More than three-quarters of business travelers say their employer treats traveler health, safety and security as a priority, but only 36% of travelers say their employer unconditionally takes care of their safety and security when they are working remotely and another 25% don’t know, according to a BCD Travel survey in August.

The survey of 674 business travelers worldwide examined travel risk management and the traveler experience, as well as a variety of measures that may improve the health, safety and security of business travelers on the road.

According to respondents, support is lacking for newer workforce behaviors, specifically remote work and bleisure travel. Some 64% of travelers don’t know if they are covered by their organization’s travel security and medical support if they extend their business trip for leisure purposes. Respondents felt companies are doing reasonably well supporting traditional travel risk management.

Mike Janssen, global COO, said the survey shows “a growing need for a mindset shift from travel risk management to people risk management.” He said that today’s duty of care policies “have to address the realities of hybrid or work-from-anywhere workforces as well as the changing values around traveler well-being.”

Although some business traveler respondents from the survey said their employers provide post-trip support, such as personal time off (13%), requests for feedback post-trip (11%), or follow-up with on-trip security or medical incidents (10%), 39% said they receive no support. An additional 16% said they don’t know if there is such support.
Other findings from the survey included:

• 75% of travelers rarely or never feel unsafe during a business trip. Of the 23% who sometimes or regularly feel unsafe, a slightly higher percentage of men than women feel unsafe, and an even higher percentage of nonbinary/nonconforming travelers feel unsafe.
• When travelers do feel unsafe, it is most often when walking in the streets (44%), driving in an unfamiliar location (43%) or using public transportation (40%). Travelers are less likely to feel unsafe at a restaurant (6%) or in a hotel room (6%).
• The main actions travelers take to support their own safety include separating their hotel room key from its envelope (50%), taking a taxi or ride-hailing service instead of public transportation (46%) and checking the fire escape route at their hotel (40%).
• The top support measures from their organizations that travelers say make them feel safe and secure on a trip are travel alerts and security notifications (61%), a central contact in case of an emergency (53%), pre-trip destination security information (51%) and clear instructions on what to do in an emergency (44%).