Employee travel safety cannot be treated as a set-and-forget type of problem these days, if indeed it ever really could. Situations evolve goes the thinking, and in the case of Brazil and the Zika virus, this ‘evolution’ is quite literal, in a Darwinian sense. Among the issues involving that virus is what strain will be dominant as times passes, as each variant can affect people differently. Additionally, research is progressing daily on how the virus is persists in the body, raising the issue of what might be carried back home. So the nature of this particular threat must clearly be monitored to 
ensure employee travel safety. For this alone it would prudent to outfit employees with our Fonetrac Android travel security app and iPhone security app.
However Brazil’s troubles do not stop there. The government is going through a series of body-blows with both the President and prominent legislators being hit with threat of impeachment and jail. What happens if the President is ousted? Will the agents of the government that maintain civic life (border control, customs, the police) be affected? Could workers strike, and disrupt transportation. Could violence spill out of the favelas? Employee travel safety requires that information on this front be constantly kept up-to-date.
Employee Travel Safety: A Task of Olympic Proportions
Adding to the mix is the Summer Olympics. This adds a completely different dimension to employee travel safety. The huge influx of visitors could overwhelm the security apparatus already struggling with other tasks. And ever since Munich, the possibility of disruption due to political violence cannot be dismissed.
The current judgement of the International Olympic Committee is that the Games can safely proceed, with extra precautions taken. This strikes us as a reasoned response. Security issues are everywhere, and will never disappear. The intelligent reaction is not to shut-down and stay home, but to manage employee travel safety with a combination of pre-trip preparation and real-time monitoring combined with ‘push’ updates to potentially affected persons. The Android and iPhone security app is just the tool to implement this policy.
As the situation in Brazil makes clear, new security threats can pop up at any time, so the smart thing is to partner with an expert. Whatever changes there are regarding employee travel safety you can count in IMG to be up-to-date on the situation, and users of its FoneTrac smartphone application will always be made aware of the latest conditions. Interested? Reach out to us for a demo.