A key theme of the 2019 conference will be behavioural risk When people move out of their regular settings, their behaviour is likely to change.
The process through which business travellers evaluate their own vulnerabilty and adapt their behaviour is a complex area. Employers are ultimately responsible for ensuring that their travellers are fully aware of the risks posed by travel to a given location but if an employee has a lack of willingness to exercise caution or complacency over the risks, their likelihood of being involved in a health and safety incident rises significantly. How can companies influence their employees precautionary behaviour when they travel abroad for work? Will raising your traveller’s perception of personal risk enhance their precautionary behaviour? Understanding the psychology of travel risk perception and how this might result in behavioural change will assist employers in preparing guidelines and material which stand a better chance of resonating with their workforce. What is your employee’s general predisposition towards risk and how much does this manifest in their assessment of travel risks and behavioural response? Does high risk perception always lead to behavioural change? The costs related to employees who encounter health and safety problems overseas is very high, not to mention the fallout from any resulting lawsuits which may follow.
Duty of care, as it relates to travel safety and risk mitigation is now a widely used expression, embedded in the literature of a burgeoning travel security industry which has arisen from a dramatic shift in the corporate travel risk landscape. With global threat levels involving terrorism, extreme weather, civil wars and other geopolitical factors remaining high, your employees’ awareness and perception of risk has been heightened, as has their understanding of the safe work environment their employers are legally required to provide. Case law from around the world illustrates how employees are effectively demonstrating in court the travel safety negligence of their employers when they sue them following an incident.
How an organisation has prepared for and responded to an incident overseas affecting one or several of their employees, can ultimately mean the difference between life and death, not to mention the fallout from lawsuits, reputational loss and in some jurisdictions, criminal charges and prison sentences for directors. By attending this conference, delegates will be able to hear some of the leading initiatives from corporates and NGOs on how they mitigate risks to their employees and then assess whether their own in-house travel and risk procedures are fit for purpuse and resonating with their workforce. Delegates will be able to ensure they adequately understand the legal implications and liabilities of managing overseas workers and that they are meeting their Duty of Care requirements. The conference will provide an excellent opportunity to network with peers, hear about some of the leading initiatives from companies who are doing it well, swap ideas and best practice and meet face to face the providers who are offering solutions in this area.
Join the Discussion
• How should an organisation interpret reasonably practicable and how might this differ from one company to another? Does the company’s size and wealth have an impact here?
• What is your employee’s general predisposition towards risk and how much does this manifest in their assessment of travel risks and behavioural response?
• How can multinational organisations overcome the challenges posed by cultural principals and attitudes to women in certain countries?
• What risks and liability might an employer face if non-compliance is consistently having little of no consequence for the offender?
• How do you keep your travel risk management programme in tune with a continually evolving business and changing security landscape?
• How should organisations overcome complacency around regular travel and the ‘we know the city, we’ve been there before’ mentality?
• What resources should companies make available to the family of an employee in the event of a serious incident abroad?
• Are companies under estimating the impact of long-term overseas assignments on their expats mental health?
• How can companies influence their employees precautionary behaviour when they travel abroad for work?
• Will raising your traveller’s perception of personal risk enhance their precautionary behaviour?
• How should an employer be communicating the residual risks which they cannot mitigate against?
• Are your travellers zoning out to too many non-targeted push alerts and notifications?
Who should attend?
• Corporate & physical security professionals
• Operational Security & Intelligence
• Global Mobility Professionals
• C Suite and Senior HR executives
• Legal (inhouse & private practice)
• Travel safety executives
• Corporate travel managers and buyers
• Business Continuity
• Health & safety
• Risk management & insurance
• Relocation Management/Residential Real Estate
• Business Continuity
• Operational security & intelligence
• Immigration
For information, please contact Caroline Fuller at caroline@contegoevents.co.uk Tel +44 (0) 797 4406673
Programme (subject to change) Wednesday 1st May, 2019
Day One
8.15 Refreshments, registration and exhibition
08.55 Welcome from the Chair
Suzanne Williams, QPM, Former International Senior Scotland Yard Detective, Crisis Negotiator and Kidnap Investigator
Session One: Welcome
09.05 Keynote Address. How Are The Risks Posed To Our Travellers And Employees Based Overseas Evolving And What Could The Travel Risk Landscape Look Like In 10 Years Time?
