The BCI’s recent study of emergency communication capabilities and preparedness shows that 40% of organisations have more than one hundred staff regularly travelling internationally; making communication in an incident extremely challenging. It also shows that 34% of those firms considered that their staff were being sent to ‘high risk’ countries. This made me consider what are the responsibilities of these organisations when sending employees to ‘high risk’ locations.

Good practice suggests that the best place to start is by having an international policy that identifies what level of protection staff will be granted. The norm is to adopt the highest standard of any country in which the organisation operates; for example, if your company is global and has locations in the UK and Cambodia, the company should adopt the UK’s approach to staff safety and security.

Specific country and location risks should then be identified and regularly updated as some area risk profiles change on a daily basis. If it is safe to send staff abroad, then consideration should be given to how they will travel. Local travel arrangements can be one of the most daunting risks as statistically more people die abroad from road accidents than from any other cause.

One of the often most neglected areas is the people themselves. What is their general health condition? Have they been medically screened and properly vaccinated? Have they received any pre-deployment training or been briefed on what to expect in their new working environment? Are they aware of the countries cultural sensitivities including religious differences, customs, laws, mannerisms, personal presentation so that they can avoid causing any offence?

As organisations grow and expand throughout the world they must remember the common law ‘duty of care’ provision that states ‘an employer must take reasonable care of your safety, avoid exposing you to any unnecessary risks and ensure a safe system of work.’ Two high court cases support this obligation – Palfrey v Ark Offshore Ltd and Duske & Ors v Stormharbour Securites LLP and serve to highlight the risks in this arena.

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