We are happy to announce that the first international standard on travel risk management – ISO 31030 — was published earlier this month, on 13 September. The Standard is now available for purchase from ISO or your National Standards body (SCC in Canada). If your organization sends employees on business assignments, whether domestically or internationally, this new standard will be of great interest to you.
Back in 2018 when the development of the standard began, no one foresaw the challenges that lay ahead with the global pandemic, but it is testimony to the creators of the standard – a group of travel risk management (TRM) experts from around the world including EBI Consulting vice-president Joël Marier – that they were able to progress the project with such restricted opportunities for “in-person” engagement.
The publication of the standard is timely as many industries start to think about increasing travel again over the next few years. Many (if not most) organizations where travel is an essential requirement of their activities are likely to be reviewing their priorities and policies and re-considering their objectives, as well as looking to manage the effect of uncertainty on those objectives. ISO 31030 will provide a structured framework for them to do so. The Covid-19 pandemic has also increased awareness of health and well-being issues and brought terms like risk assessment into more common vocabulary.
EBI Consulting can help your organization take advantage of these best practices from ISO to improve your operations and your travel safety. A good first step would be to familiarize yourself with the key elements of the standard. You can order it through ISO or read an extract on ISO website.
Another good step would be to take the lead and help organize a cross-department team to review the implications and response within your company. This is a good opportunity to raise travel safety awareness and to ensure the alignment of the values of your organization with its travel safety practices.
As well, you may wish to have an external organization do an audit of your travel safety policies and operations. For more information, please contact Joel Marier.
