Organizations with multinational operations and those with employees who travel across borders are increasingly concerned about managing risk and the duty of care for their travelers, says a new survey by KDS. Business travellers can be put at risk in many ways: natural disasters, geographical or political conflicts, kidnappings, assaults, accidents etc. Therefore, companies try to control their employee’s business travel by monitoring and controlling their bookings and cutting rogue or maverick travel buyer behavior.

“The survey sends every corporation a tough wake-up call,” said KDS Marketing Director Stanislas Berteloot. “Organization’s traveler tracking initiatives are either not working or are not properly enforced, it is absolutely crucial that travel spend is channeled through the defined travel procurement tool to successfully provide duty of care to your mobile workforce.”

Traveler duty of care rests largely on the organization’s ability to successfully track their employees while on the road. Twenty four percent of the people surveyed admitted that they regularly book their business travel outside of the corporate mandated solution, thus making it close to impossible for their employers to locate them. Even more worrying is that a significant minority of 15 percent of respondents stated that they believe their companies are not aware of their location while away on business, clearly highlighting that for that minority it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to repatriate travelers in case of emergency and that duty of care obligations are not being met.

“Ineffective travel management leaves the employee and the organization open to considerable risk and the penalties can be severe” said Berteloot. “Awareness is not enough, organizations must have a system in place that, together with their TMC, can help bring staff home at any time and from any location. To do that control is key.”