anpoonems.info

It is always wonderful to travel with the family and experience wonderful things together. Of course even in strange places you want to protect them from any sort of harmful threat. At the same time it is possible to have fun and remain safe at the same time. The way to accomplish this is your family should discuss a safety plan and also chat about “what if” scenarios as a great way of thinking about what you may or may not encounter in unfamiliar surrounding. This way you can be prepared and respond to a situation more appropriately if and when it arises.As much as you all want to tell everybody about the trip you are planning, it is best that you only tell the people that really need to know that you will be leaving. You never know who else may be over hearing your conversations. When you get back you will be able to tell everyone then about all the details of your great family trip…along with photos too!Always use a travel agent that you trust and has a strong reputation along with the agency they work for. Check for local and state travel advisories ahead of time, and government agencies if traveling abroad. A lot of luggage can make you a target so do not over pack. Keep your luggage locked and with you at all times during transit; and make sure the luggage tags do not have any of your personal information on them. Wear appropriate cloths for where you are going to avoid looking too out of place or “touristy”. Give a copy of your itinerary, schedule, and contact information to a trusted family member or friend.You will want to stay away from having your house look unoccupied while you are gone. So contact your post office and newspaper provider to make arrangements to hold deliveries during that time frame. You will also want to contract someone to take care of yard work or snow removal, depending upon the season. Place timers on various lamps, TVs and radios through out the house to go off at random times during the day to make your home seem like someone is there. A great safety investment in a home security system not only will provide your family with year round assurance but also may qualify you for a reduction in your home insurance cost. Check with your police department to see if they have a vacation watch list that you can be added to, along with the information of the person that would be checking in on your house while you are gone. Take a pre-trip to your bank’s safe deposit box to put all of your expensive jewelry, important documents (that you won’t need to bring with you), along with any computer backups. Any other of your large valuables should be locked away or placed out of view.When planning a road trip, you will want to do a maintenance inspection on your vehicle several days to a week before leaving. Have your radiator and cooling system serviced along with checking the condition of the wipers, tires and fluids. You should have an emergency kit that contains a tire repair kit, flares, maps, flashlight, jumper cables, fire extinguisher, battery powered radio, first aid kit, non-perishable food, bottled water, and blanket. Plan your route out ahead of time finding out the safest routes to travel, and places that you would like to stop at for food, sight seeing or a rest. Watch the weather and be aware of changes in climate from the beginning of your trip to your destination along with how it will affect the driving conditions. Figure in plenty of time for stops, fun and traffic delays. Always stop if you do not feel good, are tired or upset – sometimes we just need a break. Make it a rule that everyone buckles their seat belts, there is never a good time to slack on protection especially vacation time. Safety requires patience and dedication so use common sense.It can be great fun to stay in a hotel or motel in a different place you have never been. That hotel room becomes your home away from home. So if you are not staying at the home of family or friends, there are some safety rules to consider in choosing to stay in a hotel or motel room.Plan ahead of time what kind of a hotel you are going to pick, what is acceptable to you and does it meet your safety standards. Keep in mind that the price of your stay is not always a good judge of the safety of the room. Always choose to stay as close to or above the 5th floor and away from stairwells. If there is a fire or other emergency, find out beforehand how to exit quickly and safely. The room’s door should be a solid wood or metal with a good deadbolt lock, electronic keycard access, night latch and a wide-angle peephole. Always use your Do-Not-Disturb sign, especially when you are not there, leaving one light on and play the radio or TV so it can be heard softly from outside of the room. When you return, always inspect the door, any hiding spots in the room and any other locks. Do not be afraid to ask the bellman to accompany you to the doorway of your room, and if it is offered, take advantage of valet parking.So do your appropriate planning before hand, it will get your family trip off to a great start and will guide it along the way to becoming as wonderfully memorable as you hope.

