Don’t let duty of care fall to the wayside because you think it’s all about crisis management and nothing else. Duty of care is much broader and a necessary part of all travel policies.
When you think of duty of care, what do you imagine? Putting safeguards in place to protect employees? Traveling to dangerous parts of the world? Employees whose jobs are inherently risky?
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that duty of care is only applicable to dramatic situations and limited to crisis management. Duty of care is far-reaching and affects every traveling employee.
What is Duty of Care at Its Most Basic?
At its core, duty of care is just that. It’s the duty an employer has to its employees to ensure they are well cared for while they’re on the road, particularly during business travel.
The UN defines duty of care as “a legal concept that comes from common law and can be defined as a legal obligation requiring adherence to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others. Another definition of DoC would be a legal obligation to act towards others with prudence and vigilance in order to prevent any risk of foreseeable damage.”
The UN further clarifies that within a work environment, duty of care can apply to the protection of overall health, the safeguarding of personal and professional honor, protection of privacy, protection from harassment and more.
Among Travel Managers and TMCs, this definition has been finetuned to ensure that Travelers’ basic needs are met while traveling on their organization’s behalf. It protects Travelers from dangers that can occur while Traveling and mitigates potential risks before they become an elevated issue.
What Risks can Duty of Care help You Mitigate?
If you’re still unsure about whether or not duty of care is something your traveling teams need, based on your industry and where your Travelers are most likely to travel, consider today’s travel landscape and the evolving threats that surround it.
Extreme weather events are increasingly an issue for Travelers, both business and leisure. As one article noted, Travelers can hardly find any portion of the globe unaffected by severe weather events. Events in recent months include major flooding in Central Europe, hurricanes throughout the American South, and wildfires in various countries. These severe weather events not only ground flights; they also prevent ground travel and cause other issues related to Traveler safety (as well as productivity), such as widespread power outages.
As Safeture details, 2025’s geopolitical landscape is also worth noting. Major conflicts continue to affect the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Tensions remain high in Asian countries- conflict could “escape rapidly,” the provider says, disrupting travel in places such as China or Taiwan.
Why Should You Care About Duty of Care Beyond Crisis Management?
Obviously, duty of care matters in a crisis management situation. You want to avoid crises that would negatively impact your employees or the organization. However, does it really matter on a smaller level when it comes to run-of-the-mill, basic employee Travel?
Yes, and for myriad reasons.
Duty of care, for one, can positively impact employees and overall organizational culture. MetLife’s 22nd Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study found that 92% of employees want more consistent care at work from their employers. Employees want to know that the organization cares about their health, wellness and safety. If an organization can deliver, then the benefits are substantial. For example, the MetLife study found that “employees who feel cared for by their employers are 60% more likely to plan to stay at their current organization for the next year and 55% more likely to feel productive in their jobs, per the study.” As such, for even just retention purposes alone, duty of care should be a priority.
Likewise, yes, implementing a greater level of duty of care may require an initial up-front investment and effort. But it can save your organization’s bottom line in the long run. Duty of care can help you avoid costly legal battles and, on a more day-to-day basis, lost productivity.
So, What Should You Do?
If you’ve yet to do so, now is the time to invest in duty of care. This means using tools such as Safeture to anticipate potential travel risks based on reliable data and communication.
It also means thinking about Traveler buy-in and your travel policy.
Your travel policy should directly address duty of care. It should put safeguards in place that help you maintain that duty of care. This means ensuring that Travelers book their travel through approved channels, for example. That way, you can monitor their whereabouts and travel routes accordingly. It also means enforcing your travel policy and stressing its importance to your Travelers.
Careful collection and data monitoring are also vital for proper duty of care. You’ll need information not only about where your Travelers are going and the risks that may exist there, but you’ll also need information about how your Travelers are getting there and any risks that they may encounter on an individual basis (for example, women Travelers may experience higher risks than other Travelers in certain destinations). Travel policy compliance can ensure that all of this data is correctly collected and stored for use in the event of crisis management.
Need Help with Duty of Care?
Allow the team at JTB Business Travel help. With our duty of care solutions and recent partnership with Safeture, a leading provider of advanced risk management technology, we can ensure that you keep your Travelers and your organization safe. Whether you’re dealing with minor risks like the possibility of bad weather or your Travelers are undertaking trips to high-risk locales that require a greater level of monitoring and care, get in touch now to learn more.
