Agile technology to support Duty of Care
Having a proper travel risk management strategy in place is essential for any business with traveling employees. A proactive approach not only mitigates risks but provides your travelers with confidence that there is a constant focus on their safety and well-being. At FCM our goal is to equip companies with the right resources to meet their duty of care obligations, reduce travel risk and keep travelers safe.
A recent survey of FCM customers indicated that traveler safety topped the list of travel policy considerations to be made post-COVID19.
Over the past few months FCM has been fast tracking its agile technology development roadmap, which has seen multiple releases and upgrades made to ensure customers have the latest COVID-19 information at their fingertips and the technology to help implement policy changes.
Here’s how our technology is helping our customers with Duty of Care requirements:
Direct
A key component of Duty of Care and your travel policy is choosing your suppliers carefully. It’s important to use reputable suppliers, particularly for hotels, as this will affect a traveler’s overall travel experience and the travel manager’s ability to assist in emergency situations. You don’t want to compromise on safety or quality, so if you are using local suppliers, make sure they have been vetted or are recommended by your travel manager.
FCM has invested in the award-wining browser extension technology Shep, that assists companies with better management of travel purchased outside of their corporate travel policies. Companies can use Shep to deliver the latest health and safety messages, informing business travelers about their company’s travel restrictions across more than 1,000 different booking sites, from Concur to Airbnb, Expedia, Delta, and more.
Equip
Information is key when it comes to Duty of Care. That’s why we’ve created a global travel news hub for our customers, that has up-to-date information on travel restrictions, airline and hotel updates and border restrictions.
The hub also features a live interactive map, delivered by travel safety specialist Sitata, which shows areas to avoid, number of COVID-19 cases per country, recovery rates, and local social distancing rules. You can access Travel News Hub on any device, anywhere in the world.
Another key technology component is our COVID-19 Recovery Analytics Dashboard. Through advanced data modeling, FCM has created a COVID-19 reporting dashboard that will enable customers to plot their travel program recovery. The dashboard projects future ticket numbers per month by factoring in the estimated recovery window and the percentage recovery based on historical ticket data. The dashboard also overlays information published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on coronavirus cases per country.
In order to access this valuable data, our account management team will work with you to review the recovery analytics applicable to you, based on your company’s locations and historic ticket volumes in each region and/or country.
Communicate
When your employees get back out on the road or the in the skies, it’s important there’s two-way communication in place.
FCM’s award-winning pocket travel assistant SAM (Smart Assistant for Mobile) is designed to simplify life for the business traveler by blending artificial intelligence with the expertise of a real travel consultant. With SAM, you can send push notifications to your traveling employees. In an emergency, this saves precious time enabling you to communicate critical messages to all your travelers at once.
You can also integrate your travel risk management provider, for example International SOS or WorldAware, ensuring that important information and emergency contact numbers are always on hand.
Monitor
When a crisis like COVID-19 occurs, it’s important to know quickly that your travelers are safe. That’s why FCM takes an intelligent approach to duty of care, offering 24/7 access to a host of advanced travel risk management tools to ensure you can act fast in a time of emergency.
In response to client needs, FCM has developed a COVID-19 Dashboard which can be deployed to customers via Secure, our travel risk management solution. The COVID-19 Dashboard is designed to aid all customers by providing accurate and reliable information about the spread of the virus as well as timely departure and arrival reports to assist travel managers locate and communicate with their travelers.
The Dashboard has several components
- Risk Map outlining the location of confirmed cases worldwide
- Secure Flash Alert tab providing the most up-to-date Critical Alerts issued by WorldAware along with a list of potentially affected travelers
- Security and health risk ratings per country assisting customers to proactively assess the destinations most frequented by their travelers
Powering your Duty of Care Program through People and Technology
At the heart of FCM’s DNA is bringing the human element to your business travel program, and that’s where our people make the difference. As an FCM customer you can rest assured you not only have access to the latest technology built with your traveler’s safety in mind, but you also have dedicated travel experts who will support you through each step of your return to travel.