Readiness Assessments: Key learnings and best practices

Last year, PwC pioneered good practice around global travel risk management when the company became the first to undertake and achieve our ISO 31030 Organisation Readiness Assessment & Audit Programme.

The programme allows organisations to benchmark their existing travel risk management processes and policies against the new ISO 31030 standard for travel risk management and make any necessary changes to achieve high levels of compliance.

Practise what you preach

When employees travel for business, there are many risk factors to consider.  These can include the threat of crime, natural disasters or terrorism. Until recently, there was no formal travel risk standard for corporate travellers. However, the advent of ISO 31030 provided the first global standard and benchmark for delivering high levels of corporate travel risk management.

The standard covers all aspects of corporate travel, including authorisations, planning, policy, traveller assessment, transportation, destination and accommodation. As well as providing peace of mind to employees, meeting the standard helps reduce legal and financial risk if things go wrong.

At the time of securing accreditation, PwC’s UK Security Lead, Richard Stanley, said: Our experience of the accreditation process and the GSA auditors was extremely positive. It was obvious from the start they were experienced and practical experts. The audit was rigorous but was conducted in a way that avoided undue disruption to our business. We cannot recommend it enough.

New and renewed

PwC recently underwent re-accreditation to ensure it maintains the highest standards of corporate travel risk management. Other firms have also followed suit, including global online travel agency Booking.com and LyondellBasell, a provider of innovative material solutions.

Koen Jansen, Group Travel Safety and Security Manager at Booking.com, said: “At Booking.com the safety and security of our employees is crucial. We underwent GSA’s ISO 31030 readiness assessment and audit, and recently got certified. The whole experience was smooth and reliable. Communicating with GSA is easy and straightforward, the recommendations they gave were accurate and helpful.”

As the ISO 31030 global standard gains further  traction, corporate travellers will expect their employers to not only comply with the standard but to also provide high levels of duty of care to all travelling employees.

One of the most effective ways of demonstrating this is by benchmarking corporate travel risk management policies and processes against ISO 31030.  If you are responsible for travel risk management, why not email us at contact@gsaccreditation to find out more about how your travel risk management processes stack up against ISO 31030 and other corporates.