Security and Safety Awareness

An important precursor to the IMP is the training and education of employees operating either domestically or within foreign operating environments. Companies may wish to expand IMP training to include hostile environment briefings or training in order to illustrate the typical risks employees traveling to, or operating in, a new or challenging environment may face, and thus assist them in avoiding many of the issues that could befall them, but may fall outside of their common experiences or understanding. Often corporate policies and plans may not be provided to a wider audience as a complete product, but instead only appropriate sections are furnished to employee users. Therefore, each plan should contain the relevant information to allow it to operate in isolation to achieve its objectives, whether geared toward a domestic audience familiar and comfortable with their cultural or environmental surroundings or toward an audience operating within a new or unfamiliar territory.

Companies should consider at what level they should educate and train staff in order to provide the appropriate foundations for the IMP. Layered training within an organization will often be appropriate, as a sizable company will typically have a small proportion of staff exposed to certain levels of risk or specific risk types, while the wider group will be exposed to more generic levels and types of risk. Some groups may require a cursory level of education and training, while others may require a more comprehensive training regime. The function of hostile environment or security awareness training can have broad objective parameters, or may be focused on a particular operating environment. Some common themes that may be covered are:

§  Typical risk types and impacts.

§  Assessing and evaluating risk.

§  Situational awareness and travel security.

§  Cultural sensitivity and awareness.

§  Social, religious, political, and gender norms.

§  Regional infrastructures and support structures.

§  Medical and health impacts.

§  Risk mitigation techniques and emergency responses.

Hostile environment (or traveler's safety) training will often act as both supportive and preemptive measures for the IMP. Some company staff may not be aware that there are approximately 300 religions in nearly 200 independent countries worldwide, all with their own unique characteristics and risk factors. Some countries are led autocratically, others through democratically elected or monarchical systems. In some countries gender equality is a given, whereas in others women have diminished social roles. Shaking hands or showing feet in some cultures is offensive, while folding your arms in other cultures indicates that you are paying attention. In some countries free speech is a right, whereas in others public expressions of opinion can result in imprisonment. Taking photographs in some countries may lead to arrest; in others, drinking alcohol is forbidden. Companies may therefore wish to precede the IMP with some form of security or safety awareness training so that personnel will understand the cultural and environmental context in which the IMP is set.