employment agreement occurs. Information and instructions to the employee should be given during work hours and cover the physical and psychological risks the employee will be exposed to and the actions undertaken by the employer to avoid these risks. The employer must ensure that employees receive in-service training and clear instructions.
Duty of information in this study is interpreted to require the completion of a risk assessment to understand what safety and security risks staff may be exposed to and to inform staff of these risks as part of their recruitment, induction, pre-departure briefings and training.
Duty of information is closely linked to the concept of informed consent, which was extensively reviewed in the online survey. In relation to informed consent, there is variation in practice and understanding. Most survey respondents defined informed consent as the employee understanding the context they are working in or travelling to and the risks they will be exposed to and consent to work in the country with this understanding. Informed consent is not limited to staff travel, with most respondents stating that it relates to any activity, including travel, that the organisation asks the staff member to engage in.
The NRC understands good practice in informed consent to involve briefing all staff on: Risks identified as part of the organisation’s safety and security risk assessments; Risk treatment and contingency measures for all foreseeable risks; 16 The staff member’s role in relation to these measures.
Some contributors furthermore highlighted the need to ensure staff understand that they have the right to withdraw should they not wish to take on the risks and that this will not affect their career or job security. One respondent highlighted the need to allow for enough time as part of the informed consent process to allow for exchanges on the security contexts and the detection of misunderstandings.
1.1.
Recruitment, induction and pre-departure briefings
For some organisations, informed consent starts before recruitment and involves apprising potential candidates of the safety and security risks of the context of operation. Good practice in recruitment suggests the assessment of the role and context prior to recruitment, and another assessment after identification of the final candidate which serves to inform the chosen 17 candidate of risks they may face based on their personal profile. This to be followed by more in-depth discussions at the interview stage, during induction and as part of pre-departure briefings. One respondent felt it imperative to discuss the staff’s personal risk profile throughout these processes.
See the case study below shared by one organisation contributing to this research on how they approach informed consent.
16 17
Cardona (2017). Williamson (2017).
© cinfo 2018 – www.cinfo.ch – Duty of Care Maturity Model – cinfo in collaboration with EISF
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