Introduction If you know that business travel is not without its risk and the potential for crisis, then you need to read this article. In this article we are going to talk about the management and containment of crisis as it relates to travellers and travel managers. The objective of this article is to share with you the collective knowledge on managing crisis and significantly improve your ability to identify and manage a crisis but also improve your business travel efficiency.During this article I am going to discuss travel risk myths, crisis management, plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department.Crisis by definition is something you didn’t have a plan for or something in which you are unprepared. Additionally, it can be a series of events that in concert create a crisis. Events or issues that occur, to which you have a plan and strategy, is merely an incident.Crisis Management/Leadership The first thing is to clarify what is the difference between crisis management and leadership. More importantly, which one is the more important?Crisis management relates to the response to event/s that threaten your business, travellers or travel activity. The event leads and you follow with plans, decisions and actions.Crisis leadership, on the other hand, is more about getting ahead of the events and issues to prevent, management and even contain the impact to your business or business travel activities. While management is a portion of the leadership demand, your actions and involvement lead the outcomes rather than a more passive wait and act approach with pure crisis management.Crisis leadership is the less practiced of the two, but the most significant in terms of results and reduction in risk and impact. If you take nothing else away from this session, it should be that your focus should always be on Crisis Leadership, not crisis management.Myths There are many myths and half-truths about crisis, disruption and threats within the travel management sector. Much of this misinformation has originated from travellers themselves, media, travel managers, friends and family or so called “experts”.For example, many travellers and planners are focused on terrorism. The reality is, you have a very, very small chance of being exposed or affected directly by a terrorist act. It doesn’t mean you should discount it as a threat altogether but it shouldn’t dominate your plans or processes if not a proportional threat to you and your travellers. Conversely, almost everyone overlooks motor vehicle accidents. Yet, they happen far more frequently, can have devastating affect on travellers and are the least common plan contained within company travel management departments.Travellers and travel managers must be prepared, educated and have supporting plans for any event that has the potential to delay, disrupt or harm the traveller or the business.The most common events include:
Motor vehicle accidents
Airline delays or cancellations
Airport closures or disruptions
Transport delays
Bad weather
Sickness and illness
Petty crimes
Hotel fires
Political disputes
Demonstrations and gatherings
Motor vehicle accidents within your own country can be stressful and dangerous but on an overseas business trip they can be 100 times more challenging and dangerous. Consider language, local authorities, first responder, standard of healthcare, families and support in your plans and initial response.Airline delays and cancelations. They happen all the time but they are not just an administrative response. You may need to consider safety, transport, quarantines, security threats, government response and wide spread suspension of services to overcome the issue and maintain safety of your travellers.Airport closures or disruptions. Failed systems, electrical problems, threats, weather, construction and so on can prevent you even getting to your flight. Consider the impact this has on your plans and how your traveller will need to possibly extend stay, move to alternate airport or find accommodation.All other transport delays and disruptions can create crisis when everyone no longer has access to trains, buses, key roads or even water transport. Have a plan and add it to your immediate decision making process.2010 and the commencement of 2011 has seen travel of all kind affected by natural disasters and weather. Weather and natural forces have and always will impact travellers. It does and will continue to occur. It is highly concerning how unprepared travellers and companies are for volcanic eruptions, typhoons, floods, earthquakes and general bad weather.People get sick or feel unwell all the time. This is compounded significantly when travelling. Standard of care, language, access, cost, complications, choice and numerous other location based concerns will determine just how at risk your traveller will be. A single, “one-size-fits-all” plan or solution will fail and you need to be aware of these issues immediately with the onset of an affected traveller.Crimes are a reality of any city in the world. However, travellers seldom know the risks and may be preyed upon by thieves and criminals. The loss of phones, money, and other items may seem less likely to constitute a crisis but when overseas, injured or not able to speak the local language, all these simple events can create a major concern for your business travellers. This can be amplified if you have a senior executive or a group of executives affected.Hotel fires and emergencies are more common than most people think. The immediate threat to an individual is fairly obvious but the impact that the lack of accommodation choices can create from the temporary or permanent closure of a hotel is a much bigger concern. This was graphically displayed during the Mumbai terror attacks (as extra ordinary as the event was) when most of the best/preferred hotels were now unavailable in a key part of the city. This removed thousands of rooms for business travellers and forced many to cancel or significantly alter travel plans just because there were a lack of suitable accommodation options, whether affected by the events or not.Any event that alters the political stability of a location or region or results in thousands of people out on the streets constitutes a risk to your business travel plans and travellers. They can happen spontaneously or take time to develop. The immediate dangers and the ongoing disruption can have a major impact on your business or traveller.Again, plans, preparation and thought to these issues will greatly reduce the impact and improve your business too.Now that we have removed the most common misconceptions, let’s focus on the management and containment