SAP Concur and International SOS have partnered to release a guide, 'The Single Most Important Part of Your Job,' offering duty of care advice for travel and HR managers. Based on risk research, the guide covers five areas: information integration, geopolitical risks, health threats, mental health, and remote work safety.
SAP Concur blog provides travel safety guidelines for employees, covering pre-trip planning (extreme weather, cultural differences, civil unrest, documentation), training and support, and safety tips (keeping belongings safe, emergency contacts, transportation, health). It emphasizes employer duty of care.
A SAP Concur blog post discusses business travel readiness in the post-pandemic era. As COVID-19 restrictions ease, travel managers are swiftly adjusting policies, with 40% now requiring pre-trip approvals. Pre-approvals are not only for cost control but also crucial for duty of care. Companies need to define essential and permissible travel and understand each country's travel rules, testing, and quarantine requirements. Data tracking and TMC collaboration are vital for traveler safety. The article also mentions tools from partners like Deloitte and free resources like Travel Vitals and TripIt Travel Resource Center.
A recent GBTA Foundation study reveals that while employers care about traveler safety, there is often a lack of programs to ensure it. More than half of business travelers in Germany, France, and the UK book outside their corporate tool, and fewer than two in five employers have systems to capture travel plans, leaving them unaware of traveler whereabouts. Additionally, a third of respondents say their employers do not provide an assistance hotline, and there is a need for more specific safety training.
SAP Concur's TripIt Pro has added a Neighborhood Safety Scores feature, providing business travelers with destination safety information. The feature covers 65,000 cities and neighborhoods worldwide, with scores ranging from 1 to 100, representing low to high risk. Scores cover overall safety plus six specific categories: physical harm, women's safety, LGBTQ safety, theft, political freedoms, and health and medical. Scores also change based on time of day. Travelers need the TripIt app to access the feature. Available through Concur TripLink, it aims to help companies enhance duty of care responsibilities.
This SAP Concur blog post predicts post-pandemic business travel changes: higher airfares and fewer non-stop flights in the short term, decreased international travel, increased car travel and rentals, and a greater focus on duty of care. It advises travel managers to secure refunds, review policies, update travel profiles, renegotiate supplier agreements, and streamline processes.
Citing a GBTA Foundation survey, SAP Concur says 57% of business travelers agree that 'nowadays, any destination could be high risk.' The post identifies risk-management gaps: 58% of travelers said they would call their supervisor, 60% of travel managers rely on travelers to reach out when they need help, and 31% of travel managers say they are unable to support travelers who book outside their system. It recommends reviewing employee awareness and education, infrastructure and data integration to meet duty of care.
The George Washington University (GW) operates in more than 100 countries, creating a large volume of student and faculty travel and expense management. Manual reimbursement processes and siloed data previously made it hard for security teams to track travelers. After adopting SAP Concur solutions, students and faculty can photograph receipts and auto-generate expense reports, improving finance approval efficiency; the security team uses Concur Locate to consolidate location data, proactively monitor risks, and send notifications to affected individuals.
SAP Concur experts released predictions for business travel, expense and invoice trends in 2018 and beyond. Predictions include: paper receipts becoming obsolete as e-receipts standardize and countries such as France, Spain, China and Japan deregulate paper receipt requirements; non-traditional payment technologies like blockchain and vCards changing transactions and reimbursements; cloud technology enabling small businesses to adopt enterprise tools faster; predictive analytics and personalization transforming business travel; duty of care remaining a C-level priority; and employee-initiated spend becoming the largest unmanaged spend category.