How to Improve Travel Risk Management Engagement

Travel risk management can be perceived as another compliance requirement: something employees need to complete before travelling rather than a service designed to support them.

A well-functioning travel risk management programme should do more. It can help organisations operate confidently by preparing employees before travel, maintaining appropriate visibility during their journey and providing access to support when an incident occurs.

Employees have a role to play too. Sometimes referred to as a ‘duty of loyalty’, travellers are expected to take reasonable steps to prepare for travel, follow their organisation’s policies and avoid unnecessarily increasing their exposure to risk.

Improving engagement therefore requires more than another reminder to download an app. Organisations need to explain why the programme exists, make it easy to use and help employees understand both the support available to them and their own responsibilities.

Before introducing a new engagement campaign, establish a baseline. This will help you identify whether the main problem is awareness, activation or ongoing use.

Depending on your travel risk management platform, useful measures could include:

This tells a better story than app downloads alone. An employee may have downloaded the platform two years ago but no longer remember their password, have notifications disabled or be unaware of its emergency assistance features.

Consider how the technology is deployed too. If your organisation manages corporate mobile devices centrally, making the travel security app available or deploying it directly to corporate phones can remove one practical barrier.

It will not solve an underlying engagement problem, but it makes access easier and reinforces that the app and assistance provider are approved corporate services.

If platform usage is low, ask employees why.

A short survey, focus group or series of interviews with frequent and occasional travellers can reveal where engagement is breaking down. Include employees who use the service as well as those who do not.

Useful questions include:

That final point can have a direct impact on an organisation’s ability to support its people.

Where travel itineraries are integrated with a travel risk management platform through an approved TMC or booking system, an out-of-channel booking may not automatically appear in the platform. Security teams can therefore have less visibility of the traveller during an incident, making it harder to quickly determine who may be affected and provide appropriate assistance.

Depending on company policy and insurance arrangements, non-compliant bookings may also create additional administrative, insurance or legal considerations.

Employees are more likely to follow a process when they understand its purpose. Explain why approved booking channels matter rather than presenting them as another corporate rule.

Sometimes low engagement has a straightforward cause.

Employees may struggle to find the app, forget their login details, receive too many notifications or simply not understand what the platform does.

Create one clearly signposted source containing:

Where possible, consider single sign-on (SSO). Removing another username and password can make access easier, while accessing the service through the organisation’s existing environment can reinforce that it has been approved for corporate use.

Include this information when it is most relevant, such as during employee onboarding, after a trip is booked and in pre-travel communications.

The objective is simple: when someone needs information or assistance, they should already know where to go.

Travel risk management is often communicated from the employer’s perspective: the organisation needs visibility of its travellers and has duty of care responsibilities to manage.

Those objectives matter, but they do not necessarily explain why an employee should engage with the programme.

Communications should make the personal value clear. Depending on the service available, this could include:

The same principle applies when explaining approved booking channels and location features.

An itinerary visible within the travel risk management platform can help a security team identify employees who may be affected by an incident. Location information can help provide relevant alerts or support a response. An SOS function can give an employee a direct route to assistance.

Focus on what the technology enables rather than the technology itself.

Privacy concerns can quickly undermine adoption if employees believe a travel security app exists primarily to monitor their movements.

Acknowledge those concerns and be open about the reasons why that information is collected, why it is needed and how it supports the traveller.

Consider bringing this information together in a Travel Data Privacy Notice covering:

Where location functionality is used, explain the practical security benefit. It can provide another layer of situational awareness, helping deliver relevant alerts, identify whether someone may be affected by an incident and coordinate assistance when required.

Engage relevant privacy, HR and legal teams early. Depending on the organisation and countries involved, this may also include consultation with works councils or unions.

Addressing these questions before launch can build trust and reduce resistance later.

Generic warnings about terrorism, crime or natural disasters can feel remote from an employee’s everyday experience.

Real examples make travel risk management more tangible.

With appropriate permission and anonymisation, organisations could share examples such as:

For each example, explain what happened, how the service supported the traveller and what employees should do if they experience something similar.

