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Travel Risk Management for LGBTQ+ Employees

LGBTQ+ travelers can face unique challenges when traveling abroad—many countries do not legally recognize same-sex marriage and more than 70 countries consider consensual LGBTQ+ relationships a crime. If an employee travels on business to a country where their sexual orientation or expression of gender identity is criminalized, an extra layer of complexity is added to duty of care responsibilities. Corporate risk managers need to consider how to best protect employees in a way that doesn’t make them feel singled out, working with them to stay safe and respect local laws without compromising their own values. 

This process begins by providing up-to-date guidance on laws and cultural variations as part of an organization’s duty of care. Attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community vary considerably around the world, and employers therefore need to shape their duty of care policies around a wide range of considerations, both legal and cultural.

Understand the Law

Risk managers need to ensure they have relevant and up-to-date information at hand to fully understand the traveler’s destination. There are nuances within each country’s legislation, and acceptance can vary dramatically even within different regions of the same country, also evolving over time. Employees need to be informed of the laws to which they will be subject at their destination before they travel. Duty of care procedures should incorporate pre-travel advice and awareness, educating employees on what to expect when on business travel as well as how to respond and whom to contact in an emergency.

Legislation may impact an employee’s behavior in a given destination and travel managers can provide advice on best practices. In the United Arab Emirates for example, transgender, gay and gender nonconforming people have been arrested for violating a law against men “disguised” as women. To the extent possible, it is best for travelers in these countries to remain in resort areas and for same-sex couples to refrain from holding hands, hugging or kissing in public.

Understand the Culture

In addition to local laws, social norms are another factor to consider for deciding whether a destination is safe. While many countries officially recognize homosexuality and allow gender confirmation measures, some communities within these “safe” countries still harbor prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community. In such environments, LGBTQ+ travelers who engage in open displays of affection with each other or appear gender nonconforming may be at risk of harassment and assault, and may also feel intimidated when reporting the incident to local police. There may be few or no local venues that provide a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and the risk of hate crimes and police raids at such establishments cannot be ruled out. Travelers are advised to maintain a low profile in countries that lack full protection for the LGBTQ+ community and exercise caution about where and with whom to discuss related topics in public spaces.

Social media can also put travelers at risk. For example, while dating apps can help people connect with local members of the LGBTQ+ community when traveling or relocating for work, employees should be advised to exercise caution if they plan to use these in communities that are not LGBTQ-friendly. In Russia, where prejudice is widespread and a law against “gay propaganda” has been in effect since 2013, far-right activists and gang members have used dating apps to lure gay men to assault and extort them. Prior to travel, risk managers should advise employees to review privacy settings on social media platforms and reconsider the use of dating applications while abroad.

With some countries still refusing to accept—let alone recognize—the LGBTQ+ community, LGBTQ+ employees often feel compelled to take additional precautions that others would not have to even consider. However, corporate risk managers can help employees to stay safe while on business travel by being aware of the local laws and social norms of the destination before departure.

For other guidance on how to support LGBTQ+ employees and advance diversity, equity and inclusion programs, check out these additional pieces from Risk Management Magazine and the Risk Management Monitor:
Beyond Pride: Building Strong Diversity and Inclusion Programs
The LGBT Travel Risk Dilemma
The Benefits of Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
Engaging Employees in Their Own Duty of Care
Developing a Strategy for Transgender Workers
The Case for Effective DE&I Training

Mitigating Construction Risks with Advanced Training Techniques

Construction is consistently ranked as one of the riskiest jobs in the United States. Fluid workforces, high-risk scenarios and a communication disconnect between home office and front-line workers all result in the very real possibility of serious injury or even death.

One of the major challenges in the construction industry is getting information and training to the front-line workers who face the most risk, but are often the least informed. Company emails and company-issued phones go as far as the foremen but do not always make it down to the crew themselves. Training is not always readily available or is more compliance-based than it is practical for the day’s work. This creates major risks for front-line workers, contractors, insurers and anyone involved with ensuring construction projects are safely and accurately completed. As a result, the construction industry is increasingly turning to new virtual and mobile technology tools. In an effort to improve its communication and training practices and provide critical information to its workers.

Visualizing High-Risk Scenarios

New, interactive modules are allowing safety teams to offer more effective and engaging job-site training in the form of videos, quizzes, virtual reality and 3D simulators. Exposure-based training platforms can also provide a “hands-on” experience, giving front-line workers the opportunity to encounter different situations while in a safe environment.

For example, a 3D simulation of a “hazard hunt” tests workers by having them identify all of the potential hazards on a building such as tilt, unsafe conditions and proximity to power lines and how to mitigate those risks. Fire safety prevention can be made into an immersive experience to help a worker identify the proper fire extinguisher based on the simulated fire, increasing the likelihood that they will make the right choice in the event of an emergency.

