American SaaS company SAP Concur, which provides businesses with travel and expense management services, has released findings from its European-wide research on business travel – and there are some really interesting findings.
The company surveyed more than 7,400 business travellers and assessed their feelings about travelling for business. It found that 48 per cent of business travellers would consider not travelling abroad for work if it took them to a location they considered unsafe – safety is paramount!
Speaking of safety, 23 per cent of British travellers surveyed by SAP Concur said they were involved in, or close to, a critical incident while away for work in the last year. Sounds like it’s right for travellers to be wary. So why are business travellers concerned? It could be because 20 per cent of European business travellers believe that their employer couldn’t provide any professional support in a major incident. This figure rose to 33 per cent in Finland and 27 per cent in Germany. And if you can’t have faith in your employer, who can you have faith in?
However, all is not lost. In fact, 64 per cent of respondents said that their company takes its duty of care obligations seriously. Emma Maslen, MD of UK Enterprise at SAP Concur, commented on the importance of duty of care: “Without duty of care technology in place, organisations may be sending their business travellers in blind while abroad as they lack the necessary visibility into where their employees will be and when. Organisations need technology that tracks threats and then enables them to accurately locate, contact and offer assistance to their employees in the case of any incidents, be that losing a passport, a medical emergency or in rare cases serious incidents like natural disasters.”
The research, she said, highlights the need for continuous commitment to duty of care and the need for businesses to continue evolving and adapting.
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