Enhanced employee tracking service gives organisations on-the-go access to critical alerts and traveller data, delivered straight to mobile devices. With an increasingly globalised workforce, organisations face the challenge of keeping in contact with employees when they are stationed in remote jurisdictions. This becomes even more crucial during times of crisis. Floods in Pakistan and China, riots in Bangkok, earthquakes in Chile show how unexpected events have the potential to catch out even the best-prepared companies with employees on overseas assignment. A new device on the market helps keep individuals in the loop.
International SOS and Control Risks has released TravelTracker Mobile, an on-the-go enhancement to the companies’ TravelTracker service. The device gives HR management the ability to view, locate and contact globally-mobile employees, anywhere, anytime, from any one of more than 5,000 different types of mobile devices.
“[Companies] are responsible for managing the health and safety of employees across the globe, which means that they need to be aware and equipped to respond immediately whenever a situation arises,” said Jan-Coos Geesink, CEO of Travel Security Services, a joint venture between International SOS and Control Risks.
The device integrates with the assistance services provided by medical, security and logistical specialists—a feature that is particularly important when we are helping organisations manage global crises.
According to Tim Daniel, Group Executive Vice President, International SOS. “No longer do [individuals] need to have a laptop on-hand when a disaster strikes. They can now use their mobile phone to get the details on the situation, assess its impact, and respond appropriately to support their employees and senior executives.”
A travel risk management tool that often fulfills duty of care, the existing web-based TravelTracker system is used by over 500 organisations. Key system statistics include:
Currently, approximately 2.6 million unique travellers are tracked through the system per year, based on 58 million bookings received.
Following the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, more than 150 companies, government agencies and nonprofit organisations used the device to access information and provide advice to nearly 700 travellers.
In a recent poll, 44% of users indicated that they could estimate the number of employees they have in any given country around the world within 15 minutes.
The travel tracking programme was developed after 9/11, and since that time the system has continually evolved. Daniel said, “With the release of [the programme], the information is easier to use. We expect this to drive up the number of users dramatically and result in even broader usage.”
The device supports more than 5,000 different types of mobile devices, including the vast majority of those used by business, such as the iPhone, BlackBerry and other smart phones. The service does not require any downloads or special set-ups—users access the site by visiting the web site address on their device’s web browser and login using the same credentials they normally do.
Once they have logged in, users are taken to a dashboard view that gives them a global snapshot of their travellers, broken down into the total number, those in locations with current medical or security alerts, and those in high and extreme risk countries. Users can also search for specific travellers by location, flight, name, event and risk level. After searching, users can view travellers’ itinerary and contact information, and get in touch with them by email or, if they have opted in, SMS text message.
“The ability to communicate quickly with large groups of travellers is particularly valuable,” said Daniel. “When communication networks are severely degraded due to a crisis, text messaging is sometimes the only option for contacting affected employees and finding out their status. With the device, companies that employ this option can disseminate vital information to all of their effected personnel with speed, clarity and consistency.”
The joint venture developed the device with Usablenet. The technology protects data privacy, as it does not host, store or database any content, traveller information, or customers’ information.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
