Travel risk is a big deal – Here’s Why you Should Manage it with a Connected Solution
From common weather events to local governmental policies and regulations to potential conflict zones, travel risk management is an extremely complicated task. That means it’s important to get ahead of the hazards before your employees have to go anywhere, rather than responding to incidents as they occur. But how many safety protocols are actually implemented and executed at companies with business travelers?
The GBTA Foundation recently conducted a study to learn more about exactly that. They spoke to 148 travel managers to find out the extent to which technology is used and integrated into their overall travel program. What they discovered is that there are gaps in many organizations’ abilities to manage their travelers’ safety and security while on business trips.
For example, among the travel managers GBTA surveyed:
- Only one in five reported that they used technology to capture traveler data booked outside of their travel program.
- 40% of North America-based travelers preferred to book directly with suppliers, instead of within the managed travel system.
- Even when traveling to places they considered unsafe, only 31% of employees said they would book through their company’s program, rather than directly with a supplier.
Without a way to capture this information, these companies have limited abilities to locate their employees on trips and then assist them in the event of an emergency.
To fix these safety challenges, an integrated system can help capture all travel data and help companies locate travelers when necessary. Using reports that automated the data merging process, 68% said they could do so in less than two hours.
Fulfilling your duty of care to every employee is paramount, and companies with travel and expense systems that are automatically integrated with risk management are able to locate and contact employees more quickly. To learn more about these findings in the GBTA Foundation report, watch this on-demand webinar that discusses the advantages of having connected travel technology solutions in place that directly integrate with travel risk information.