Figure 19 Ten Duty of CareTakeaways 1 All countries are potentially risky for employees


2 Organizations face unique risk challenges, but differ in how they cope with similar risks


3 Duty of Care is not just about natural and human-made disasters


4 Organizations are becoming more aware of Duty of Care responsibilities


5 There are five key stakeholders, but Duty of Care is everyone's responsibility


6 Organizations vary widely in Duty of Care practices


7 Company size matters most in Duty of Care, but other company characteristics also play a role


8 Most organizations fail to plan and implement a global Duty of Care strategy


9 Duty of Care is a Western concept


10 Corporate Social Responsibility is the main motivator for Duty of Care


In International SOS’ Duty of Care White Paper (2009), Dr. Claus recommended that companies implement an Integrated Duty of Care Risk Management Strategy. In this current Global Benchmarking Study (2011), a multi-step model was developed for that purpose. It was argued that, for a company to assume its Duty of Care obligation, each step alone is necessary, but not sufficient, and that it must be at or above the baseline in each of these steps.


Duty of Care awareness has been growing steadily in the last two years, aided greatly by global events where traveling employees and international assignees clearly needed emergency assistance from their employer. Yet, there is still only “average” awareness and some functional groups (such as HR and senior management) have much lower awareness than others. In addition, companies around the world still have a long way to go when it comes to implementing a Duty of Care and Duty of Loyalty culture.


One of the biggest challenges for companies is that Duty of Care is considered everyone’s responsibility and cannot be relegated to one functional group, although some functional groups clearly have more expertise than others. Hence, the greatest costs for Duty of Care lie in the “agency” costs of planning and implementing best practices, rather than the unit or fixed and variable costs of taking care of employees. Although the knowledge of how to incorporate a Duty of Care plan into an organization is readily available from experts, making it happen within a large company requires discipline from both management and employees. Departmental silos must come


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down. Effective implementation in making a Duty of Care culture “stick” requires all the critical success factors of a global deployment within an organization. The Duty of Care plan is only as good as its implementation.


Throughout this benchmarking exercise, a wide range of current Duty of Care practices were discovered. While each company has varying demographics and unique challenges, the following set of recommendations focuses on best practices that should make companies better equipped to deal with their duty obligations and reduce their negligent failure to plan (see Figure 20).


Figure 20 Ten Duty of Care Best Practice Recommendations


1 Increase awareness 2 Plan with key stakeholders 3 Expand policies and procedures 4 Conduct due diligence 5 Communicate, educate and train 6 Assess risk prior to every employee trip 7 Track traveling employees at all times 8 Implement an employee emergency response system 9 Implement additional management controls


10 Ensure vendors are aligned


1. Increase awareness Certain stakeholders, especially general and senior management as well as HR, have low awareness of their Duty of Care obligations. Yet, they play a vital role in the implementation of a Duty of Care and Duty of Loyalty culture. But to create such an organizational culture, awareness must also extend to employees so that they too can become an integral partner in ensuring their own health safety security and well-being when traveling.


2. Plan with key stakeholders Several stakeholders in the organization (such as Risk Management, Security, and Occupational Health and Safety) have Duty of Care as part of their core job responsibility. But others stakeholders, such as HR, travel, and general and senior management, must get on board as well. They play a vital role in planning before a crisis occurs, assuming leadership during the crisis and auditing the company’s readiness. An integral part of crisis management planning includes engaging in scenario planning for possible employee


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