New research from employee spend management company Concur suggests that employers are failing their staff when it comes to contacting them regarding major environmental and terrorist events happening close by.

Of the 53 per cent of business travellers who said they had been near an event while on the road, 41 per cent of them said they were not contacted by their company. And of those that were contacted, over a third (37 per cent) rated the contact received as “unnecessary or only mildly helpful”.

Recent events including the Las Vegas massacre, and major terrorism incidents in London, Manchester, Barcelona, Berlin, Nice, Paris and Brussels, have underlined the importance of employer Duty of Care obligations, but less than half of the 1,050 full and part time UK employees surveyed believed their employer would be able to help in any situation.

Nearly all (95 per cent) of those who had been near a major event stated a desire for their company to have a system or programme in place which would alert the employer of their location during an emergency.

On a more positive note, over a quarter of employees (27 per cent) said that their company had learned lessons from recent incidents, with changes in policies, restrictions on business trips to certain areas and investment into risk management solutions.

Commenting on the research Chris Baker, MD of UK Enterprise, Concur said:

“It’s unfortunate but major events, from environmental through to acts of terrorism, have become a fact of life for all travellers. If you’re travelling for business though, your company has a legal responsibility to provide suitable care.

“What these results demonstrate is that UK organisations are not taking this seriously and are skirting on the edge of the law. Even where companies do have the right processes in place, employees are still nervous about the assistance they receive. Data, insights and due process are clearly lacking.”

“It’s good to see companies reacting to the changing environment we find ourselves in, but the numbers show why we must continue developing the technology that gives businesses the awareness and infrastructure they need.

“There is no easy solution with the global marketplace many operate in, so companies need technology that allows them to accurately locate and contact their employees in the case of an emergency.

“Of course, technology is one simply one side of the coin; it’s clear that awareness and understanding of duty of care needs to be improved for both companies and the travellers themselves to provide a true environment of care.”

concursolutions.com