Travel Vaccine Consideration Checklist

Travel Vaccine Consideration Checklist

Introduction That’s the percentage of employees who said they’d feel comfortable traveling after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a GBTA study. 78% Without vaccinations? Just 55%. Vaccines may be game-changers, but the big picture around the return of business travel is more complicated. First, vaccinating the planet will clearly take some time. Plus, questions remain around unknowns like COVID-19 variants and As the world returns to travel, prepare reinfections. For businesses, navigating this interim period will be with this mini-guide. You’ll get: tricky. How can you keep employees safe while staying compliant and within budget as events unfold? ● Insights into how peers are feeling Guidance is still taking shape. But decisions made now can help lay about the effects of vaccines on travel. the groundwork for a return to travel that ticks all the boxes. Making those decisions requires factoring in many considerations, such as: ● Checklists of vaccine considerations. ● What if an employee doesn’t want to get vaccinated? ● Are areas with low vaccination rates safe for vaccinated employees? ● Where do digital health passports fit in?

How the Industry Is Feeling A recent GBTA survey asked travel managers and procurement professionals about sentiment around: Traveling Testing Vaccinations ● 55% would be “willing” or ● 61% said clients will feel safe ● 47% said it’s good policy to “very willing” to travel for having face-to-face meetings ask employees to get a work in the current if they know an employee has COVID-19 vaccination before environment. tested negative. they travel. ● 78% would be “very ● 57% said testing protects ● 58% believe airlines should comfortable” or employees from infection. require passengers to provide “comfortable” traveling for vaccination proof to be business after receiving a allowed to fly (once vaccines COVID-19 vaccination. become widely available).

The Implications on Policy Here’s how travel and finance managers feel about building policy around: ✓ Testing ✓ Vaccinations 49% believe it’s good policy to 47% said it’s good policy to ask mandate COVID-19 testing before employees to get a COVID-19 letting employees travel for work. vaccination before travel. 15% believe COVID-19 testing 78% said they don’t have the legal mandates in general are bad authority to require employees to policy. be vaccinated.

Checklist #1 Travel Policy Considerations ❏ Assess ❏ Decide ❏ Define how to turn on a new policy whether or not to appropriate vs. business- level and maintain business incentivize or even require critical travel, and if momentum while keeping employees who will be vaccinations affect an traveling employees safe. traveling to get vaccinated. employee’s travel eligibility. ❏ Plan ❏ Determine ❏ Agree how to work with vaccinated If the policy will be different who in the company will employees who don’t feel based on where employees be responsible for making comfortable traveling. are traveling. these decisions.

Checklist #2 Digital Health Passport Considerations ❏ Create ❏ Ensure ❏ Establish a plan to evaluate and vet the passports will satisfy how to help protect the the various passports in an airline’s or country’s security and privacy of development or that have health screening traveling employees who already been deployed. requirements. are using the passports. ❏ Check ❏ Determine ❏ Enlist if employees have privacy if the passports can keep IT and compliance concerns with having pace with the science departments to facilitate personal information on a around variants and adding a digital passport to corporate phone. transmission. corporate phones. ❏ Assess ❏ Decide ❏ Collaborate with your corporate travel if the passports are how the passports fit into and spend partner to ensure compliant with all GDPR your overall corporate travelers can easily store and and HIPAA requirements. compliance policy. access health documents.

Checklist #3 Testing Considerations With testing likely to continue—and be part of the digital health passport—plan to: ❏ Develop ❏ Decide ❏ Determine a cadence of mandatory if the business or the how many tests the testing for all employees insurance company pays company will pay for who will be traveling. for the testing. on a single trip. ❏ Plan ❏ Establish ❏ Create how to track where staff what the company’s a plan for handling an event has been and align that preferred test type (PCR, when travelers are on the with any new outbreaks. rapid, at-home) will be. road.

TripActions is a leading corporate travel & expense management platform trusted by 4,000+ companies globally. TripActions empowers organizations with real-time data and insights to make business decisions, paired with flexible travel management tools that enable quick and decisive action to keep traveling employees safe, control costs and save money. Learn more at www.tripactions.com. Join the TripActions Community at https://community.tripactions.com. #LetsGo tripactions.com | #tripactions | #LetsGo