Is Your Company Ready
In the light of the recent fires in Hawaii, it brings to mind not only how we personally need to have a plan for our home, loved ones, and pets but our work locations must also have a plan for recovery. Like if something happened to your corporate office how would you work or get paid?
Is your company prepared for an emergency? If they are like most of us, the answer is no or you’re not as prepared as you would like to be. It can be difficult to know how to begin and where to go from there.
Be Prepared
To minimize the impact of disasters on employees, property, and operations, businesses must make the right preparations. These include creating a disaster plan, identifying priorities, and training employees on emergency preparedness. Human-caused hazards can include accidents, acts of violence by people and acts of terrorism.
Necessary Precautions
Every business should have a plan. Business continuity planning must account for both man-made and natural disasters. There should be a plan in advance to manage any emergency. Be prepared to assess the situation, use common sense and available resources to take care of yourself, your co-workers and your business’s recovery.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Communication is key to keep employees and suppliers informed, to help to answer customer questions, reduce rumors, and provide solutions and expectations to the public.
Know Your Plan
Plan for potential business interruptions and create a crisis communication strategy as part of your larger Business Continuity Plan. Here are some tips:
- Back up important data to an off-site data storage facility.
- Keep an updated Emergency Contact List with every possible way to reach each person to include all phone numbers, emails, family contact(s) and social media links.
- Make sure your larger plan includes a staffing plan. Even minor problems or disasters can disrupt or change chain or line of command and backups should be planned in advance
- Consider an alert mechanism that can keep your employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, and stakeholders informed and regularly updated in multiple ways (e.g., email, text messages). Test this regularly.
- Use existing social media platforms to communicate online (e.g., Facebook, Twitter).
- Have procedures to work with the media following a crisis and identify a spokesperson to be the voice of your company.
- Communicate accurately and often with customers to keep them informed of any delays in delivery, alternatives, expectations, and any compensation.
- Update the communications strategy often. Train employees and provide new hires with the communications strategy.
Knowing which disasters are most likely to affect your business can help you to return to normal operations faster. A back-to-business self-assessment can help you to assess the risks for common hazards such as hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, or even cyberattacks. Have a plan. Know the plan. Follow the plan.
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