Women professionals now travel extensively for business purposes. While this creates substantial opportunities, women face a unique set of safety risks when travelling, and must deal with safety concerns that go beyond those that all travellers need to consider.
A recent survey of female business travellers commissioned by World Travel Protection shows that 71% of female travellers feel less safe travelling for work compared to men, which underscores a critical need for businesses to better support female employees during business trips.
With that in mind, this article focuses on how employers can enhance the business travel experience for women, specifically around the safety of this select group of travellers.
Pre-trip planning: Your foundation for safe travel
Traveller safety’s foundation begins before the start of the journey to the airport. A travel policy is the first step in implementing measures to protect employees while they are on the road. Specifically for females, it’s essential to outline safety measures and any other available support.
Remember that a one-size-fits-all safety approach doesn’t work. For example, in some countries, taxis are a safe transfer option, while in others, they can pose a serious risk.
Employers should factor these anomalies in when making travel policy decisions.
Also consider that extra precautions are necessary for certain travel destinations, so employers should include country-specific considerations that affect women travellers. This information should provide practical guidelines on dress codes, behavioural expectations in certain areas, areas to avoid at night, emergency contacts and services, as well as general travel safety training.
Lastly, ensure that travellers share their itineraries with their employer, colleagues and family. Employers should know exactly where their staff are, so it’s easy to contact them and respond quickly if something goes wrong.
Transportation tactics: Moving safely between destinations
Airport navigation requires particular attention for solo women travellers. Plan flights that arrive at a reasonable hour and don’t require a lone female employee to navigate a largely empty airport at the dead of night.
Providing options of safe travel routes to and from their place of accommodation and the locations of the various meetings they must attend is important. Where possible, schedule airport transfers to take the employee to their accommodation venue and ask your service provider to use your company name, not the traveller’s personal name on the arrival board.
Try to avoid ridesharing, but if it’s not possible, advise travellers to confirm the driver’s identity and license plate information along with details about their vehicle. Choose a seat in the back and use a GPS app like Waze, which shows you your location in real-time as the driver progresses.
Hotel Security: Creating a safe haven
Select accommodation based on strategic factors. Firstly, choose a well-established brand that has a reputation for prioritising the safety of solo female travellers.
Ensure the accommodation has a 24-hour front desk and security staff, located on a busy street with a well-lit entrance. Also, choose to avoid hotels that are social hotspots for non-hotel guests – these places increase the chance of being hassled by someone who is not staying at the property.
Advise travellers to refrain from revealing their solo status to hotel staff and rather refer to “we” instead of “I”.
Recommend a hotel that requires travellers to swipe the room key in the elevator to access their floor. The sweet spot for room bookings is anything between the 2nd to 7th floor as the first floor is more easily accessible for intruders and in an emergency situation like a fire, rescue equipment has heigh limitations.
Once in the room, tips for travellers should include checking that the door works, staying secure by using the door stopper on the room door along with the deadbolt, and ensuring that balcony doors are always closed and locked.
Communication
Your smartphone becomes a crucial safety tool when travelling. Create specific communication procedures that your travellers should follow, and ensure they use a travel app that enables you to track send travel updates on the go. Also consider implementing traveller tracking or recommending an app like Life360 to know your travellers whereabouts in the case of emergency.
Advise travellers to avoid using public Wi-Fi networks, as they are an easy target for accessing sensitive business information. Rather utilise VPN services or purchase an global eSim as part of your travel policy, to provide data for mobile hotspots to enable secure internet access.
Ultimately, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Staying safe is about making informed decisions at every step in the journey, helping employees travel with confidence.