Safe and sound

Employers endanger lives, their companies' reputations and risk court action every time they send employees on trips overseas and fail to take the correct measures to safeguard their welfare.  Dave Abbott assesses the risks

Globalisation means health and safety overseas has become a serious issue, with HR management held accountable for designing and implementing effective strategies to mitigate risks.

The Health and Safety Executive stipulates that companies are legally required to demonstrate a "general duty of care" to staff on foreign assignments. This does not just apply to companies with overseas offices or production facilities, but any organisation whose staff participates in international sales trips, vendor assessments or other assignments that could potentially place them in harm's way.

Recent incidents highlight the risks of non-compliance, and in an increasingly litigious society, the legal jeopardy companies risk by not taking the correct measures to safeguard employees.

The kidnap, torture and murder of three expatriate engineers of the British company, Granger Telecom in Chechnya in 1998 was headline news and led to legal proceedings against the company, claiming it was negligent in "the proper care of its employees".

In "traditional" global businesses, such as oil, gas and minerals, engineering and so on, ensuring the safety of employees in distant lands is considered a core HR management competence. However, even these experienced companies have been exposed to damage when their employees become targets. For example when four executives of Union Texas Petroleum were murdered in Pakistan in 1997, the company was sued by the victims' families for negligence.

But threats do not just encompass "dread" risks like abduction, assault and robbery or terrorism. The greatest actual risks overseas, which not only apply to countries that are perceived as dangerous, may be from "mundane" dangers like road accidents, fires in buildings, or simply falling ill without proper medical resources. One of the areas all too often overlooked are the inoculations and the precautions required against the ever increasing threat of malaria.

Reducing the risks

So what should HR teams be doing to safeguard employees, whether expatriate or locally hired?

As with all health and safety issues, the first principle is to conduct a thorough risk assessment. Audit the deployment of staff overseas - who is actually where? For each assignment or post the potential risks should be identified, then evaluated. Evaluation means that a risk is appraised firstly in terms of the likelihood of an incident, and secondly on its potential consequence. For example, a 30-year-old, physically fit expatriate employee might reasonably be considered unlikely to suffer a serious acute medical condition. However, if something does happen then the outcome may depend on their access to local medical resources.

Some organisations, such as international aid agencies, are taking the risk management process one stage further and applying exacting minimum standards when recruiting for posts likely to involve overseas assignments. Although an organisation must be very careful not to act in a discriminatory manner, it can ensure that the individuals it sends to difficult or dangerous environments are physically and psychologically suited to the sort of risks they may encounter, both in the normal line of work and if things go wrong.

Variations of risks within a country, a region or a city must always be considered, for example, some cities such as Johannesburg have very high violent crime statistics but can be safe places to be if you choose home and workplace locations carefully. On the other hand, some crimes are geographically diverse, for example, cross-border kidnapping is becoming prevalent in some parts of Latin America. Remain aware of the day to day changes going on every region you have a company presence, how they may affect your personnel and that your security measures are consistent with any changes. Try and stay one step ahead.

Government bodies offer sources of information on security risks overseas. Large multinationals with in-house security departments will probably subscribe to one or more of the proprietary country risk information services, but information is also available from reports by the US Department of State (www.travel.state.gov) and the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (www.fco.gov.uk/travel). It's worth remembering however, that both have been criticised for phrasing risk assessments carefully to preserve diplomatic sensitivities.

Pre-deployment briefings

These services, however, fail to address the more common, everyday dangers involving road travel and safety of buildings.

Pre-deployment briefings should be given both verbally and in written form and must include a security assessment of the intended location and advice on personal security measures. Some measures can be mandatory, others precautionary. Wherever possible employees' dependants should be included in these briefings. If your chief executive enjoys the assignment of a close protection operative for an overseas trip, the operative's first insistence should be to "buckle up" in the car. For executives travelling without this level of specialist support, training is essential on how to minimise travel risks. Many precautions are simple, like taking a hotel room between the second and tenth floors (accessible to fire ladders). In order to remain inconspicuous, executives could check into a hotel using their own, not the company name. And because an executive of a Fortune 500 company is an attractive target for crime, "dressing down" may be a good idea, but avoid corporate clothing which may be akin to a badge saying "mug me". Staff who did their share of student backpacking, and the air miles accumulators who regard themselves as "able to look after themselves", may not see a need for such briefings and training - but the corporation has a duty to ensure that they get it anyway.

If accommodation is being arranged for a longer stay, the employee and their family must be given security advice both in the selection of a suitable property and in safe behaviour while living there. A good knowledge and acceptance of local customs and habits may help to avoid offending the local population and may alleviate any potential security situations. Use a reputable security firm with a local presence that can advise and provide a 24-hour on-call service. Typically, an apartment in a serviced block will be more secure than a detached house, but the "micro-environment" must be assessed properly. Notwithstanding incidents such as the assassination of the British diplomat Stephen Saunders in Greece in June last year, travel by private car is generally the safest mode of transport. In many countries it is advisable to use local and trusted drivers who have a better knowledge of the area and the risks.

Other precautions

A pre-travel necessity that is all too often overlooked is ensuring that employees receive any required inoculations or anti-malarial precautions in time. To be effective these must be planned in advance to give the jabs or tablets time to become active.

Risk management strategies should always encompass contingency plans that are clear, comprehensive and properly communicated. This should include an evacuation plan covering both medical and security emergencies (confirmed in-country with the relevant embassy or consulate). Cynics may say that a contingency plan cannot cover all eventualities, but ArmorGroup's experience shows that, in an emergency, a "plan from which to deviate" is infinitely preferable to having none at all.

Finally, the HR group must ensure a proper link up with the appropriate insurance providers. Special risks cover may be required and this increasingly includes a kidnap and ransom (K&R) policy. It is a fact of life that a ransom often changes hands in resolving kidnappings in many countries. More crucially, K&R insurers can also arrange specialist crisis management support, which has been shown statistically to improve survivor rates considerably.

The vast majority of overseas assignments are safe and enriching for employees and their organisations. But the consequences of not applying best practice to health and safety in international environments can lead to personal tragedies, organisational jeopardy and legal proceedings.

Dave Abbot is director of ArmorGroup