9.30 Questions
Session Two: Behavioural Risk
09.35 Behavioural Risk Assessment And Management
10.15 Panel Session – Behavioural Risk – How Do You Influence Change In Your Travellers Behaviour And Attitudes? Can The Decisions Travellers Choose To Make Be Altered?
• Understanding your own profile, how you would react under stress and the behaviours which could get you into trouble.
• Complacency around regular travel – overcoming ‘we know the city, we’ve been there before’ mentality
• Groupthink mentality which can inflame a situation.
• Challenges around alcohol and business drinking cultures
• Being explicit in your expectations of conduct
• What risks and liability might an employer face if non-compliance is consistently having little of no consequence for the offender?
• How do you change the habits and behaviours of subcontractors, agents and consultants who may be representing your organisation?
• How far can you monitor and dictate people’s social media conversations?
• Managing your social media footprint prior to travel, issues around retweeters in your network
11.00 Refreshments
Session Three – Managing A Serious Incident Overseas
11.25 Managing Misconduct Overseas – How Expats And Their Families Unintentionally Run Afoul Of Foreign Laws
• Expat complacence over local laws and regulations
• Segregation of expats exacerbating ignorance of moral boundaries
• Keeping current and informed as to changing local cultural laws
• Due diligence in providing legal assistance on a global basis
11.50 Dealing With A Serious Incident Abroad
• Investigating an incident overseas
12.15 Government Embassies And Consulates- What Can They Do To Assist And What Can They Not? Expectations Versus Reality
• Occasions when embassies should be the first port of call over and above local law enforcement
12.40 Questions
12.50 Lunch
Session Four – Traveller Profiles
1.50 Corporate Case Study-Managing The Specific Travel Risks For LGBT Employees
2.15 PANEL SESSION – How Can Companies Develop Programmes Which Enable Female Employees To Safely And Effectively Conduct Business Overseas?
• Understanding the limitations of generic advice
• Issues arising from restrictive travel advice for women
• Myths and misconceptions about the the risk environment faced by women
• How can multinational organisations overcome the challenges posed by cultural principals and attitudes to women in certain countries?
Session Five – Risk Mitigation
2.40 Safe Havens? – Paris Brussels Barcelona And London
• What specific and general planning should organisations have had in place which could have assisted their crisis and incident management during these attacks?
3.05 Mosul Case Study – When Do You Stop Taking Risks?
3.25 Questions
3.30 Refreshments
3.55 PANEL SESSION – Patterns Of Decision-Making During Past Emergencies
Our panel will discuss lessons learnt and challenges which arose from patterns in decision-making during critical incidents overseas within their organisations.
4.20 Screening Third Parties – Do You Know Who You Are Working With?
• Expectations towards local providers
• Vetting local providers (transportation, guarding, advisors, incident response)
• Pitfalls in the use of local providers with real life examples
• Recommendations for vetting and improving cooperation with local providers.
4.45 Using Business Continuity Principles And Mythologies To Add To Informed Risk Decision-Making And Materiality – What Is Materiality And How Does It Relate To Obtaining Informed Consent From Your Travellers?
5.10 Could I Have Avoided Being Taken Hostage?
• Linking hostage survival training concepts to my own experience
5.35 Questions
5.45 Close of day One and Networking Drinks Reception in the Conservatory
DAY TWO PROGRAMME Thursday, 2nd May, 2019
Session Six – Developing Internal TRM Programmes
9.00 Developing A Defensible Travel Safety Programme Which Caters For Individual Needs
• Communicating risks to your globally mobile workforce
• Communicating residual risks which you cannot mitigate against
• Updating existing policies to resonate with today’s workforce
• The challenges for a multinational in implementing a robust programme with consistent standards across a global business.
• Zoning out to too many non-targeted push alerts and notifications
• How do you conduct a gap analysis to determine your company’s key areas of exposure?
• Treating senior level management differently overseas? What are the challenges around unifying your policies across the board?
• How adaptive is your programme when a situation changes rapidly?
