4th February 2020
Coronavirus: Our Top Tips To Protect Travelling Employees
The recent Coronavirus outbreak once again puts public health, and the safety of international travel, in the spotlight. This blog highlights our top tips that organisations can take to manage traveller health, safety and wellbeing:
To effectively manage travel risk you need to have robust policies and procedures in place. These should be clearly communicated to all staff who undertake travelling in the course of their work.
Top Tips
- To Fly or Not To Fly – Situations such as the coronavirus outbreak can change rapidly, potentially leaving travellers stranded or quarantined. It is therefore important to make ‘fly/no-fly’ decisions based on best available guidance such as government travel advice.
- Consider whether the travel is absolutely necessary: for example, can you use technology such as video conferencing in order to reduce the risk, time, cost and environmental impact?
- If travel is deemed necessary, then you need to assess and manage the risk accordingly. The necessary control measures should be identified as part of this process by using all available guidance such as government Foreign Travel Advice and Department of Health websites. It is recommended that the travellers themselves should be involved in this process.
- Make sure you have systems in place for knowing where your workers are, and where they are going. Consider using travel management systems/GPS/apps to assist with this issue.
- Have procedures for dealing with incidents or emergency situations that your travelling staff may be involved in, also ensure your insurance is adequate and in place to cover all work-related travelling. Most insurance policies will include a 24/7 helpline for such eventualities.
- Finally, ensure your travelling staff are well informed on the risks of the Coronavirus by using our Pandemic E-learning awareness course. Pandemic Awareness is a short E-learning course that provides employees with key information on how to prevent and control the spread of germs.
Appoint Lighthouse As Your Health & Safety Competent Person
The competent person role does not have to be fulfilled internally within every company. You can, therefore, outsource the appointment to a contractor or consultancy with the necessary qualifications and experience.