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3 Key Risk Management Responses to the Coronavirus

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The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV continues to spread throughout China and other countries, seriously impacting business operations around the world. As governments and companies act to protect their citizens, operations and employees at home and abroad, these actions threaten to produce business interruptions, travel risks and other effects that could be detrimental to business continuity.

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a global emergency, meaning that it is a threat beyond China, after more cases have appeared in other countries around the world.

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According to the New York Times, the WHO has only made such a declaration five times since 2005. The virus has killed more than 400 people (including 2 outside mainland China) and has infected more than 20,000 in more than 25 countries.

In addition to the cancellation of major public events in China (including celebrations of Chinese New Year), many international businesses have curtailed their operations there since the outbreak. According to Bloomberg, this includes Starbucks (which closed more than half of its shops), Toyota (which stopped production), McDonald’s and KFC (which both closed restaurants), and Disney (which closed its resort in Shanghai), among others.

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Some international companies have instructed their employees to work from home to limit exposure as the virus spreads, and Amazon, Microsoft and other tech companies also limited employee travel to and from China.

China has maintained mass quarantines of areas with high number of infections, including Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak, and some other countries are also taking extraordinary steps to limit the virus’s spread. Last week, Russia sealed its entire border with China and cancelled all trains between the countries except for a single train line between Moscow and Beijing. Japan is currently quarantining more than 3,000 people on a ship after a passenger tested positive after departing the ship, while the United Kingdom has advised its citizens to leave China. And the United States issued a proclamation suspending entry for non-citizens who spent 14 or more days in China before attempting to enter the United States.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) stated that the risk for people in the United States is “considered low at this time,” with elevated risk for individuals who may have increased exposure—such as healthcare workers and others in close contact with patients with the virus. However, companies should still act to protect their operations and employees, especially if operations require international travel and if supply chains depend on Chinese business continuity. Here are three approaches to limit risk from the coronavirus:

1. Take Travel Precautions

The CDC has recommended avoiding all non-essential travel to China, and the U.S. State Department has asked people not to travel to China. If travel is essential, the CDC suggests avoiding contact with sick people, any animals, animal markets or products made from animals. If traveling employees are older, they should take extra precautions, since, “older adults and people with underlying health conditions may be at increased risk.”

2. Develop a Response Plan

Medical and travel security services firm International SOS also recommended that businesses have regularly-updated and evaluated business continuity plans in place to ensure smooth response to incidents like disease outbreaks. The Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA) recommended preparing a specifically-focused “Pandemic Preparedness Plan” or updating previously prepared plans to reflect current circumstances to ensure business continuity.

IRMSA also suggested creating a group within the company, chaired by a senior staff member, able to make quick executive decisions for the organization in response to any coronavirus-related impact to the business and prepare decision-making processes for future incidents.

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3. Consult Reputable Information Sources

Relying solely on reputable news sources, like government disease control agencies and reliable media, can help when evaluating and taking courses of action to reduce risk. Conspiracy theories about the coronavirus have spread rapidly, including misinformation about its source, how to protect against or treat infections, and the number of people affected. Misinformation has also resulted in discrimination against Chinese-linked businesses and people of Chinese heritage, as well as East Asian people in general. Disseminating clear, reputable information to all employees, especially those traveling, can reduce risk of infection and impact on business operations.

Understanding Insurance Coverage for Traveling Employees

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BOSTON—The odds of dying in a terrorist attack: 1 in 9.3 million. The odds of getting sick while traveling: 1 in 2. But both should concern companies sending their employees around the world for business, panelists Kathleen Ellis of CNA International, Erin Wilk of Facebook and Andrew Miller of International SOS said at a RIMS 2019 panel titled “Is Insurance Enough When Employees Travel?”

The answer to this question, the panel agreed, was emphatically “no.” But, as Ellis and Wilk noted, insurance coverage is an important part of the equation for many of the biggest things that do go wrong. Even though the risk of catastrophic incident is minor compared to seemingly mundane travel concerns like weather and petty theft, companies should still prepare for the worst in advance.

This is true whether employees are going to common destinations within the United States traditionally thought of as safe or to less familiar places. It is also true, Wilk said, whether the employee is an experienced traveler (who can be over-confident) or a novice (who can over-prepare and miss warning signs around them).

The panelists repeatedly stressed that companies should approach travel risk with protecting employees as their priority. Not only do companies have a “duty of care” (a legal responsibility to mitigate the risks traveling employees face), but they also need to be cognizant of the “standard of care” and “duty of loyalty.” Standard of care is the industry standard for employees’ travel risk protection, and companies’ obligation to meet that standard. Duty of loyalty is the employees’ responsibility to abide by the safety measures the company has put in place. As recently discussed in Risk Management, this is largely on the employee, but the panel noted that employers also have a critical role to play in creating a culture that enables and encourages their people to take the necessary steps to protect themselves while traveling. As Wilk said, “Policy is a piece of paper. Employee practice is what actually matters.”

