Is The Safety of Your Business Travelers Worth 45 Minutes?

Today GBTA announced the launch of a new Travel Risk Management Maturity Model (TRM3™) Self-Assessment Tool created in partnership with iJET International.

Duty of care is a major component of a travel buyer’s job. Travel security risks or medical emergencies can happen anywhere and anytime in today’s world, so it is imperative for organizations to have solid travel risk management plans in place.

The new tool is a major update over the current TRM3 tool in place and now assesses each key performance area of a travel risk management program in greater detail and also provides specific recommendations to help companies take their program to the next level.

Key performance areas measured in the self-assessment include:

• Policies and Procedures
• Education and Training
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Disclosure
• Risk Monitoring
• Risk Mitigation
• Response and Recovery
• Notification
• Data Management
• Program Communication

This self-assessment will take only 45 minutes to complete and help to ensure you are doing all you can for the safety of your business travelers. You do not have to complete it all at once and you can start with any of the above categories right after you have completed a set of demographic questions. It was also designed to be updated, giving you the flexibility to come back and update your answers and see how your program has moved along with new initiatives at your organization.

Based on your answers, the tool will rank you from Level 1 to Level 5 based on the maturity of your organization’s travel risk program.

Level 1 is defined as “Reactive” or the default level. This reflects a program that does little to proactively manage travel risk, with staff simply reacting to events as they occur. There are no or few defined policies and procedures, risk monitoring, notification or response protocols.

Level 2 is referred to as “Defined.” Here, organizations have defined and documented key safety and security protocols within their travel programs, with a particular focus on incident response. However, they are missing or inconsistently providing risk disclosure, mitigation and the other elements of a proactive program. There is a heavy reliance on manual processes, which are subject to human error.

Level 3 is referred to as “Proactive” and means that organizations have incorporated some form of employee training, risk disclosure and notification processes as part of a formalized travel risk management program. Automated systems may have been introduced to support the program. Processes are not applied consistently across the organization. However, there is no effort to measure the effectiveness of the program.

Level 4 is referred to “Managed” and describes organizations that have adopted all Key Processes organization-wide, with appropriate systems in place to support the program across regions and business units. Processes are consistently applied and executed. Organizations are collecting basic metrics and actively managing risk data.

Level 5 is referred to as “Optimized” – the highest level of program maturity. At this level, the travel risk program is integrated throughout the organization and is well understood by management and employees, with automated compliance monitoring. Metrics and lessons learned are collected and used to continuously improve the program.

The TRM3 can help guide efficient, effective improvement across multiple process disciplines within an organization and can help companies implement and support a successful risk management program

GBTA members can find this valuable, free resource on the GBTA Hub.