9.25 Getting Buy-In From Unions For Your Travel Security Programme
9.50 Case Study – Building In Security Costs For An Overseas Project Pre-Contract
• What motivated our change in process?
10.15 Case Study – How Do You Keep Your Travel Risk Management Programme In Tune With A Continually Evolving Business And Changing Security Landscape?
• Strategic overview – why we do what we do for our businesses and safety of our personnel
• Tactical operational – mechanism that captures the travel information, which triggers the activities of the security team, dialogue with traveler, advising security teams on the ground, CI analyst providing CI and geo-political awareness, cyber considerations built into plan, contingency planning and briefing the employee
• Tying security, CI, cyber, employee, and PM into the international business concept
• Risk assessment approach and changes on the ground during visit
• The continuous evolution of refining and keeping in tune to the travel cycle process – model developed for international business travel
10.40 Questions
10.50 Refreshments
Session Seven – Data Security
11.15 Insider Threats And Social Engineering-How Does This Relate To Travel Risk Management?
11.40 How Much Of A Priority Is Data Security Within Your Organisation?
• Why is the hospitality industry highly susceptible to data breaches?
• Why is data security worsening even though companies are spending more each year?
• Understanding who owns your traveller data and the data ownership, thirdparty access and legal jurisdictions which apply.
• Legal jurisdiction issues arising from data storage and third-party server locations.
• Breach notification and ownership of resolution.
• What data supply chain risk mitigation measures does your TRM have in place?
12.00 Refreshments
Session Eight – Legal Considerations
12.05 Using Legal Exposure To Motivate Change
• What trends are we seeing in recent case law around the world?
• Residual risk or negligence?
• Making reasoned decisions which are proportional-how do courts define what is proportional in a given context?
• How should an organisation interpret reasonably practicable and how might this differ from one company to another? Does the companies size and wealth have an impact here?
• Beyond box ticking-capturing the audit trail to informed consent which will hold up in court.
12.30 Is Your Home Sharing Accommodation Illegal And Could Your Company Be Breaching The Law?
• An update on the legal constraints of using home sharing properties, places where their use is constrained or prohibited and other legal considerations.
• Countries where Uber drivers could be under attack from rival firms.
• Challenges around extended holiday – what if your employee opts for a home sharing property in a city where they are illegal – is there any recourse on the employer?
• WIFI security
• Dress sense – who has determined that this is a safe environment for a traveller in business attire who run a higher risk of getting lost?
• Issues around amenities and medical assistance – who is responsible for contacting law enforcement in the event of an incident?
12.55 Questions
1.05 Lunch
Session Nine – Health and Wellbeing
2.05 Mental Health Issues For Travellers And Expats
• Are companies under estimating the impact of long-term overseas assignments on their expats mental health?
• Should companies be offering a coping mechanism ahead of postings?
• To what extent can employee assistance programmes and a virtual counselling services help?
2.30 Post Incident Management And Employer Obligations
• Why are organisations worried about PTSD?
• Absenteeism and presenteeism
• Early identification of PTSD-are your managers able to recognise the early signs and do they have the treatment tools to support the individual?
• Why screening your employees pre-deployment does not work
• Peer support training
• The risks of psychological de-briefing
• Snake oil salesmen and quick trauma cures
2.55 Questions
Session Ten – Families
3.00 Duty Of Care Owed To Family Members in the event of a serious incident
• What resources should companies make available to the family of an employee in the event of a serious incident abroad?
• Crisis communication, social media and the fast pace of online news-how should companies be guiding family members of an employee involved in a serious incident?
3.25 Duty Of Care Owed To Family Members of employees on long-term assignments
• The challenges faced by trailing spouses and children – what level of support should organisations be offering?
• Is your assignee’s family life sufficiently robust to weather the transition?
• The impact of effective organizational support on spouse adjustment
• Transition coaching for high risk locations
• Tailoring family support for local staff with diverse needs. Expectations from different cultures.
3.50 Questions
3.55 Chair’s Closing Remarks
4.00 Close of Conference
For information, please contact Caroline Fuller at caroline@contego-events.com Tel +44 (0) 797 4406673
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