{"id":75261,"date":"2018-07-23T14:58:19","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T12:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/?p=75261"},"modified":"2018-08-02T14:51:13","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T12:51:13","slug":"duty-of-care-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/duty-of-care-exercise","title":{"rendered":"Duty of care: \"this is not an exercise\"."},"content":{"rendered":"

It's what business travellers dread. The unforeseen event, the grain of sand that jams the mechanism of a business trip. But it's also the travel manager's worst enemy<\/strong>This is not only out of simple empathy for a colleague in difficulty, but also and above all because employers are criminally liable for employees who travel on their behalf. As is often the case, the concept of \"duty of care<\/strong>or \"duty to protect<\/strong>. But mobility and safety don't always go hand in hand.<\/p>\n

From the simple 'tile' to the real 'cata', it would be as tedious as it would be anxiety-provoking to draw up an exhaustive list of potential problems. All the more so as the notion of danger is, in the final analysis, a fairly straightforward one. subjective<\/strong> : \"For some travellers, a delicate situation is an attack. For others, having to queue at a counter for an hour because a flight has been cancelled is a crisis situation.<\/em>says C\u00e9dric Lefort, Senior Director Solutions Consulting at BCD Travel. Because it's not just frequent travellers. There are also others for whom everything is new, and therefore a source of stress.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

The experience of the traveller, the culture of the country and the company, and media exposure all play a part in the perception of risk. Some of the testimonies are particularly interesting, like that of a French boss who, on a business trip to the Lebanon<\/a>dut provide plenty of reassurance<\/strong> or the security specialist who, when questioned by his American client about the risks of a shoot-out in Paris, gave a speech that was both diplomatic and statistical: \"... I don't want to have to travel to France.No destination is immune, but mass shootings are still more common in the United States than in the heart of the French capital...<\/em>\"<\/p>\n

Are travellers becoming paranoid? Are business trips more dangerous today than they were a few years ago? A huge question...<\/strong> Unfortunately, business opportunities don't only flourish in havens of peace, far from it: \"more and more companies are moving to countries with medium to extreme risks<\/em>\"says Charline Gelin<\/strong>The head of security at International SOS, who points to an increase of 70 % in travel. in extreme risk countries in 2017<\/a>. What's more, a binary interpretation grid, which would summarily distinguish between safe and dangerous destinations, no longer works. Has it ever worked at all? \"In the past, certain countries were identified as 'at risk'. Now, danger can be just around the corner in Paris or Brussels. You don't have to go very far<\/em>\"says C\u00e9dric Lefort of BCD Travel.<\/p>\n

Armoured cars and curfew<\/h2>\n

According to a study published on the occasion of the Business Travel Summit Amsterdam, Europe today appears to be a high-risk area<\/strong> for 30 % of travel managers, with the Middle East and North Africa remaining the most anxiety-provoking region for travel managers (61 %), ahead of West Africa (43 %) and Central Africa (34 %). \"The terrorist risk is increasingly widespread<\/em>says a French expatriate who has been working in West Africa for many years. In north-east Nigeria, for example, we travel in armoured cars. There's a curfew, we're banned from markets and mosques...<\/em>\". Some might say that business travel should be limited or stopped altogether. Guillaume Col<\/a>then CEO of American Express GBT, dismissed the idea: \"The fundamental question is not 'should we continue to travel', but rather 'how can we travel efficiently under optimum safety conditions?<\/em> \"<\/p>\n

There you go THE question of the moment<\/strong>It's the one that is attracting the attention of the entire business travel industry. For some months, even years now, the concept of 'duty of care' has been everywhere. There's not a trade show that hasn't devoted at least one conference to it, and not a week goes by without a study attempting to measure its ins and outs. Last March, the GBTA<\/strong> devoted the first episode of its podcast series \"The Business of Travel\" to the subject, and theAFTM<\/strong> (Association fran\u00e7aise des travel managers) has made this the subject of its latest white paper, \"Pr\u00e9vention des risques en d\u00e9placement professionnel\".<\/p>\n

So the idea made its way into the company. For the past three years, safety has even been cited as one of the company's top priorities. first criterion<\/strong> defining a travel policy according to the EVP barometer<\/a> published by American Express GBT. Charline Gelin, from International SOS, agrees: \"All companies are aware of their duty to protect their employees abroad. But there is still another step to be taken: travellers should not only be looked after when they are in countries considered risky. A health or safety problem can occur anywhere<\/em>\".<\/p>\n

Not all companies are in the same boat. Visit CDSE Barometer 2018<\/strong>published last February by the Club des Directeurs de S\u00e9curit\u00e9 des Entreprises, warns: \"There is still a gap between a high level of risk perception and the implementation of safety\/security procedures. For example, almost half of all managers are unaware of their legal responsibilities when their employees travel abroad.<\/em>\". Laurent Bouly, until recently Marketing Director of Anticip, a security and defence services company, believes that \".half of SMEs are aware of their risk management obligations. So there is still many companies to \"evangelise<\/strong>. I was recently talking to the head of a company who told me he had employees all over Africa, but was unable to say exactly where they were based. If there were a crisis, this company would be completely blind and deaf.<\/em>\".<\/p>\n