Dive Brief:
- Employers with workers who travel or work abroad have a "duty of care," meaning they must do their best to offer those workers the best security, safety and wellbeing possible. According to a new Duty of Care for Global Mobility study from Crown World Mobility, recent events are driving many employers to rethink and update their duty of care policies and strategies, HR.BLR reports.
- The two areas are having the most impact: Geopolitical instability and technology developments. Yet, the study found that existing policies and strategies may not be designed with these more recent shifts in mind.
- To counter that trend, the survey found a number of employers organizing stakeholder taskforces that include HR, corporate security, business leaders, corporate travel and global mobility, according to HR.BLR. These groups seek to assess the new environment, the technology and resources available to ensure that duty of care policies are updated based on today's realities.
Dive Insight:
With those survey results as background, it would seem like a great time for HR leaders to get in front of the duty of care issue. Some of the questions posed by HR.BLR include checking to see if employees are using do-it-yourself travel approaches, which can be risky. HR should be monitoring where employees and their families live during foreign assignments. Do employees know who to contact in an emergency?
All good questions for HR leaders to bring to the table if involved in a duty of care task force. Better yet, if an employer's duty of care policy hasn't been scrutinized or updated in awhile, HR can take the lead in organizing such a task force, as employee safety is a serious matter under HR's overview. At the same time, it may also be time to look into how to best optimize the expatriate experience as well.