Traveling Abroad on Business
Below is a great article from Risk & Insurance magazine relating to traveling abroad while on business. A good story for Oklahoman's with regards to the oil & gas industry.
To view the article, click here
Summary
A failure to secure adequate amounts of in-country coverage and a lack of crisis preparedness adds up to major losses for an oil exploration company that sees a valuable employee injured in a foreign country.
1. Educate beforehand: As our story shows, the failure to educate an employee about the coverage network available to him and the full range of risks he could be exposed to in a foreign land could have dire consequences. Making sure an employee is briefed on how to protect himself during a crisis on foreign soil should be every bit as important as briefing him on the revenue-generating possibilities of the trip.
2. Know the coverage requirements in every jurisdiction: Different nations have different laws in place when it comes to the actions and legal rights of employees that are traveling on business. Our protagonist Ernie Herrerra was jailed because of a provision in Mexican law which requires a driver in an accident to show proof of financial responsibility or face immediate consequences.
3. Establish protocols for international travel crisis management: The time for creating well-understood protocols for managing a crisis on behalf of a traveling employee is before the employee gets on the plane, not after the crisis develops. An entire crisis management safety net should have been constructed for Ernie Herrerra and wasn’t.
4. Purchase coverage at adequate limits: Is insurance coverage for an employee who travels internationally really the place to cut corners? It is oftentimes our most valuable employees that we trust with traveling to meet with clients or to explore other types of business opportunities. On the one hand, we want to protect these clients. On the other, these talented, top-tier performers, are the ones we can least risk alienating, or in this example, litigating against.
5. Do not lose contact: Perhaps the most frustrating piece of this story for the injured, traveling employee was that he lost contact with his company and his co-workers after his accident. If companies get one thing right in their crisis management plans they should make sure they know how to reach an overseas employee and have options for finding him or her if they drop out of sight.
