With the world feeling ever smaller, business trips overseas are commonplace. But after the pandemic and heightened conflict across the globe, it can also feel like a more dangerous place.
In this blog we will cover what you need to know to put health and safety front of mind when it comes to business trips abroad for your employees.
Post-covid, hybrid working is the norm for many businesses and international travel for work has resumed, and is projected to rise further in 2025. A recent survey of UK business travellers found that 39% expected to take more trips than in 2024.
As an employer you have a legal duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, including when they are travelling for work purposes (Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA)).
Responsibilities
Through the HSWA you are required to ensure the safety of employees. Under UK common law, businesses also have a duty of care towards all workers, and if travelling abroad for their work, your business has a legal responsibility to take every practical step to reduce risks to your staff. So what can you do as an employer?
Business travel risk assessments
When employees are travelling abroad for work, you will need to carry out a travel risk assessment. Doing so will reveal any likely risks and identify how to remove or mitigate them, to ensure the safety of your workers. Any travel risk assessments that your business has should be reviewed regularly each year, and additionally whenever an incident occurs.
Duty of care
It is beneficial to have a duty of care plan alongside any travel risk assessment to consider risks that may be missed. This could include:
- The safety of workers in the location they are travelling to for work.
- Any training needed for workers to ensure safe practices whilst travelling.
- Consideration of the hours worked whilst travelling for work.
- The mental health of workers whilst travelling.
Foreign Office advice
The Foreign Office provides up-to-date travel guidance for 226 countries and territories. It will advise whether travel is deemed safe and give specific information regarding entry requirements, safety and security, health risks and legal differences. You will find guidance on vaccination requirements/suggestions too.
Travel contingency plans
The GBTA found in their study released in 2022 that 75% of business travellers had experienced at least one mishap whilst travelling for work in the previous year.
To ensure that your employees are confident they know what to do If something goes wrong whilst travelling for work, you should also include travel contingency planning for your business. Doing so will help reduce the stress that could be experienced, should something not go to plan. Contingency planning could include responses for the following occurrences:
- Missed flight
- Misplacing travel documents, such as passports or visas
- Being attacked or mugged/robbed
- Becoming unwell, or injured, and requiring medical attention
Next steps
If your business needs support with ensuring the health and safety of staff for travel, then here at The Health & Safety Dept, we are here to help you. We can carry out business travel risk assessments, and review them as needed.
Our experts are on hand to develop duty of care plans and contingency plans to ensure that your staff are looked after when it comes to their health and safety whilst abroad. Just give us a call today to get started.
