Keeping in touch with travelling staff at events and conferences to help secure their personal safety

With staff now back travelling following a sustained period of ‘staying put’, security and risk management professionals once again are required to ensure employees are safe and secure outside of the direct working environment. And, while recent geopolitical events continue to cause additional risks, how can this best be done? Craig Swallow, CEO at Vismo, argues technology and apps could provide the answer.  

When staff are travelling on their own or in groups, or working alone, it can be imperative to both the employer organisation and employees to keep in touch and ensure touchpoints remain open. Work may involve attendance at large scale events and international conferences where, despite security procedures by their organisers, risks remain, or where changes in timetables might have to be reported as quickly as possible to attendees.

Companies that send large numbers of staff, VIPs, clients and media crews to major sporting events for a short period of time should have a plan that enables the accurate location – and mass notification – of them, to communicate any changes to plans or give urgent advice about security risks.

Protection of staff when they are at any point between their office or home and final destination is paramount. The protection should continue at the final destination for as long as is deemed necessary, then on the return leg to home or the office.

Steps taken include ensuring that it’s quick and easy for staff to speak with a manager or security staff whenever they are in danger, feel in danger or are unsure of anything.

Identifying risks through risk assessment is the first step an organisation can take to build a strategy for protecting all its employees, senior execs included. As particular risks are posed to lone and travelling workers, risk reduction/elimination solutions can be tailored to needs specific to any situation in which they might find themselves.

WATCH: On-demand webinar – How to protect all staff in a world of hybrid working? 

Apart from reducing or eliminating risk to life and limb, solutions can help with business continuity, productivity, resilience of the organisation, a more appreciative workforce, reduced financial risks – and improved, where required, credibility and reputation in the market. It should go without saying that, in addition, talent acquisition can become easier and human capital management simplified.

ISO 31030 – A universal guideline for travel risk management?

That is all helped through the use of ISO 31030, the new standard in travel risk management already used by large employers as their benchmark to help protect their lone and travelling employees. Before ISO 31030 was introduced there were no universal guidelines for travel risk management. Organisations relied on their best judgement when implementing travel safety policy and procedure. The result was gaps in wider efforts around people risk management.

Consequently, ISO 31030 was designed to cover all aspects of business/organisational travel, and apply to a range of contexts and travel requirements. It provides guidance to those looking to create or improve their travel risk management strategy while ensuring the safety of any travelling employee. Included is risk assessment, threat and hazard identification, opportunities and strengths, and prevention and mitigation strategies.

It’s applicable to commercial and public sector organisations, NGOs, charitable and not-for-profit organisations and educational organisations. It does not apply to tourism and leisure-related travel, except where people are travelling as part of their work. But, as with duty of care, it does apply to any individual performing work for an organisation of any kind, including volunteers and contract workers.

Locate, advise, support

How can an employer organisation locate and communicate with individuals or groups away from the office or wherever they are working? App-based technology locates and helps protect staff wherever they are. It comprises lone worker management, mass notification, timed check-in and incident management in one package, all managed by an employer’s admin or security team via a secure portal provided by the app supplier. An option is for the employer organisation to outsource it all to the app solution provider.

Timed check-in

With staff now back travelling for events, are apps the answer to their security and safety?

Applicable for use at events and conferences, and wherever a worker – especially a lone worker – might be at risk when entering a building to meet someone they don’t know, the timed check-in feature comes into its own. It enables the user to inform their manager or security team when they entering an area or building etc, and when they expect (or know they definitely will) leave it.

Estate agents, care workers, security guards, business consultants and cleaners are examples where lone workers might be at heightened risk through having to meet, or come across, people they don’t know. Allowing the employer to know an individual’s precise location and the time they will be there, or expect to be there, is the ideal for safety purposes. If the user does not report, via the app, that they have left an area or building after a pre-determined time, security personnel will be automatically alerted and take appropriate action, which can include physical intervention via the police or external security services that operate 24/7.

Sudden, known security risks

Pro-active steps can be taken against risks like these when risk intelligence feeds are managed in junction with the app. The feeds provide warnings about incidents or local characteristics that pose, or might pose, a risk, or where a risk event is actually happening – and the severity level of the event. Employers’ admin or security team can rapidly collate the risk information, and then mass notify app users of the event and how to take action to reduce threats to their wellbeing. Alternatively, the employer can outsource that task to the safety app solution provider.

Both short and long term arrangements for the use of the Vismo Locate and Protect App allow for its rapid deployment across any number of staff anywhere globally. It can be used where network signals are weak or non-existent; that is, with satellite trackers and satellite phones. The app works with the full range of possible devices, smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops included.

In summary, real-time, app-based approaches to worker security ensure that touchpoints are available for instant use whenever they are required or their use anticipated. Being two-way, they provide optimal communication including voice and text, and come with the assurance that, should it be required, in-house or external admin and security teams can call on emergency services and private security firms to assist any user or group of users in need of it.

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