Sustainability and Duty of Care:

Keeping your workforce safe

20 August 2019
Aditya Luthra
 Agenda

Key Risks in Asia Pacific

Duty of Care towards your mobile workforce

Best Practices in Building a Risk Mitigation Solution

Case Studies: Sri Lanka attacks & Hong Kong protests

Q&A

2
Key Risks in Asia Pacific
 Perception vs Reality

PERCEPTION
REALITY

4
 Natural Disasters
Escalation by Type of Event
Natural Disaster:

• Major Seismic Zones: Ring of Fire & Himalayas

• Typhoons: North-west Pacific & South-west Pacific

Social Unrest:

• Primary impact is on severe travel disruption (protests targeting central

business districts or transportation hubs (airports, public transport)

• Secondary impact is exposure to violence between rival protest groups

and protesters and the police

Terrorism:

• Several countries in Asia-Pacific remain vulnerable: India, Sri Lanka,

Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines

5
Duty of Care towards your mobile workforce
 Legal and Common Law obligations
towards your travelling employees
• Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA) & Common Law:

• Broad definition of an employer’s Duty of Care

• An employee’s work place extends beyond the four walls of an

office, to include when employees are traveling for work

• Duty for employees travelling overseas for work to provide robust

frame work and risk policy, information, advice, training and
supervision

7
Travel Risk Management:
Challenges and Behaviors

8
Best Practices in Building a Risk Mitigation Solution
 Best Practices in building a Risk
Mitigation Solution

1 2

Employers to Prepare and

proactively educate their
identify and employees for
mitigate risks such risks
Travel Risk
Mitigation
3 4
Constantly
communicate &
Develop effective
track assignees
emergency plans
to update about
to respond to
any hazardous
crises
development

10
 Proactively identify & mitigate risks

• Speed in detection of an incident

➢ Data mining tools

➢ Average time from identification
to publication: > 20minutes

• Accuracy of the information

➢ Open-source intelligence
➢ International SOS global
presence
➢ Provider network on the ground:
Security provider, hotel, logistics
provider, etc.

• Relevant analysis and advice for

the your travellers

11
 Educate employees for such risks

How do you balance the need to reach the widest audience possible with the
requirement for more bespoke or advanced training in certain circumstances?

Adopt a
Multi-Tiered
Approach

12
 Communicate and track
How do you balance the need to reach the widest audience possible with the
requirement for more bespoke or advanced training in certain circumstances?

Deliver preventive
information

Adopt a
Multi-Tiered Find travellers in
Approach relation to an incident
Automated
Tracking
Tools Users / Employee
communications

Management
reports
13
 Effective response to a crisis

• Collect accurate information for appropriate

decision making

• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

• Clear understanding of reliable and available

resources for assistance on the ground

• An existing and close relationship

with these resources

14
Case Studies
 Hong Kong

Knows location of staff

Real-time notifications

Help when I need it

Acknowledgement Hong Kong FP.com

16 Acknowledgement The Star
 Sri Lanka

Zion Church, Batticaloa Knows location of staff

St. Sebastian's Church, Katuwapitiya

St. Anthony's Shrine, Kochchikade

The Kingsbury Colombo

Real-time notifications

Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo

Help when I need it

Cinnamon Grand Colombo

Acknowledgement Hong Kong FP.com
17 Acknowledgement The Star
THANK YOU