Don’t travel if you don't need to

14 Traveling

Health, safety, security and environmental responsibility are our key considerations when we're traveling. To ensure we get the most out of our travel, we also manage all cost and time commitments carefully.

Three key things

1

You are representing the company when traveling for business

2

Travel is not always necessary – consider virtual collaboration and other environmentally friendly options

3

Follow our approved process and preferred suppliers when booking travel

Do the right thing

We ensure that business travel and meetings are:

  • Productive and safe for you as an employee
  • Organized with cost-effective providers

You can find lots of safety information relating to business trips on our intranet.

For all business travel, you should:

  • Respect local culture and habits
  • Gather information about your destination before arrival
  • Stay alert so you can act according to the situation
  • Keep a low profile and avoid exposing company identification
  • Behave as an ambassador of our company

While traveling your personal safety is of paramount importance. You also need to be careful with our company documents and other sensitive information. Keep the following in mind:

  • Discussions, telephone calls, documents and presentations can be easily overheard or read by others while traveling
  • Use screen protection on your laptop screen to keep information private
  • Avoid mentioning the names of our colleagues and companies in conversations
  • Prepare for your trip and familiarize yourself with your destination beforehand
  • Read our travel security support pages on the intranet and understand the current travel risks
  • Travel to high risk rated countries is restricted and requires approval from your manager
  • Make a note of contact details for hotels, local contacts and our travel security support so you find help if you need it
  • Control Risks support us with mobile application and phone number
  • Always follow our approved travel booking process. A travel request is needed for all travel and must be approved by a manager.
  • Use all types of bonus and compensation from frequent traveler schemes or loyalty cards connected to business trips solely for future business trips
  • Never buy sexual services while on a business trip, neither during or outside of working hours
  • Travel in the most cost-effective manner. Our normal practice is to travel economy and use agreed standard service levels, e.g. for hotels and car rental.

In practice

Before you make any travel arrangements, consider first if virtual collaboration would be enough. Videoconferencing, teleconferencing and online meeting tools can save money, avoid the disruption and downtime of travel, and reduce our impact on the environment.

It's not always necessary to travel for a meeting but be realistic – if you need to go, you need to go.

  • Does it make sense for a group to travel?
  • Plan well in advance to give people enough time to book tickets
  • When planning for meetings with people from multiple locations, always choose a location that generates the lowest total travel cost
  • Avoid unnecessary changes to travel plans if they will cause additional costs
  • Make a note of your local travel agency's phone number
  • Read and keep a copy of our travel insurance information and policy number

Find out more

For more information, see our People Policy and Security Policy or visit the intranet.

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