The ISO 31030:2021 travel risk guidance arrives just in time for organizations struggling with how to manage their travel risk policies now that staff are beginning to travel more widely, including to meetings.
While COVID has been the biggest, often only, travel risk organizational travel managers have been dealing with lately, it is by far not the only potential hazard staff face when they head out to the annual convention, corporate board meeting, or any other event that requires an out-of-office trip. In addition to the pandemic, there can be accidents, other health emergencies, crime, natural disasters, cyber threats and other security risks … the list goes on.
The new ISO 31030:2021 guidance covers every aspect of employee/attendee travel, from communication protocols and platforms to incident management to traveler tracking. The goal is to help companies develop a travel risk program that takes travel risks seriously. This benefits the organization in multiple ways, from protecting personnel, data, intellectual property and assets, to reducing legal and financial exposure. Most importantly, being able to provide true duty of care to travelers improves worker confidence that their health, safety and security is being planned for and protected while they travel on the organization’s behalf
The new document provides a blueprint for organizations of any size or type that has a duty of care related to staff, volunteers, contractors and subcontractors, even students and families who travel with someone who is on the road on behalf of the organization. It is designed for use by any type of organization, from corporate entities to not-for-profit and charitable organizations, and governmental and educational organizations. While its main intent is to provide health and safety standards, ISO 31030:2021 also covers resilience, business continuity, security, cyber-security, and overall traveler well-being.
ISO 31030:2021 began as a publicly available standard developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI). Due to the phenomenal interest it generated, BSI decided to further develop it into a full technical standard that could be used by any organization, anywhere in the world, said Kevin Myers, Convenor of ISO 31030, in an informational video provided by International SOS. Work began in 2018 and the working group received more than 1,000 comments from people in 24 countries.
For more, visit the ISO.org website.
You May Also Be Interested In…
How to Make Events Safe in the Omicron Era: We Asked An Expert
5 Meeting Travel “What Ifs” Answered
New Study Reveals Changing Meetings Landscape
