With travel becoming more popular again, we’ve all realized that we need to change the way we travel. Even more so when it comes to business travel, where we need to think about things like staff health and business needs.
Here’s a guide to business travel safety, including things to think about before you leave, health steps, emergency plans, and paperwork, and some tech-related safety tips.
We’ll also talk about corporate travel safety and security, and why it’s important to pay attention to both when traveling for work.
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Top 5 Safety Tips For Business Travellers
- Assess the Risks Before You Travel
- Manage Your Health
- Plan for Emergencies
- Take Precautions With Technology
- Understanding Business Travel Safety and Security
Assess the Risks Before You Travel
A risk assessment before your journey can help you figure out what problems might come up. With this information, you can make backup plans and reduce your risks to make sure your work trips go as smoothly as possible. Like all business choices, this one needs to be well thought out.
Check out the weather reports. This is easy to forget if you live somewhere where the weather is always the same, but things can get very bad in other parts of the world. For example, Tokyo has typhoons every year, and Melbourne is known for having all four seasons in one day. If you pack right and wear the right clothes, you should be able to stay in some comfort.
Make it a habit to be aware of your surroundings when you go somewhere new and different. Think about how the things around you affect your safety.
During the day, trees and bushes may look nice, but at night, they can be used to hide. What time does it get dark? When does the last train leave? Are there many people? If you know these kinds of things, you can avoid possible dangers.
It also helps to know what’s going on in the social or political world. For instance, rallies and protests may seem sudden and out of the blue, but they are usually planned in advance and may be general knowledge on the street. Most tourist spots are safe, but if you have to go somewhere that might not be safe for tourists, use your best judgment.
Manage Your Health
Even more so when you’re far from home, health is wealth. Nothing is worse than getting sick on a work trip and knowing that it could have been avoided. After the outbreak, everyone knows about the Covid-19 shots. Most countries have minimum vaccination standards, but you should still wear a mask, wash your hands often, and stay away from sick people when you can.
Stay hydrated on planes and while you’re out and about. Make sure you bring clean water with you or have easy access to it. If you like to try new foods and local specialties, watch out for any reactions you might have to wild game or other foods you haven’t tried before.
Along with this, it’s a good idea to bring some important things. Keep some alcohol-based hand sanitizer and wet wipes with antiseptics on hand. Have a small supply of medicines to treat diarrhea and food supplements. Pack a light snack that is high in protein, has a modest amount of carbs, and is low in sugar in case you need a quick energy boost.
Travel health insurance providers (THIPs) are helpful, especially when going on work trips. Sign up early so they can let you know about any possible breakouts or other health alerts. You’ll also be happy to know that health alerts are part of the Holiday Tours Travel Safety Promise, which is our promise to look out for your health.
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Plan for Emergencies
You should already have a list of people to call in case of an emergency when you plan your work trips. Your embassy and hotel are two of the most important. Your travel planner, a coworker or client, or even your accountant or lawyer might also be on this list. If you have to be held up, this keeps things moving along.
Have a plan B at all times. What do you do if your flight is late or gets canceled? Will your hotel keep the room for you? Is there another way to get where you want to go when you get there? What about other places to stay? If you can’t make it to your business meeting, will a video meeting do? Or, can you send someone else to your place?
Having insurance is one of the best ways for business travelers to stay safe. Having coverage for losses, natural disasters, and other bad things will lower the costs of your business trip and save the company money it didn’t expect.
During all this planning, make sure you have all the paperwork you need and that it is up to date. In addition to your insurance policy, you will usually need your passport, proof of immunization, a flight ticket, a hotel reservation, your driver’s license if you need it, and maybe your credit card.
Take Precautions With Technology
Some of your documents will be in digital form, but a printout on paper is still the safer choice. Our phones can do a lot of things at once, and if they don’t work for any reason, like a software update, an app glitch, or a dead battery, paper is the perfect backup.
(A power bank should also be an important part of your tech stuff. In fact, many people say that people at meetings should share a power bank or even a power strip. It’s a sign of friendship, and it makes sure that people will be close and talk to each other. (In the end, this is how networking starts.)
In some countries, like South Korea and Japan, you can charge your phone at convenience shops and supermarkets. Even though not all shops offer this service, the idea of charging stations and renting power banks is catching on around the world. You can always bring your own, though.
If you use free Wi-Fi in public, you should know that these networks are not safe, so your personal and business information could be at risk. Investing in a VPN that can be used abroad is a good way to make sure that all of your work communications are encrypted and safe when you travel for work.
Understanding Business Travel Safety and Security
We’ve already talked about a lot of different parts of business trip safety and security. Let’s look at both of them.
Corporate travel safety has to do with your workers and how you can help keep them safe. All of these things are done to reduce the stress of business travel on workers. They are pre-travel risk assessments and management, backup plans, health precautions, and insurance.
On the other hand, corporate travel protection is meant to keep company assets safe. It includes things like security rules, training employees in the best ways to do things, and a certain level of technological know-how. Business spying is a real danger, and stealing trade secrets in an unethical way can hurt your business financially.
So, when an employee travels for work, it is the company’s job to make sure both the safety of the employee and the security of the company, since one is likely to affect the other.
Safety is always your first priority. Always check out all safety tips before traveling by road or by air.