These stories can also challenge the perception that travel assistance is only for major crises or evacuations. Many situations are more routine, but having access to the right information and support can still make a meaningful difference to the traveller.

Employee engagement is stronger when people understand the programme rather than simply being told to use it.

Training does not need to be lengthy. Short, practical sessions can cover:

Include opportunities for questions. A practical Q&A can help address concerns about location tracking, privacy, booking processes or emergency support that employees may otherwise be reluctant to raise.

For international organisations, consider running sessions across different time zones and making recordings or supporting materials available afterwards. A simple one-page guide can also give employees something practical to refer to before and during travel.

Adapt communications where appropriate. A first-time international traveller may need different information from an employee travelling every week, while someone visiting a higher-risk destination may require more detailed preparation.

Executive assistants can also be an important audience because they frequently arrange travel for senior leaders.

The aim is not to turn employees into security specialists. It is to make sure they know how to prepare, where to find reliable information and what to do when they need help.

Travel risk management should not disappear from view after an employee downloads an app or attends an annual briefing.

Use regular communication at points when the information is relevant, including:

Timing matters. Employees are more likely to engage with information about business travel security when they are preparing for a trip than when they receive a generic reminder several months beforehand.

Regular communication also builds familiarity. If an employee already knows the name of the assistance provider, recognises the app and understands how to contact the support team, there is less to work out when they actually need help.

Travel risk management should not sit with the security team alone. ISO 31030 provides guidance for organisations on managing risks associated with business travel, including areas such as policy, roles and responsibilities, traveller communication and risk assessment.

HR, travel management, internal communications, crisis management, health and safety, legal and data privacy teams can all contribute to an effective programme.

Senior leadership sponsorship can also help establish travel risk management as an organisational responsibility rather than another security-led compliance exercise.

Each function has a practical role. Travel teams can reinforce approved booking channels. HR can connect travel security with employee wellbeing. Internal communications can make guidance easier to understand. Legal and privacy teams can address questions around traveller data.

Your travel risk management provider should support this process too, providing training, platform guidance and engagement data to help identify where additional communication or support may be needed.

The objective is consistency. Employees should receive the same clear explanation of what the programme does, why it exists, what is expected of them and where they can access assistance.

Travel risk management should not disappear from view after an employee downloads an app or attends an Review engagement regularly and compare it with your original baseline.

Look for changes in:

An increase in employees contacting the assistance service, for example, does not necessarily mean more incidents are occurring. It may indicate that employees better understand the support available and are more confident using it.

Likewise, app activation alone does not demonstrate meaningful engagement. The objective is to understand whether employees are better prepared before travel and know what to do when circumstances change.

Effective travel risk management is not about preventing people from travelling. It is about giving organisations and their employees the information, support and processes they need to make informed decisions and operate with confidence.

For the organisation, this supports its duty of care responsibilities and can help reduce its exposure to legal, financial and reputational consequences when travel incidents occur. For employees, a well-run programme provides greater confidence that support is available before, during and after a trip.

There is also a wider governance benefit. Travel risk is increasingly considered alongside an organisation’s broader approach to risk, resilience and employee wellbeing. A programme with clear policies, defined responsibilities, appropriate controls and measurable engagement gives organisations a more structured way to demonstrate how business travel risk is being managed.

Rather than becoming another compliance exercise, travel risk management should enable people to travel and work effectively while helping the organisation understand and manage its exposure.

Improving user engagement is not achieved through technology alone.

Start by understanding what prevents employees from engaging. Remove unnecessary barriers, explain why approved travel processes matter and address privacy concerns openly.

Once the barriers to entry have been established and improved, then make the value personal. Show employees how the programme can help them before and during business travel, while making their own responsibilities clear.

Support this with practical education, relevant communication and visible backing from across the organisation.

When employees understand what the programme is for, what is expected of them and how to access support, travel risk management becomes more than another corporate requirement. It becomes part of how the organisation and its people work together to manage business travel risk – supporting both employee safety and the organisation’s ability to operate.