Resilience sector insights - People and mobility

We enable organisations to responsibly support their people no matter where they are.

We have seen significant shifts in the way people work before, during and after COVID with an increased appetite for flexible working styles and travel opportunities.

However, considerations for supporting a dynamic workforce have at times been overshadowed by trends in digital enablement through AI and the not insubstantial challenges of Cyber Security, but also the wellbeing focus, which is rightly a priority, though not in isolation from robust agile working and travel risk practices.

In the short-term organisations need to revisit their travel risk management processes to ensure that from an employee perspective it is clear what is expected of them when planning for travel (risk assessments and authorisations), and the support they can access [and how] whilst travelling. In parallel organisations need to be clear that they do have appropriate provisions for the end-to-end risk management of their people whilst travelling.

A road traffic accident or lost passport can happen anywhere, domestically or internationally, so although it’s easy to focus solely on geopolitical risk and the associated high-risk travel, that isn’t good enough.

Likewise, when working in a hybrid manner, which many organisations have blindly stumbled into through lockdowns, it is worth taking stock of how this has landed and if it is impacting the organisation.

We’ve seen a certain maturity when managing teams and working remotely, however, we have also observed the silent chipping away of traditional company cultures and loss of identity associated with a physical workplace, which has translated into themes such as silent quitting.

Organisations will have to accept that agile working practices and travel assignments are going to be an expectation rather than a privilege and how they enable this will be an intrinsic part of the employee value proposition.

Developing a strong and transparent position which caters to an organisation’s strategy can help with recruitment and retention if it is clearly presented. There may also be an opportunity to engage with employees, managers and teams to build better working practices that strengthen a collaborative and supportive culture which may be reminiscent of pre pandemic working practices. Ultimately, whether you are in the office, on the road or at home you are working for the same organisation and where practicable your experience should be the same.

On the travel side, as [we hope] geopolitical tensions subside travel and mobility opportunities will increase which again will play into your employee value proposition, but having appropriate travel and mobility risk management processes is not the end of the journey. As more employees travel the enterprise risks associated with travel also increase. On a one-to-one basis ensuring approved hotels, airlines and additional in-country support are available are expected controls, and this can mitigate undue risks in certain regions. However, at an enterprise level knowing who is travelling, where they are travelling, and the nature of their travel, will allow you to identify concentration risks and mobility trends. 

When we reflect on our emerging risk and opportunities framework, we consider a number of themes. Understanding where your people need to operate, and the granularity to know what types of roles and activities are taking place, can become significant data points when considering the strategic growth or repositioning of an organisation.

Conversely, recognising where you have not enabled activity to progress will also help you shape your longer-term objectives and unlock barriers to performance.

We can help organisations to take stock of their current position and ascertain if they are meeting their duty of care to their people on both the home and travel fronts, and help prioritise steps to move in the right direction.

We see an overreliance on third parties for travel risk management support, overreliance in so much as the services predominantly focus on geopolitical risk which is seen as a catch all, and often do not get leveraged further by an organisation to unveil enterprise risk exposure – we can help unpick the data and integrate this with good governance, policies and processes for managing travel and mobility at an enterprise level.

Finally, leveraging our Crisis Management and Business Continuity expertise, we can test and exercise your arrangements to both provide you with the assurance that travel, and mobility scenarios are managed, but also to help raise awareness and embed a culture of guardianship.

National Resilience Contact – Dan Breger, Associate Director, Management Consulting

Alex Hurrell, Assistant Manager, Management Consulting