In an increasingly uncertain world, business travelers face unique challenges, and hotels remain one of the few easily accessible indoor areas. Other public areas such as airports, sports stadia, museums and train stations limit access to ticket holders or require security checks.
GSA manages and maintains an independent global standard for hotel security. The standard has been established and maintained by vastly experienced senior police officers, counter terrorism experts, military and international security experts.
GSA delivers the most comprehensive and effective standard for hotel security in the world. Several recent high-profile incidents have thrown a sharp focus on hotel security and the need for robust travel risk management (TRM), particularly for those on business trips.
GSA was created to deliver a global independent security standard for the hotel industry, providing peace of mind for organisations and their travelling employees.
How does your travel risk management policy stack up against the new ISO 31030 standard?
The new ISO 31030 Travel Risk Management standard was published in 2021 and provides the first global benchmark for those responsible for corporate travel management around best practice in delivering duty of care to employees, and delivering confidence to staff that are required to travel as part of their job.
Following the ISO 31030 standard shows that a company has demonstrated a high level of due diligence around mitigating emerging threats and travel risk, and places employee safety as a primary priority in its corporate travel management priorities. Meeting the standard also helps reduce legal and financial risk if things go wrong during travel.
GSA can help your organisation understand whether its current policies, processes and procedures comply with ISO 31030 and help businesses understand what they need to do to achieve this important standard.
Key considerations around complying with the ISO 31030 standard includes:
- analysing the traveller population to assess risk and potential vulnerabilities
- understanding more about travel destinations including the risk profile of travel and ground transportation policies and practices
- validating the safety, security and health standards of travel accommodation against best practice
- demonstrating proactive incident management processes, including crisis communication protocols, medical support overseas and evacuation/relocation policies in the event of disaster, disruption or terrorism.
We offer two services to organisations looking to get ISO 31030 ready:
ISO 31030 Readiness Assessment
GSA will assess your current policies, practices, and procedures, and assess whether these are in line with the ISO 31030 standard. A trained auditor will analyse the company’s policies and procedures related to Travel Risk Management. The auditor will then provide a report outlining the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses and offer a checklist of actions required to meet the ISO 31030 standard.
“GSA undertook a very robust and in-depth review of our internal guidelines and procedures and this included interviewing Regional Protective Security, H&S, Travel Services personnel to gain a detailed overview of travel security across several international geographies. The final report from GSA highlighted several gaps in our overall service but provided a remediation action plan to enable us to effectively manage the points raised as well as offering additional consultation services to support this process.”
Michael Holmes, Global Protective Security Corporate Services, HSBC Group Management Services Ltd (HGMS)
ISO 31030 Readiness Assessment & Audit
In addition to the assessment, GSA can benchmark all policies and processes related to travel risk management against the ISO 31030 standard. The trained GSA auditor will review travel risk management documentation, interview key personnel and provide an audit of ISO 31030 compliance, towards a certificate of accreditation to the ISO 31030 standard.
“We underwent GSA’s ISO 31030 readiness assessment and audit, and just got certified. The whole experience with GSA was smooth and reliable. Communicating with them is easy and straightforward, the recommendations they gave are accurate and helpful.”
Koen Jansen, Group Travel Safety & Security Manager, Booking.com
“We are absolutely thrilled to receive the news that the Strand Palace Hotel has been re-awarded the Accreditation. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team, and it gives us assurance and confidence knowing that our security protocols and procedures are progressive and meet the required standards. We greatly appreciate the detailed Technical Report. These documents will be invaluable in our ongoing efforts to maintain and promote the highest standards of security at our property. Thank you once again for your support and for this prestigious accreditation. We look forward to continuing our partnership with GSA.”
Emmanuel Nwankwo, Health, Safety & Security Manager, Strand Palace Hotel
Travel Risk Management Maturity Questionnaire
This TRM Maturity Model is a framework that seeks to help organisations assess and enhance their travel risk management practices. It provides a structured approach to evaluating the current state of and an organisation’s TRM programme and guides the development of more sophisticated and effective risk management strategies over time. The model typically categorises maturity levels from basic to advanced, outlining specific characteristics, processes and capabilities at each stage.
There are 24 questions and it should take around 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire. You will receive a report directly afterwards which you can download or have sent to you via email.
START YOUR TRAVEL RISK MANAGEMENT MATURITY QUESTIONNAIRE
A guide to BS ISO 31030:2021 Travel risk management — Guidance for organisations
Effectively managing risks for an organisation is crucial to success. In the field of travel risk the challenges range from day-to-day events that can impact on performance, through to crises that can threaten life or destroy whole organisations. Risk to people working around the world for their organisations is complex, and many organisations have struggled to understand and balance what capabilities they need and what is appropriate for their people and business.
This new guidance provides a framework developed by experienced international experts to help organisations meet their ‘duty of care’ obligations and deliver proportionate, effective travel risk management, supported by a managed solution that delivers peace of mind to organisations and their business travelers.
