Taking that extra step: Duty of Care
Duty of care is when a person or company has to conform to a certain standard of conduct to protect an individual from unreasonable risk of harm. In terms of a corporation and business travel, the employer has an obligation to protect the health, safety and security of its traveling employees when they are sent to other countries for work. When traveling overseas, employees can be exposed to a number of health and security risks, which can pose legal and financial risk on employers under duty of care responsibility.
When a company sends an employee abroad, it’s expected that the employer is following the local and international duty of care laws and guidelines, which merit research. It is also important to always have a risk-management strategy in place, just in case something happens which can become a threat to an employee’s health, security or safety.
According to the International SOS Foundation, which aims to keep workers abroad safe, firms who effectively apply duty of care strategies do the following:
- They assess risks.
- They have duty of care policies in place.
- They educate their employees.
- They stay in touch with their employees abroad.
Ultimately, duty of care is an assurance that employees are safe and is an important consideration when managing the risks and rewards of travel for an organization. It’s the company’s legal responsibility to oversee the health, safety and security of its employees, and when traveling overseas, these risks often increase.
Contact The Plexus Groupe LLC today at plexusgroupe.com to learn more about the responsibilities regarding duty of care and utilizing it to keep employees out of harm’s way.
Zurich, Managing the risk of business travel: what every business needs to know:
http://hpd.zurichna.com/Whitepaper/Zurich-AH-Trvl-Rsk-Mgmt.pdf
International SOS Foundation, About Duty of Care:
http://www.internationalsosfoundation.org/about-us/
International SOS Foundation, Duty of Care: The responsibility of Duty of Care for people traveling away from home:
