While perseverance and dedication are commendable qualities, it's crucial to recognize the impact of stress on individuals and teams. In this article, we delve into the Stress Continuum model as a valuable tool for assessing and addressing stress within the travel and experiential education industries.

Over the last two years at Cornerstone Safety Group, we’ve had the pleasure of working with 30+ member organizations as we provide the most comprehensive support possible to the travel and experiential education industry. We’ve also noted that members use their membership hours in thoughtful and creative ways that go beyond the obvious support resources.

So, settle in for some stories of success, strategy, and solutions. Today, we are offering concrete examples of how members utilize our services to reach improved outcomes in all functions of their organizations.

Across management staff, field staff, and those in your senior leadership positions, you might be managing or working with a number of generations. For most organizations, that means you’re operating with staff who display (wonderfully) different perspectives, values, views, and backgrounds.

When it comes to your travel program, your staff may not only have different individual backgrounds and perspectives, but also different ideas about the nature of work itself. This can potentially create challenges if views aren’t aligned and entry level staff require a completely different approach than those who are more seasoned.

Bracing for the inevitable stresses of managing programs is a recipe for burnout and frustration among HQ staff and leadership teams. So, what can you do to proactively address HQ burnout and manage the leadership team’s mental health on the precipice of your busiest season? How do you support each other, as a leadership staff, through peak season before burnout becomes an inevitability?

We spoke with organizational leaders and the Cornerstone mental health team to offer best practices and insights below.

This year in Missoula, Cornerstone Safety Group received the 2023 Innovation in Gap Year Programming Award! After a record number of nominations from members and industry leaders, Executive Director, Dave Dennis, gratefully accepted the award at this year’s Gap Year Association Conference.

“Cornerstone provides benchmarks for safety, risk management, mental health, and medical support on student programming,” read one nomination. “The subscription model is innovative within our industry and the approach of ‘safety is not intellectual property’ has allowed for more collaboration across companies that previously saw themselves purely as competitors. Cornerstone is making the industry safer for all of us.”

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD/ADD, is getting its due in the travel industry.

As clinicians, we’ve learned much about this complex disorder in a relatively short period of time, due to the increased call for better support and understanding in domestic, school, and workplace settings. However, despite increased recognition, we still struggle (particularly in the travel and experiential education industry) to support participants and staff with ADHD.

You work hard to ensure that your processes for managing risk are thorough and consistent at your organization. In fact, you probably recognize that highlighting the ways you and your team approach risk management is a crucial selling point of your travel programs. Below, we’ve highlighted some best practices for ensuring that your approach to marketing the health and safety of your travel program is appropriate, legal, and effective.

At Cornerstone Safety Group, we support members as their participants navigate common travelers’ illnesses. Without the proper preparation and care, these illnesses can feel especially disastrous, especially for participants who are new to travel.

Below is some guidance we give members on how to identify common traveler’s illnesses, address them with your participants, and support when they inevitably appear during your trip or program.

You know that being “on-call” is necessary for your travel business.

During peak season, your staff is in the field 24/7. They are constantly working to support participants’ wellbeing, perhaps operating in an unfamiliar environment, handling crises on the ground, and ensuring all the hard work you’ve spent planning your programs is delivered as designed. They’re likely stressed, looking to you for guidance on a variety of issues, and don’t “get away” from the group for personal time nearly enough.

When you’re looking for more staff, it’s prudent to consider where these individuals might be looking for YOU. Below, we’ve compiled a shortlist of some of the most popular training platforms where tour guides/directors/program leaders look to educate themselves and connect to operators like you.

Some of these organizations even offer the option to list last-minute staffing vacancies on their site or be included in an “emergency” mailing list to all their members - an ideal place to find floater staff in a pinch.

How do you consistently deliver safety briefings to your travel operator or tour operator staff? How do your program leaders embody your values through delivering safety information? Staff need tools and support to realistically deliver the required information in a memorable, clear, and value-rich manner. After all, there’s little point in delivering information to cover your liability if no one is paying attention.

Let’s address the challenge first - when and how the safety briefing can be delivered.

In a recent meeting, many Cornerstone members had questions about supporting seasonal staff with mental health. Particularly given that it’s Mental Health Awareness Month, we wanted to share some of the collective findings from these informal discussions.

Cornerstone is founded on the belief that protecting human lives is not intellectual property, but a shared responsibility. We believe that knowing where human safety fits within your organization and having actionable processes to navigate complex situations is paramount to operational success.

At Cornerstone, our members have the unique opportunity to bring relevant challenges to the table and work together with peer organizations to create solutions. As we adapt to the next evolution of the pandemic and what that means for our member organizations, one such topic was brought to the table early in 2022: reintroducing homestay experiences.

To make Cornerstone meetings and trainings beneficial for all participants, we ask that attendees abide by the following etiquette. When we follow these norms, the value of each session increases and attendees are more likely to make peer connections. In return, we at Cornerstone will abide by the best practices and expectations set forth below, as event organizers.

I recently had a conversation with one of the Cornerstone community members discussing "gut feelings" about Omicron and how this might impact the progress and optimism for international programming in 2022. While there's no true answer to this question, it got me thinking about what we could and should be doing given our experiences over the past two years.