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Duty of Care in the business travel and event industry

It´s a term we increasingly use, ´Duty Care´, or the care obligations of employers towards their employees. This is a very important theme for event & meeting planners, groups, and business travellers who frequently go abroad for their work. For Meetingselect, being players in the travel and event industry, the Duty of Care is a top priority. Nevertheless, few companies have embraced the topic. Often, they only focus on individual travellers and forget about meeting and group reservations in hotels. And that´s a shame, because ­ apart from the moral obligations that come with it ­ there are many benefits. Meetingselect has created an innovative online tool that allows our customers to access data of all the staff members and attendees of an event all over the world, by simply clicking one button.

Taking care of your people

In times like these, when natural disasters, strikes in the airline industry, and terror attacks are occurring more frequently, it is important to have a central communication platform that helps us get participants of conferences, group travellers, and employees safely back home again. Unfortunately, anything can happen during a (business) trip. We all remember the ash cloud after the volcanic eruption in Iceland as if it were yesterday: in 2010 all air traffic in Europe was paralysed for several days. To protect employees in situations like these, the Dutch government introduced the Duty of Care law. This regulation states that employers have to take responsibility for the safety and health of their employees. This goes beyond the calamities mentioned above. For instance, if an employee suffers of food poisoning during his working hours, or loses his passport, the employer is also expected to resolve the issue adequately. And how about not having to take the car after a long flight, but simply being able to get a taxi? Offering an employee the possibility of flying business class on intercontinental flights? These are but a few examples of the moral and legal obligations of internationally operating companies.

Immediate access to important data

Meetingselect has created an innovative online tool for buyers, travel managers, risk managers, and basically anyone who deals with business trips and international meetings & events. With just one click you’ll get an overview of data, like the meeting, date, country, booking party, and contact details of both the booking party and the attendees of the (international) event. Whether it concerns a minor incident, like missing a connecting flight, or a terror attack or natural disaster, with this tool our clients have 24/7 access to the following data:

  •  Immediate localisation of domestic and international bookings per location and country.
  • Identity of the booking party and which division has initiated the booking.
  • Up to date, real-time contact details (mobile phone, etc.) of both the booking parties and the location that has been booked.

Clear travel and risk policy.

In order to protect employees it is essential that the organisation has a clearly formulated travel policy. Which vaccination should people get? Which areas can they visit and what are the no-go areas? What are the protocols in case of a calamity? How do you reach people, is there an easy way to locate everybody? Imagine going through each email account and every agenda trying to figure it out! That way you loose way too much precious time. In short, a clearly formulated risk policy prevents nasty situations, like huge claims and reputation damage. Meetingselect´s online tool will assist you with this. And it pays off, because a company could save tens of thousands of euros if something does go wrong. This way living up to the Duty of Care becomes a lot easier.

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