EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS THE ESCALATING THREAT
James Wood, Regional Security Director at International SOS, provides expert advice on managing the successful evacuation of employees in an increasingly fraught world.
In an era defined by interconnected security crises, organisations are facing unprecedented levels of uncertainty as conflicts continue to arise, and escalate, with minimal warning. This ever-evolving threat environment has led 74% of risk management experts to believe that geopolitical tensions will significantly impact their organisations, according to findings from the International SOS’ Risk Outlook 2024 report. This issue is at the top of the agenda for businesses across the world, with 47% of global alerts shared by International SOS with clients throughout 2023 connected to political violence and unrest.
“74% OF RISK MANAGEMENT EXPERTS TO BELIEVE THAT GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS WILL SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACT THEIR ORGANISATIONS.”
Such levels of geopolitical instability increase the likelihood that organisations will need to prepare for unforeseen events, such as evacuating employees from volatile environments. We have seen many examples of this across recent years as conflicts and security threats can quickly make areas unsafe, necessitating evacuations. These operations are often highly complex, involving coordination across multiple stakeholders and locations. The factors that make evacuations necessary – unstable political environments, infrastructure failures and economic turmoil – also make the operations themselves a significant task to effectively manage and often complicate these processes.
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We have seen this first-hand with many clients, coordinating evacuations to help organisations protect their employees in challenging environments. In the Middle East, for example, teams and analysts are currently monitoring the on-the-ground situation in Lebanon and Israel to prepare clients for evacuations in the event of further escalation in tensions. It is vital that on-the-ground teams are mobilised in these situations, exploring all evacuation options before providing advice. Often, our work involves working closely with Crisis Management Teams (CMTs) or Incident Management Teams (IMTs) within a particular business, sharing information on how to approach borders or airspace closures or a lack of access to commercial aviation, for example, as is currently the case in Lebanon.
THE TOLL OF CRISIS: FATIGUE DEEPENS
AMONG CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAMS Incident and crisis management teams often lead in managing evacuations, and over recent years, they have been stretched to their limits. Amidst the ongoing permacrisis, employees and employers have had to adapt to a ‘new normal’ as civil unrest, data breaches, the spread of disinformation, and various global conflicts continue. Critical incidents require organisations to mobilise their CMTs or IMTs and assess risk at increasing speeds continuously. The relentless pace of crises and incidents, and an overwhelming number of simultaneous geopolitical issues have placed these teams under immense global strain. Businesses have been directly affected by events such as a coup in Niger, political instability in Venezuela, security threats in Vienna, major climate-related incidents in Greece, and data security breaches involving key technology providers.
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