Conducted a travel risk management audit for a private capital firm

A private capital firm with over 300 travelling staff, completing over 10,000 national and international travel days per year, including to emerging markets and challenging regions, had experienced several incidents affecting its staff, and directly impacting its operations.

Travel Risk Management Audit

Since 2018, this private capital firm had experienced rapid growth, including the merger of another capital firm into its operations, quadrupling its staff and increasing its global footprint to having offices in 13-countries, and clients in 64-countries.

In the 12-months prior to engaging Inherent Risks, this client had recorded close to 500 travel related claims, including 63 serious incidents.

We conducted a comprehensive audit of all travel risk management policies and procedures, which included reviewing contracts they had in place with medical and security assistance companies, and also reviewing their corporate travel insurance and third party claims providers.

We also conducted a threat and vulnerability assessment, and reviewed all of the claims and incidents they had experienced in the 12-months prior to our engagement.

Among our findings it was revealed that this client was spending over £100,000 per year on a travel risk management app that only 23% of its staff used. In addition, they paid over £50,000 per year in retainer fees to assistance providers who essentially provided no other services than being on standby to assist in the event of an incident.

Our audit also highlighted that 23 air ambulance repatriations had been conducted by one assistance provider, for cases that could have been handled in a more cost-effective way through commercial flights, including one case of a broken arm that resulted in a £73,000 bill for an air ambulance with medical doctor escort.

The Results

Inherent Risks' work led to a complete overhaul of this clients travel risk management and duty of care program, including cancelling contracts with medical and security assistance providers, selecting new providers, and assisting with the takeover and integration of these contracts. Based on our assessment, the client also reduced their subscription of the travel risk management app to department heads and team leaders only, and implemented a peer-led communication program. Most importantly, through the money saved on both the app subscriptions, and through mitigating unnecessary retainer fees, the client was able to enrol all of its globally mobile workforce on travel safety related training.