When it comes to insurance, companies should make sure they are covered, but not over-covered. For example, Miller discussed cases in which companies’ benefits, HR and legal department have all purchased travel coverage without communicating their purchases to the other departments. Businesses may also be unfamiliar with the coverage they have and pay to remediate travel problems themselves when their insurance policies would actually cover those issues.

Key insurance options include:

  • Foreign voluntary workers compensation, which covers workers traveling on business in a way similar to traditional workers’ comp, paying for disease, or repatriation or evacuation
  • Business travel accidental death and dismemberment coverage, which works like life insurance and covers both work-related and non-work-related incidents, and is an option for covering employees’ spouses and dependents
  • Kidnap and ransom coverage, which provides pre-trip support, crisis management services during an incident, and reimburses for ransoms paid for kidnapping extortion, wrongful detention and hijacking
  • Expatriate medical, which is an option for employees who are traveling long-term, and
  • Defense base act coverage, which handles government contractors overseas at embassies and military bases

The panelists also emphasized that travel risk not only endangers employees’ well-being, but also the company’s bottom line. If an employee gets sick while traveling for business, for example, the company’s investment in the trip can be wasted. Additionally, traveling employees who feel unsafe or unprepared for the risks they are facing feel less loyal to their company, and can also be distracted, potentially derailing the important business they are traveling to conduct. The panel urged that pre-trip training and a thorough understanding of the company’s existing coverage are the best ways to mitigate these risks and help employees succeed when traveling for work.

Traveling? It’s No Time To Protest

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Traveling for business to a foreign country has its assumed risks.

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Typical details like language barriers and exchange rates can be daunting enough, but businesses should be mindful of the potential effects of a protest or demonstration near their employees’ hotels or destinations.

It is easy to imagine attending a conference in another country where a protest is occurring right in front of your conference center. While many are peaceful, some can become violent and there may be legal issues to consider as well.

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Regardless of whether it is related to your visit, the experience can be confusing and unnerving.

Businesses must consider how to prevent their employees from getting stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time; in addition to the disorientation, there can be severe repercussions for being even seemingly involved in a foreign demonstration. Laws and protocols about protests vary from country to country, and guilt—even by association—can have disastrous consequences.

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To ensure your employees know how to successfully circumvent a demonstration, check out the infographic below by On Call International, which gives advice on how visitors should conduct themselves and stay safe in the event of a protest—particularly a violent one.

Moving Employees Safely is Critical in Oil & Gas Industry

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oil-rigs
The oil, gas and marine industry has always teetered on the brink of unfortunate circumstances. Oil rigs and oil tankers, by the very nature of their massive size and exposure to the elements, are susceptible to myriad dangers. And when those risks materialize, the safety of the men and women operating these maritime behemoths must take top priority.

In the case of a hurricane, energy giant Shell Oil says it begins evacuating non-essential personnel from offshore platforms and drilling rigs, starting with sites closest to the hurricane’s anticipated path. Like Shell, most of the larger oil companies have evacuation down to a science, particularly during hurricane season. In many cases the evacuation from oil rigs or oil tankers is highly manageable, with no more than a few dozen people having to be transported at times. Thus, in most cases, the evacuees can simply grab a taxi, book themselves into a hotel room, or make other similar accommodations.

But what happens when the evacuation is so immense that you are suddenly relocating thousands of workers to the nearest mainland?

In October 2014, with the threat of a cyclone ready to batter the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico’s state oil company, Pemex, evacuated 15,000 workers from more than 60 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico—all with the need to be transported and lodged.

Anticipating worst case scenarios is a prerequisite. Although travel by executives at the C-suite level in these types of companies is handled with the highest priority, to deal with the constant movement of lower-level workers, many companies enlist the services of travel management companies to coordinate getting personnel from land to rigs, tankers, drills and pipelines and back. This massive orchestration includes coordinating accommodations, lodging, weather alerts, translation services and other types of ticketing.

Certain industries, such as oil and gas, need to send employees to work in the world’s “hot zones.” According to a USA Today report, three Americans were among 38 workers killed in the 2013 siege of an Algerian gas plant in which Islamic terrorists used hostages as human shields after their attempted mass kidnapping for ransom went awry. Seven U.S. citizens survived the attack. This illustrates that the need to move crews swiftly isn’t always at the mercy of weather conditions. This is where a real-time knowledge of the current political climate is necessary, including the best exit points, and how to travel safely within those countries should the need to evacuate a facility arise.

Other times the challenge includes getting workers from a major airport to a remote location—perhaps where a helicopter undertakes the last leg of the trip out to the site. Oil and gas industry travelers also need to realize that the flight on a major airline to get into a somewhat unstable country isn’t the problem; it’s traveling within the country, where options are often very limited.

Fortunately, the recent boom in technology has helped make personnel travel safer, as they can now receive electronic alerts regarding risks such as natural catastrophes, labor strikes, and changes in flight schedules.

There is the potential for a number of problems to arise when operating these marine locations, both weather-related and man-made. And the cost of finding solutions to these situations can often be crippling and costly to a business, both in terms of valuable staff time wasted as well as the difficulty in finding the time or the resources to source viable, inexpensive travel alternatives.