ISO 20121ISO 14001, ISO 9001: the travel industry has recently become accustomed to the proliferation of eco-responsible standards in the MICE sector. This time, it's a completely different form of responsibility that we're tackling. the ISO 31030 standardthat of companies' duty to protect. Driven by the pandemic and by employees who are increasingly demanding of their employers, travel safety and security have taken on a new dimension, and covid has served as a kind of sounding board for this crucial issue.
Derived from the ISO 31000 standard on risk management, this is the first standard to focus exclusively on travel, hence its baseline "Travel". Travel risk management - Recommendations for organisations" . This initiative was prompted by the British Standards Institution. International SOS played a leading role. Bringing together a panel of some forty experts from a wide range of backgrounds, including travel and risk managers, medical and safety directors, HR managers and associations such as the GBTA and the ASIS network of safety and security directors, these professionals contributed their different perspectives to produce the following conclusions a thirty-page compendium of best practices.
"The decision to set up a committee to define a standard describing what should be an ideal travel policy in terms of safety, security and health dates back three years, i.e. before the pandemic.explains Xavier CarnVice-President and Security Advisor at International SOS. But it comes at just the right timeThis is because today we travel in a more reasoned way. "At a time when business travel is well on the way to recovery, this standard, published at the end of last year, will guide organisations of all sizes and types - multinationals or SMEs, NGOs, schools organising school exchanges, even governments - in their approach to travel-related risks. " Everyone has the same duty to protectsays Xavier Carn. This 31030 standard is not binding and can be used by any type of organisation, an NGO, an exchange school, a company or a government."
" It is an essential tool to help organisations of all kinds to develop a realistic and detailed plan that covers all possibilities and guarantees the safety of their workers on the move" says Kevin Myers, convenor of the group of experts who drew up ISO 31030. If need be, this reference framework can be used to demonstrate to the courts the company's commitment to risk prevention. The main purpose of this standard is to shift the focus from the safety and security department to the company. higher up the hierarchyIn the case of a company with a high level of risk aversion, the Board of Directors or the Chairman is invited to clearly define the company's level of risk aversion. " A luxury goods company whose employees travel to major cities will not have the same approach to risk as an oil company." says Xavier Carn.
Non-binding and non-certifying, the ISO 31030 standard serves as a framework for ask the right questions and implement the right practices in line with the company's culture. Dynamic analysis of risks according to destinations and traveller profiles - each trip being unique - but also the status of procedures and approval circuits in the travel policy, communication in the event of a crisis, communication of the security policy concerning travel within the company - which is often lacking: this standard invites a review of all the measures taken internally.
By assessing the degree of maturity of companies' approach to these various issues, it also serves as a way ofa tool for comparison, and hence for improvement. Travel agencies, location tools and self-booking tools, security assessment of hotels in sensitive areas: the framework of this ISO standard also extends to a company's relations with its partners and suppliers. In this context, the GBTA is in the process of drawing up a " to provide purchasers with an evaluation grid for service providers based on the functionalities recommended by the ISO standard.explains Xavier Carn.
