ultimately, impacts profits.

While terrorist attacks can be extremely high in severity, thankfully they are relatively low in frequency. In fact, the most common threats to staff include road traffic accidents and street crime.

In order to demonstrate a robust duty of care to staff as they travel on business and work abroad, companies should ensure that appropriate risk mitigation strategies are in place.

This means clear and simple policies and procedures which enable a company to know where their employees are going, what they are doing and how they can be best prepared and protected during such activities.

A company travel policy should have two aims: 1) To ensure the highest possible degree of safety and security for employees when travelling overseas; 2) To ensure that all business related travel to risk-rated countries is subject to a formal risk assessment.

A risk assessment process is key. It informs an organisation as to whether more robust training or support is required for business travellers prior to deployment.

While risk assessment and preparation prior to travel are imperative, it is also vital that the company travel policy outlines what employees should do in the event of an incident – for example, who to call and how to behave.

Effective travel risk management needs to be comprehensive, consistent and integrated into an organisation’s processes.