WEBINAR: GSA & Continuity Forum discuss what ISO 31030 means for travel managers

This week we hosted a webinar with travel risk management experts at Continuity Forum and BSI to discuss the new international standard for travel risk management. The webinar, led by our Executive Director, Bob Quick, provided travel risk managers from around the world with an overview of the new ISO 31030 standard.

Bob was joined by Russell Price, Chair of the Continuity Forum and the Risk Management Committee at the BSI, and Lee Whiteing, who shared insights from his previous role as Head of Global Travel Operations at HSBC, where he was responsible for the bank’s travel programme.

What is ISO 31030 and what does it mean?

Bob kicked off the webinar outlining the basics of ISO 31030 and what this means for travel risk managers. Bob explained how ISO 31030 is likely to change corporate travel in the future and how current travel concerns are influencing TRM policies.

Bob outlined: “Survey after survey is now recording that traveller safety is the number one issues for the majority of organisations: 68 percent of travel managers consider that travel will be disrupted in some way over the next 12 months. About 52 percent think disruptions will come from civil unrest, 52 percent predict it will come from geopolitical threat, 51 percent predict natural disasters will have an impact, and more than 60 percent think that security threats will likely cause some level of disruption.”

Research, plan, and implement

Russell explained his interpretation of the standard for the UK and how it can help improve risk management as corporate travel resumes. Stressing the importance of research and planning, Russell outlined the importance of standards in enabling honest conversations with your business travellers: “There may be issues around ‘bleisure’ – people mixing a business trip with something recreational. How would insurance work in that situation? What if there were family members involved? Introducing clarity where there might otherwise be confusion is included in the scope and narrative of the standard, and it reflects modern practice and modern travel risk management.”

Where do I start?

Lee advised on helpful first steps for travel risk managers looking to re-evaluate and strengthen their travel risk policies and highlighted the benefits of doing so. He comments: “The first thing you need to do is get hold of a copy of the standard and read it. Secondly, undertake some a gap analysis to see what the differences are between what you have in place today and what you feel would be reasonable for the future. Thirdly, have some way of proving you have taken all reasonable steps to ensure the accommodation you choose for your employees is safe and secure.”

For those looking to strengthen their TRM policies, Bob suggested our bootcamps with the GBTA – a one-day virtual programme providing practical guidance to anyone involved in building and managing corporate travel programmes.

For more information on our training programmes, click here.