Duty of care in action: managing the loss of an employee overseas
A worked account of what an organisation has to do when a member of staff dies overseas: who is told, in what order, by whom, and what has to have been arranged in advance for any of it to go well.
The first hours
The organisation has four things to do at once, and they are done by different people.
- Confirm the facts. Before anything is communicated, someone has to establish what is actually known, as distinct from what is being reported. That person is the crisis manager, and the finding goes to one place.
- Secure the scene and the colleagues. The people who were present need to be moved somewhere safe, kept together, and given access to medical and psychological support. They are also witnesses, and the organisation should treat their account as evidence from the beginning.
- Notify the family. In person, by someone senior, with the little that is actually known, and without speculation. This is a separate role from crisis management and must be held by a different person.
- Notify the authorities and the insurer. Consular assistance, local police, the insurer's assistance company and, where the death was violent, the relevant investigative body.
What has to have been prepared before
Almost everything that makes this go badly is a thing that was not arranged in advance.
| Prepared | Not prepared |
|---|---|
| A named family liaison person, known to the family, with a deputy | Whoever is in the office that day making first contact |
| Next-of-kin details recorded, current, and confirmed at each deployment | Emergency contact details taken at recruitment and never updated |
| An insurance policy that covers repatriation of remains, and a known route to activate it | A policy nobody has read until the day it is needed |
| Written guidance for the family on what happens next | The family learning the process from the organisation's delays |
| An agreement with the family about what is published and when | A press release issued before the family was told |
Repatriation and the formalities
Repatriation of remains involves consular authorities in two countries, a funeral director, an insurer and, in many cases, a post-mortem. It takes longer than families expect and it cannot be accelerated by pressure. The organisation's job is to hold the process, keep the family informed at each stage, and carry the cost without requiring the family to claim it back.
Parallel formalities run at the same time: informing the relevant authorities in the country of nationality, closing the employment record, settling final payments and any death-in-service benefit, and returning personal effects. Personal effects need a decision about who handles them and how they are inventoried, because in practice this is where families most often report a bad experience.
After the immediate response
The organisation still owes duties when the immediate crisis is over. Support for the family, in particular for children and for dependants whose position the organisation may have changed by the death. Support for colleagues, both those who were present and those who were not, delivered in a way that does not require them to identify themselves as struggling. A serious incident review that establishes what happened and what should change, without turning the death into a lesson at the expense of the people involved. And a decision, recorded, about whether the programme continues.
Related
Practical guidance and research on the security of humanitarian staff, for the organisations that send them.