International SOS and Control Risks have launched TravelTracker Incident Support.
Incident Support automatically initiates communications with mobile workers who may be affected after a major incident. A consolidated report of employee status is then provided within the critical first hour, allowing managers to prioritise those most in need of help. The new service uses International SOS’ TravelTracker system, travel security alerts, and multi-modal communications powered by the software firm Everbridge.
Nick Charnley, Head of Compliance and Security Intelligence at Syngenta, the Swiss agribusiness, said: ‘We have almost 10,000 travellers a year that our business relies on. Having ‘Incident Support’ is a critical element of our commitment to keeping our mobile workforce safe and providing the utmost in duty of care. In the event of a major incident, we know that our employees will be located, and importantly, assisted as quickly as possible, whether our security professionals are available or not.’
In a recent International SOS survey, near half, 47pc of travel risk professionals said that communicating with employees during a crisis is a leading challenge to protecting their mobile workforce.
Leigh Burns of International SOS says: ‘TravelTracker Incident Support is the fastest way for a travel risk professional to identify whether any of their employees are impacted or missing if a crisis occurs. Speed is imperative during a crisis. As security incidents are on the rise, even in locations previously considered safe, our clients have increasingly asked for a 24/7 support mechanism minimising the time between incident reporting and locating potentially impacted travellers. TravelTracker Incident Support does just this. Our market leading services enable us to provide immediate and expert outreach as soon as a major issue has been validated. We report on employee whereabouts within an hour, and sooner if all employees respond immediately.”
International SOS says that its security staff investigate and validate reporting of major security incidents in under 30 minutes. As soon as that initial validation is complete, the Incident Support service will automatically contact members by email, SMS and text-to-speech protocols. It provides automated ‘resend’ capability so that travellers acknowledge and respond. Collated responses are then provided to Managers within the following hour, and assistance will already be under way if required.
