Carefree business travel with new ‘pre-travel health advice’ e-learning course

Business travel is making a comeback. After a sharp decline during the Covid-19 pandemic and a period when digital meetings were the norm, the number of travels today exceeds the 2019 level.

Travelling can pose health risks, even in a professional context, like jet lag, infectious diseases such as malaria and dengue, traveller's diarrhoea or other country-specific risks.

You can choose which risks you do or don’t take when travelling privately, but with a business trip, you have a responsibility as an employer to protect your employees, just like in the workplace in Belgium. This is equally true for foreign assignments, where working conditions and health risks can vary greatly.

To support employers in their efforts to help their employees travel safely on business, we offer specific services: from medical questionnaires to examinations, to vaccinations and travel kits. The nurse and doctor share a lot of information throughout that journey. This takes a long time and is not always done in a standardised way due to the verbal exchange of information.

We therefore turned that piece of information sharing into a unique online training course. This way, employees can go through all the information in a structured and clear way at a time of their choosing, and can leave on business trips well prepared and confident.

The e-learning is a flexible training course that gives employees the necessary knowledge on:

• Risks while travelling: from long plane journeys to local health challenges.
• Preventive measures: vaccines, medication, and hygiene tips.
• Dealing with jet lag and illness: what to do in case of health problems while travelling.

The online format makes the training course accessible at any time and place, so it’s ideal for everyone. E-learning also provides an efficient complement to any medical examination, as a prepared traveller can ask the doctor more targeted questions.

We chose to offer the course in English, given the international nature of business trips abroad. It is the first open training course around this topic in Belgium.

1. Responsibility and duty of care
   As an employer, you are responsible for the well-being of your employees, including when they travel on behalf of the company.
    
2. Efficiency and cost savings
   Employees get the right information, complete and up-to-date, through an e-learning course. They can go through this at their own pace and at a time of their choosing. With the knowledge from the training course, you avoid unforeseen health problems and associated inconveniences for employee and employer (e.g. travel interruptions, repatriations, etc.).
    
3. Peace of mind for all parties
   Well-informed employees feel safer and are more productive during their travels. Minimising health risks means less stress for both employees and employers.

The world is changing rapidly. New health risks, such as dengue in southern Europe or the Oropouche virus in Central America and South America, require alertness and preparation. With this e-learning course, you as an employer will be ready to respond to these challenges and help your employees safely on their way. The training course currently contains five modules, but an expansion is already planned so that the latest information is available each time.