Simulations can also take tradesmen step-by-step through the process of working on specific tasks, allowing them to learn the process from start to finish and monitoring for the most common risk exposures. To become a signalman when working with cranes, the current process is to watch videos and memorize the hand motions. With simulators, workers can now be put into specific scenarios and learn how to proceed in the safest way and without endangering the person or equipment. Ultimately, new exposure-based training helps workers overcome any natural inclinations that put them in harm’s way and increases their awareness of all the risks of a specific task or job site.

Facilitating Effective Communication

Construction workers may be on a site for three months, or they might work on a job for one day. In both cases, contractors take on the same level of risk when it comes to ensuring each employee is appropriately trained. And with a workforce that is constantly in motion, construction managers face the challenge of tracking who has been trained on what. Paper filing systems and limited access to the training records while onsite can lead to oversights when it comes to identifying improperly trained workers.

Virtual training allows contractors to more easily track exactly who is trained on what, and store the important documents in a digital archive. By keeping critical information readily available digitally, onsite managers can more quickly confirm and step in if someone is not properly trained and manage overall communication for the duration of the project even as the job site’s workforce changes.    

Builders are also using digital communication platforms to address the communication disconnect between the home office and the front-line workforce, and in order to reduce the risk of miscommunication. These apps allow teams to send messages, emergency alerts and even just-in-time training videos that can highlight safety hazards specific to the job site to individuals or entire crews in an instant, helping to reduce unnecessary work stoppages and operational friction. They can also deliver micro-training refresher courses so that workers can better retain and implement the new knowledge and skills they have learned.

By deploying new types of digital training techniques, companies can improve communication and provide the front-line workforce with the right information to make safe decisions on a job site, reducing overall risk and most importantly, ensuring that their workers get home safely.

Prioritizing Risk Management Strategies in Schools

safety
No matter what precautionary measures schools take, there are many risks and “fires” that need to be put out on a daily basis. To keep staff and students safe and to protect school assets, a proactive approach to mitigating risk in schools is a necessity. The keys to a successful risk management program include careful, strategic planning while taking all relevant and potential factors into consideration, but how can administrators get started?

By identifying potential risks and applying a process to assess them, schools can focus on their objectives more clearly, including top priorities like student and employee wellbeing. Effective risk management reduces the disruption of a student’s education, damage to a school’s reputation, lost time, stress from managing incidents, and the potential risk of legal intervention in an increasingly litigious world. School administrators can explore these strategies as they strive to enhance their risk management initiatives:

Focus on greatest risks and exposures
The concern about lawsuits is ever present, but schools cannot operate under the pretense that litigation is going to happen. They instead must conduct their business for the safety of students and staff. If schools operate under fear, their risk management efforts will simply not be as effective as planned.

Administrators must also consider relevancy. In the private sector, risk management has a large seat at the table, whereas in the public sector that is not always the case. Depending on priorities, some issues that play a vital role within the public sector may not be relevant in the private sector. Identifying the relevance of issues often determines where and how money is spent in a school district, however. District-wide funding can be one of the biggest issues administrators face. Districts encounter daily challenges to come up with the right resources available to train staff—especially when it comes to implementing technology. Administrators must make tough decisions when considering funding realities and the need for as much risk management coverage as possible. They need to maintain a balance when money is at stake, as they are only able to make decisions based on the amount of funds available to them.

Focus on what effective training can offer a school faculty
Safety training for school and district staff should play a huge part in every risk management strategy, as well as ensuring the district is in compliance on a state and federal level. Safety training has a trickle-down effect, and if provided at the appropriate level of training, administrators will see a significant effect in reduction of accidents, damage to buildings and costs overall.

There is always work to be done when it comes to improving school safety and collaboration is a big part of a program’s success. Some of the issues schools now face are different than the concerns of decades past, so providing training and resources to staff can make a difference in helping them understand how to handle a number of situations that could arise.

Technology resources can help with this. Online databases, such as SafeSchools Online Staff Training System, for example, allow school districts to distribute quality training to all employees. This is an effective and way to track and share information on safety and compliance issues that could arise in the classroom or school. The digital database also serves as a proactive approach to training. Having an online database enables staff to train in school or at home, and ensures that everyone has the necessary training to handle a situation before it occurs. In the end, by deploying an online safety training system, the district is saving money and time and will be more proactive in handling issues.

Focus on training early on—and take it seriously
First and foremost is tackling the issue of rallying everyone to take safety and compliance issues seriously. Risk management is not a job for one person. It starts with everyone in the school district, from administrators and the school board to principals, teachers, grounds staff and even students. Everyone needs to think of safety and practice mutual accountability within the school community.

Final Thoughts
Risk management may take a back seat when funding is low, giving the impression that it isn’t important. For the sake of their staff and students, however, district-level administrators need to be on board with risk management and make it a priority. In schools, educating students is the main concern, and risk management is secondary. But just like in a factory where posted signs read “safety first” or “safety is number one,” our goal is to get schools to think of safety and its importance to the school in the same way they think of education.