How to manage your employer’s Duty of Care in a rapidly changing global environment

How should an employer discharge their duty of care without trampling across the private life and personal freedom of their employees? We talk to Richard Harris-Deans, partner and director of advisory at CHC Global, an expert on travel risk management and employer’s Duty of Care.

Business travel is starting to rebound after Covid, and companies are now sending staff on assignment to emerging and frontier markets in the search of new global opportunities. While oil and gas companies have long been at the forefront of managing staff in hardship locations, organisations with less “frontier experience” are beginning to consider sending assignees to what might previously have been considered challenging or “hardship” locations.

For example, parts of West Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and Nigeria are a growth market for many sectors, but there is a growing threat of kidnap and ransom, as well as an increase in terrorism in those regions. Even in relatively ‘safe’ locations in Europe, travellers face the threat of low level and opportunistic crime.

Then there is the issue of keeping employees safe without requiring them to disclose private or personal information which might be compromise their security. With more globally mobile employees, there is a growing awareness that what might not be an ED&I issue for a member of staff in one part of the world might be a serious consideration for someone working in a very different culture or location.

Different employees also have backgrounds which may place them at more or at less risk in certain jurisdictions or geographies. Employers have a duty of care to all employees, and this includes considering assignments or work placements where their gender, sexuality, race, or opinions might put them in danger. Broaching the subject of personal safety, gender, political opinions, race or sexual preference with an employee can, however, be very difficult to navigate. Employers need to strike the right balance between respecting employees’ privacy and ensuring that they carry out the proper duty of care.

This article is taken from the latest issue of Think Global People magazine. Click on the cover to access the digital edition.

The growing trend of civil unrest on a global scale and what it means for employers

 “Over the last 10 years there have been much higher levels of insured losses from civil unrest and rioting than there have been from terrorism,” says Richard Harris-Deans, partner and director of advisory at CHC Global.

CHC Global are risk advisors for organisations and professionals working in global mobility. Richard’s expertise is in analysing strategic security issues, including advising clients on their exposure to terrorism and political violence. Prior to joining CHC Global, Richard spent 13 years working for the British Government at the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  He focussed on national security issues including geopolitical developments and strategic threats, including terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the actions of hostile nation states.

“The drivers of this global unrest are all the things that we are seeing in UK but magnified in other in other markets,” he says. “Falling living standards, rising inflation, particularly in emerging markets, weakening currencies, and people having to pay more for their food and energy imports.

“All of these things are putting a lot of pressure on various countries. In countries where the government might have a lack of legitimacy or there is a feeling among the population that the government is not really invested in its voters’ wellbeing, those things can make quite a combustible mix.”

He says that this unrest is no longer confined to emerging markets but has much wider implications across the globe.

“If you look at some of the protests in the United States over the last couple of years, you can see this is often associated with election cycles. It is global problem, and one which companies need to be aware of.”

Competition between powerful nations has serious implications for business

Another key trend that is emerging is strategic competition, that is, tension between great national powers. The war between Russia and Ukraine has had a profound global impact on relationships between Russia and Europe and on world energy prices and global trade. Tensions between the US and China are also causing issues for businesses in many geographies and industries.

“We thought we had consigned these tensions to the Cold War but they have come back with a vengeance,” Richard says. “Competition between the US and China in particular has a capability to affect almost everything. It is not just a niche, diplomatic subject of interest. It raises issues around our ability to access key technologies. There is a 24-month waiting list on some vehicles because of the tightening of supply chains which was mostly driven by COVID, but this could get even worse if we see the uncoupling of US and Chinese supply chains. If China were to invade Taiwan, the effects would be extraordinary in terms of the impact on global GDP.”

A major concern to corporates is managing their investment abroad, and the risk of expropriation of assets, he says.

“A number of relatively radical left- wing governments that are in and out of power in some parts of the world have taken a quite a punchy view of wealth redistribution and how they manage natural resources in particular. That is now more of a concern now in Colombia, for example, whereas in the 1990s there was potentially a greater risk of kidnap and ransom there.”

The other consideration for global HR managers is the threat of terrorism. Richard says that unfortunately there has not really been any sort of “peace dividend” in the field of terror attacks.

“It would be tempting to think that with the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the decline of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, that terrorism in some respects is receding,” he says. “Sadly that doesn’t appear to be the case, particularly if you look at central and west Africa where Islamic State and the

Al-Qaeda franchise is growing at an extraordinary rate. The idea that we can discount terrorism as yesterday’s problem is not plausible.”

Although kidnap and ransom remain low frequency events and rarely affect Western business travellers and tourists, if an incident does occur it can have a high impact on the individuals and families involved. No employer would want to be involved in a hostage or ransom situation with an untested travel insurance policy.

Richard says companies should have a clearly-defined travel risk management programme in place, led by HR and involving the security team. It should cover five stages: establishing the programme, pretravel risk assessment, traveller preparation, monitoring and communication during travel, and response in case of incidents or emergencies.

He says the “best in class” approach for global mobility team managers and HR teams is to have a travel risk management programme which assesses the risk, prepares travellers and is able to respond when necessary, all within a clear commitment to duty of care.

“Your duty of care commitment starts at the moment you employ someone,” he says. “It is about making sure that when something goes wrong, and it will go wrong, because that is how the world is, that you are well placed to respond and stop an incident turning into a crisis.”

He says managers need to think about the insurance that the company purchase for its mobile staff. Does it cover all the right things? If you have to call on that policy, will it deliver? Simply purchasing the policy alone is not enough, you need to understand how that policy will perform at the point you need it.

How should companies deal with serious incidents abroad involving their staff?

 Malicious detention, such as being arrested by foreign authorities on fabricated or minor charges, poses significant challenges for companies. In cases like these, the company’s ability to assist is limited, and consular assistance becomes crucial. Companies may focus on supporting the family and engaging with relevant governments rather than directly resolving the situation.

One emerging issue is that individuals who are nationals of a country, or who have dual nationality, are increasingly at risk of random or malicious detentions in certain jurisdictions such as China and Iran. This means that companies need to think about the risk of whether or not to send certain staff to specific locations, even though they would be ideal in terms of seniority and being fluent in the local language.

In fact, Richard says risk assessments should go beyond destination-focused evaluations and consider traveller profiles. Factors such as dual nationality, sector-specific risks (e.g., technology, pharmaceuticals), and personal characteristics (e.g., same-sex relationships, lone female travellers) should be assessed to ensure comprehensive risk management and take the personal profile of the traveller into account. For managers it can be challenging to strike the right balance between protecting the travellers and respecting their privacy.

“If you work in some sectors which are now considered strategically important and linked to national security, such technology, pharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence, the risk is higher,” he says. “These are the friction points between predominantly US and China but also other countries where your executives have access to really interesting intellectual property. Or they may be working in a sector in which both sides are trying to gain market share.”

He says that unfortunately, executives can unwittingly become pawns in a power game between two countries and their detention is often due to a wider geopolitical issue. This means you need to think very carefully about whom you send abroad.

“Historically, if you wanted to gain market share in China or set up a new office, you might use a Chinese national at senior level in the company who speaks Mandarin and knows the product really well,” he says. “On paper, this seems like the ideal person to send, but nationals and people with dual nationality can be at greater risk. It is important to consider their profile, what sort of technology they are carrying with them, and how you manage the risk of them travelling to that location and the risk of information being stolen.”