Either the travel is domestic or international, risks are associated with it. Despite this fact, planning an international business travel is altogether different from a domestic travel. It becomes even more difficult for small businesses to plan international travel and ensure the safety of their employees at the same time.
Most of the business with more employees and frequent international travels have consultants on board to plan and make necessary arrangements for business travels. Businesses with employees less than 50, do not have the facility of consultant normally. It is the job of the employee or manager to plan the whole business trip.
Here comes the issue of their awareness and necessary procedure that are required for international business travel. It is harder to ensure the health and safety of the employee in such cases.
Paper Writing Pros prepared this article exploring how small businesses can ensure the health and safety of their employee while traveling abroad for a business purpose.
Using the NIOSH Resource:
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has released the small business international travel resource recently. This resource provides complete information and guideline to employees and employers to address the travel concerns properly.
According to this resource, safety is planned at three stages which are pre-travel, on-travel, and post-travel. Each stage provides the information relevant to the job, location, and personal needs during travel.
The purpose of the job assignment planning is to provide information about the unfamiliar rules, hazards, and customs that employees may face during three stages.
Location planning helps the employee to prepare for the changes in climate, geography, and healthcare access during each stage.
Personal needs are all about meeting the individual needs of a person such as food, medical, family, or home life during any stage.
It is a 36-page travel planner resource that has questions to be answered at each stage of a business trip i.e. pre-travel, on-travel, and post-travel.
The pre-travel stage is all about the plans and has 30 questions that are related to the weather, health concerns, local travel, and language difference among others. The on-travel stage is about the travel plan after arriving at the destination. It asks employees to continue the check as the conditions change and update it every two or four weeks. The post-travel stage is about a report after the completion of the journey that needs to be submitted to the employer for evaluation.
Another important feature of the NIOSH resource or travel planner is the employer task timeline. This timeline provides a complete way to plan a journey and how an employer can ensure the protection of its employee by identifying risks and liabilities. This feature also helps in assessing the logistics and communication needs of the employee while on an international business trip.
Importance of NIOSH resource:
Many small business are unable to onboard a consultant for international travel planning and arrangement, so responsibility for organizing an international trip falls on the owners or manager. Despite having experience in their domain it is not simple to plan a business travel while keeping the safety and health of a person in mind.
That is why the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health has released the internal travel planned to help small businesses. This travel planner has made the job of the owner and managers quite simple. It has ready-made checklists through which employees and employers can go through and plan the trip easily.
This resource provides all the necessary information, tools, and resources that are required to plan a safe and healthy business trip.
Conclusion:
Health and safety are important for every person whether the person is an employee of a large organization or part of a small business. So to conclude it here, it is very important to plan a business trip as per the guidelines provided in the NIOSH travel planner. It is the responsibility of the employee and employer to strictly follow the instructions from the concerned authorities during a business trip.
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