Many campaigns on behalf of women have launched in recent years, reflecting the heightened awareness of women as victims. The range of specific subject interest has been considerable. This has included such high-profile and important topics as inequality of male-female board membership in FTSE-listed companies to violent crimes against women. Emma Watson – of Harry Potter fame – promoted a United Nations initiative called HeForShe in 2014. The aim has been to galvanise international action to counter violent crime against women, as part of a broader impetus towards gender equality and parity of respect. In this short article we focus on a very small part of the spectrum and one that is particularly important for most corporates. Thus we examine the challenges women business travellers can face and what companies can do about them.
CEOs are accountable to their employees for putting in place a system to enable them to travel securely and safely. The publicity given to sexual assaults in India and the Middle East in recent months is a warning to CEOs whose businesses operate in these regions. The risks facing female employees are in general greater than those facing their male counterparts. These include not only rape but also kidnap, assault, murder and robbery. In all cases, women tend to be more vulnerable. In terms of impact, it is not just the victims themselves who suffer. Theft, for example, is particularly pertinent to both the employee and the business; corporate travellers often carry sensitive information, whether in hard or digital form. A stolen briefcase could therefore have significant implications for the company, including loss and misuse of intellectual property or sensitive client information. This could result in counterfeiting, extortion, blackmail, reputational damage, lawsuits and fines. It is also possible that a failure by CEOs to protect travelling employees could result in cessation of operations in a certain country or region. Therefore, amongst other precautions, it is vital that firms and their employees are briefed on the local security context and how they can mitigate the risks, in order to reduce the likelihood and impact of adverse incidents.
Those managers charged by CEOs with responsibility for travellers need to ensure that their female employees are prepared for a range of eventualities. They should take, amongst others, the following actions:
1. Provide training to give employees relevant skills ranging from situational awareness to basic self-defence, covering all possible contingencies or “what ifs”.
2. Furnish travelling employees with reports on countries of relevance, to cover the security situation and mitigating actions.
3. Handle personal information pertaining to their employees – such as hotel room numbers and itineraries – discreetly and confidentially. This might include the use of ‘Cloud’ services so that sensitive information is not stored on devices potentially available to thieves.
4. Equip employees with rubber doorstops to prevent hostile entry into hotel rooms and with personal safety alarms for use in the event of an attack.
5. Pre-book and vet transport companies for security, safety, punctuality and reliability.
6. Carry out remote checks with employees at pre-agreed intervals in order to ensure that they remain safe and their location is known. Examples include automated text messages that require a particular answer to indicate that the employee is safe – to be followed by a pre-arranged procedure in the event that no such answer is forthcoming.
Employees themselves also have responsibility for their own safety. They should:
7. Conform to procedures set by their employers for their safety, eg. use only approved booking processes and approved hotels and inform their employers if they are having to deviate from arranged itineraries for whatever reason.
8. Get into taxis before their luggage is placed in the boot or trunk, in order to ensure that the driver cannot drive away with it.
9. Avoid overindulging in alcoholic drinks in order to ensure that they are thus better prepared to deal with adverse situations.
On their return, rather than just move on to the next demand placed on them, employees should be required to report any adverse events or “near misses”. This will have the purpose of ensuring that travel procedures are amended and improved in order to keep those who follow them both safe and secure.