GBTA Summit 2022: The key takeaways

At  the recent GBTA Summit in Brussels, Lee Whiteing and Bob Quick joined forces with Andrew Wallis, Of Counsel at leading UK law firm, Peters & Peter, to deliver an education session discussing the impact of ISO 31030 on travel risk management.

Welcome advice

The arrival of ISO 31030 in September 2021 saw the first global benchmark for travel risk management rollout to organisations, offering clear guidance on how to deliver duty-of-care requirements to their business-travelling employees.

With the GBTA expecting business travel to hit 65 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, companies are revisiting current policies and procedures to ensure they are fit for purpose.

Using the guidance to your advantage

Contagions and conflicts have made business travellers more anxious about safety and security, so companies will want to take steps to limit any risks. Once a daunting task, ISO 31030 has made the lives of leadership, travel managers, and employees easier by outlining risks and offering recommendations on how to remedy the situation.

Bob Quick shared the benefits that ISO 31030 can offer organisations, including corporate management assurance, improved safety and security, reduced risk of litigation, increased confidence and productivity, and continual workforce improvement.

Ignore at your own peril

Andrew Wallis discussed how influential ISOs can be in law – and that ISO 31030 is unlikely to be any different. Despite the standard being regulation and not law, he warned that companies failing to follow the guidance laid out in ISO 31030 could face legal implications if duty of care is not demonstrably met. Such breaches could ultimately result in civil or criminal liability claims.

Andrew advised the audience of travel risk and security experts on some risk-based steps they can take, including:

• Internal risk assessments and mapping as a starting point
• If serious risks are identified, consider legal risk analysis
• Executive training on health & safety risk
• Read Peters & Peters’ white paper on ISO 31030

Time to act

Lee Whiteing shared some practical steps corporations can take to act on ISO 31030, including the basic first step: getting a copy of the standard and reading it. Companies should review policies against the standard, getting a clear understanding of where gaps exist and creating a plan to fill them. Once organisations are confident best practice has been met, policies should be revised regularly.

To support organisations in their efforts, we offer two services that review travel risk management policies to ensure they are ISO 31030-ready:

• Assessment: An initial assessment of current policies, practices, and procedures to see whether these are in line with the ISO 31030 standard. A trained auditor first analyses the company’s approach to travel risk management before providing a report outlining the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses, with a checklist of actions required to meet the ISO 31030 standard.
• Certified Audit: Following the assessment, a trained auditor reviews documentation, interviews key personnel, and provides an audit of ISO 31030 compliance, before issuing certificates to successful organisations.

To find out how we can help ensure your organisation delivers on its duty of care requirements to employees, click here.