of a crisis.Crisis management The key to successful crisis management is planning, training, plans, decision-making and adaptability.Planning Given the issues previously covered, you now have a better insight into how and why planning is important to remove the more emotive issues from the realities of real business threats and events.Planning needs to include multiple departments and perspectives to be truly effective. One of the greatest weaknesses I see regularly is that departments continue to manage the risk of travel through multiple departments with multiple plans. The input and plan needs to be unified. Depending on the company, it may include travel managers, security, HR, finance, marketing, C-suite and operations.All plans need to be continuously updated, location specific, aide in the decision-making process and modular enough have elements extracted quickly and effectively. Modern, effective plans embrace technology. Rapid, efficient access to information, along with running updates is the hallmarks of a modern sustainable plan, regardless of the size of the issue or the company.Training No plan is effective without training and rehearsal. Training, whether through simulations, drills or live, full-scale exercises are vital to the success of any crisis situation. Such sessions don’t need to be boring or overly complicated but must include travel managers and planners along with the more common crisis and emergency managers.Increasingly, training is becoming a mandatory requirement for key positions and roles. It can be linked to internal HR processes but must support the business objectives and measurable on how it reduces the risk to people, business, brand and travel demands.While the plan creates the framework for crisis decision-making, teams can learn a lot from training on how and when to adapt their plans. How the team interacts, strength, weakness, leaders, followers, limitations, tools and many more planned and surprise outcomes are possible with effective training.Adaptations No plan will completely script all the events, issues and options available for every plausible travel delay, disruption or crisis. You need to be able to adapt and evolve from the original plan and intention. This can only be achieved with planning, plans and training.Solutions So what do I need in my plan?Here is the best travel risk management content for your plan:
Objective(the single most important part of any travel policy)
References
Scope
Legal
Insurance
Finance
Reimbursements
Limits
Priority/precedence
Management Authority/ies
Situations
Procedure will likely cover:
Planning
Resources
Tools
Authority
Executive Decision making
Limits
Budgets
Training
Compliance
Pre-trip admin
Providers
Booking
Accommodation
Airlines
Ground Transport
Safety and Security
Health and wellness
Emergency
SOP/Actions on
Insurance
Travel Monitoring /tracking
Reporting
HR
Entitlements
Threat/risk levels
Shelter in Place
Relocations/evacuations
Management Authority
Review
Don’t forget your risk assessment will need to include the key elements:
Traveller
Location
Activity
Support/Resources
Response
ConclusionThere you have it. Now you know what is required, how do you rate your current plans and preparedness?You now have the most relevant issues and areas to focus upon that will reduce or contain the majority of incidents you may face your travellers will be safer, your business more profitable and your costs will be contained by reducing your exposure to expensive crisis events.We have debunked popular travel threat myths, identified the difference between crisis management and leadership, outlined plans and options so you can immediately compare or improve your own travel risk management system for your travellers or travel management department. Review your plans and make the immediate improvements.You will know when you have an effective crisis management system for your travel risk management strategy when you have little to no crisis.You may have numerous events or incidents but you have a plan, you’re prepared and your decision making is fast and consistent. If not, you have failed and you will run from crisis to crisis on a regular basis.

Student health care programs offer health benefits at a greatly reduced cost, allowing students to pay for it themselves or allowing their parents to include their children’s health care plans with little additional cost to them. Student plans provide a great option to ensuring the good health of your children without having to take on a significant amount of extra financial burden, and also provide a way for students putting themselves through school (and supporting themselves financially) to maintain a level of health insurance. Here, we’ll go over how student health care plans work, as well as why you might want to consider them either for yourself if you are a student, or for your children.Student health care plans can be acquired from a number of different sources. Some private insurance companies provide parents with health care options for their children, specifically geared towards keeping students healthy. There are also publicly and privately funded state and federal programs for helping students pay for health insurance. Some of these programs provide different benefits by working with individual schools to help set up unique types of plans for each student. This means it’s important to do a little research on your current health care provider, as well as the school you or your child is attending in order to find the best deal on student plans.Student plans are used primarily to keep students in good health in order to allow them to go to school without missing attendance, as well as ensure their good mental health throughout their education. Students who are in better physical health exhibit higher test scores because they tend to miss fewer classes, and need to repeat classes much less frequently than those who have consistently poor health. A healthy student will also tend to be less stressed about school, and will be able to maintain a more active lifestyle both physically and socially.The benefits of student plans are far reaching and very important to any young person going through an education. If you are a student or the parent of a student, looking into student health care is a great way not only to save money, but also to ensure that you or your child is in consistently good health. Student plans can range from typical care such as doctor’s visits, emergency care, and so on, to catastrophic coverage, dental, and other types of health benefits.If you need assistance in locating particular coverages at a pre-determined price, we can help save 50% on health insurance