As this goes to press, we find the times we are living through are like no other in modern history – for individuals, communities and entire nations the world over. The importance of managing risk, maintaining business continuity and ensuring employee safety and wellbeing have been brought into stark relief by the sudden and vicious onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Doing Things Differently? Corporate travel is in an unprecedented crisis. The coronavirus has thrown a wrench into the most well-laid plans. However, we are as prepared as I think we can be for whatever comes our way.Eight years ago, when I began working at NetApp, there was not much synergy between Travel and Risk Management. Since that time, things have changed. We work very closely now on all things risk and security oriented. Careful planning and coordination are part of our process today, due in part to several experiences. Among other occurrences, one of the most significant was the shooting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas a couple of years ago where we were holding an event at the time. Unfortunately, nothing could have awakened our connection with Risk more than an event as dramatic as the Mandalay shooting. Cultivate your relationship with Risk and Security. Today’s unpredictable world requires you to be diligent in the defense of your travelers. – Mark Ziegler
Travel & Risk Shift Focus Most corporations have some variation of a Risk Management department. I have worked in several organizations where Risk has had various roles in relation to Travel. One corporation wasn’t too proactive when it came to anything outside of maintaining third-party insurance policies for their travelers – they would reach out annually to try to get some data on the number of travelers, the number of international trips, etc., in order to determine the amount of coverage. It was up to me to bring some of the duty of care questions to them when determining the number of travelers allowed on a flight and our policy for alcoholic beverages – these items had never come up within Risk Management.In the past several years, I have seen a significant shift in the involvement of Risk Management in Travel. Risk specialists have become more vocal in helping to develop policies around innovations like ridesharing and lodging alternatives such as Airbnb. In recent months, I have learned that, over a wide variety of corporations, Risk Management has been a key factor in dealing with the new threat of the coronavirus, making suggestions to limit or ban travel. Moving forward, I hope to see more proactive collaboration between travel managers and the risk management teams. It’s key to travel management success as well as providing duty of care for corporate travelers. – Chris Brockman
Make It a Team Effort Wow, it’s been a busy, crazy month with all the daily changes, cancelations and unpredictable comings and goings, as well as opportunities to improve our internal processes. At my company, the areas of Travel and Risk Management have been working together putting our procedures in place. The last several weeks, I feel that we have a better appreciation for both departments and the information each can bring to the tasks at hand. As difficult as this last month was, it was good getting to know that Risk Management and Travel make a great team, especially in crisis. – Gloria Gonzalez
Healthy Meetings The underlying objective for all the standard risk management and pandemic response plans is prevention. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic when larger gatherings return, the health aspect of event preparedness should go beyond large pumps of hand sanitizer at registration desks. Healthy habit signs should always be posted as gentle reminders to event attendees of the things they can do to prevent the spread of disease. It also provides the event host an opportunity to demonstrate how vested they are in ensuring the well-being of all event attendees. Incorporate healthy meal options and ensure the agenda allows for all attendees to get adequate rest. It’s not feasible to get a bunch of sales people or engineers up for a 7 AM yoga session, but there are some fairly simple things that can be done to promote the health and wellness of event attendees. Let’s talk about a comprehensive healthy event preparedness plan and incorporate it as a standard at all events. – Wendy Palmer
Carrots & Sticks Creating a reasonable corporate policy and having the right workflow with OBT and travel tools to match your business, is a great start to risk management. I look to bolster these basics with superior customer service from my TMC and vendors partners, which should offer something more than their basic services. By assuring the “extras” offered can be obtained faster – or better yet, exclusively – by using “David‘s travel program” through my selected corporate booking channel, I offer rogue travelers a carrot to book inside my program. Consolidating spend and streamlining process results in cost savings, minimizing financial risk. By capturing many more trips through the new and different offerings/amenities, it’s possible to know where employees are during a crisis, using duty of care software. Picking the right product, in the right location, offers travelers benefits that are unavailable for those who booked outside the corporate channel. For example changes in hotel location may eliminate the need for ground transport. There are countless ways we travel managers mitigate risk and create a safe, functional means for employees to travel without threatening them with a stick. (Well, some still need the stick.) – David Smith