Disasters of all sizes cause more than just a physical damage to property; they impact your employees, customers, corporate image, and the bottom line. Many companies were stunned to learn after 9/11 about the glaring holes in their business continuity plans. The experiences revitalized the focus on disaster recovery. New plans were made; new systems implemented; testing was scheduled and completed. Years later, the country was shaken again, this time by several back-to-back natural disasters: hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes, wildfires, floods. Many organizations asked, "How do we keep disaster recovery implementations up-to-date with new and evolving business needs?

Failure to prepare for a disaster could shut down your organization for an extended period, threatening its existence. As reported by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2006, up to 40 percent of small businesses do not reopen after a major disaster like a flood, wildfire, tornado, or earthquake.

While the actual collateral damage varied in all of these events, the overall affect on employee perceptions of the organization lingers. Some businesses, despite the devastation, tried to help employees, while others did nothing. Several of HR Solutions' clients have shared with us their experiences and how they approached the people element in disaster planning and recovery.

Getting Started
A disaster preparedness plan should consider the following order of priorities:
" Human impact
" Property impact
" Business continuity

Faced with the reality of such devastating proportions, there is an increased need for a strong commitment to organizational actions which place the employee at the front of the priority list. The effectiveness of the HR policies that are the basic root of survival during a crisis is carefully processed not only by the individual employees, but by the watchful eye of the media.

Improve Communications
During 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, businesses were not prepared for communications systems to be inoperable over vast regions. Now experts recommend using multiple communication channels in the expectation that many might not work when you need them.

Depending upon the top disaster events for your organization, a few of the suggested alternative communication channels are:

   Ham radio: This old-tech channel turned out to be the most reliable of all after Hurricane Katrina.
   Two-way pagers: Low bandwidth user that does not take away available resources of disaster responders.
   Website: Distribute and receive information to customer and employees. One example would be the University of Texas Medical Branch's emergency continuity website in response to Hurricane Ike.
   Dedicated landline: Connect one phone directly to the telephone wall jack. These phones will work without electricity.
   Call-forwarding service: Can be for local line or your 800 number, which includes a voice mailbox access. These can be forwarded to ring anywhere.
   Utilize text messaging: Due to its low bandwidth, you can get through when voice connections and email can't. They require less network resources.

Locating Employees after a Disaster
Keep electronic and paper copy phone lists of your employees and customers current. In a situation where some employees will be evacuating the area, have them sign a form and get phone numbers for where they will be going. Put together a confirmed list of who is going to evacuate and who is not, and who has family members that need to be included in the evacuation plans. This way, response team members can contact employees to find out who needs help and who can give help.

When tornadoes ripped through Madison County Tennessee in February 2008, it was the dedication of employees of West Tennessee Healthcare, a client of HR Solutions, to go wherever they were needed that drove the rescue efforts. "We're blessed. It's not something where I have to call and beg, shared Barry Dennis, Administrative Director of Emergency Services at West Tennessee Healthcares' flagship hospital, Jackson-Madison County General Hospital. "If we needed them, they'd be there.

Relocate operations
The Breakers Palm Beach, another HR Solutions' client, has seen its share of hurricanes and evacuations as a beachfront resort. With Hurricane Jeanne's evacuation in 2004, The Breakers' management moved an entire wedding party of 200 guests out of the storm's path to Key West, arranging for three buses and sending along staff to help with the event.
Organizations in areas that will require extensive rebuilding efforts should consider transferring employees to other locations so that valuable skills and experience are not lost.

Taking care of your staff
When Hurricane Andrew destroyed the $57 million dollar corporate headquarters of Burger King, an HR Solutions' Best-in-Class client, and left more than 300 employees homeless; Barry Gibbons, Chief Executive and Chairman focused on the mantra, "If you think it's right, just do it. Employees broke down the typical organizational chart and were empowered to make the best decisions for not only the organization, but also their families. They were trusted to decide when their eight hour days would begin and end. Employees were encouraged to step into whatever role they felt needed to be addressed to get the organization back up and running.

One of the more difficult aspects of coming up with a disaster recovery plan is accounting for individual employee needs after a disaster strikes. By planning ahead you can provide for their safety, compensation, and other resources.

Access to cash: With widespread power outages, banks may be closed and ATMs nonfunctional. Those who are evacuated have difficulty cashing checks in unfamiliar locations. Actively encourage your workforce to sign up for direct deposit to avoid this problem. Mr. Gibbons directed all cash on hand to be brought to the communication command post and provided short term loans to Burger King employees.

Pay and benefits arrangements: Make alternate plans for payroll processing if systems are down, for distributing checks to employees, and for paying vendors for monthly premiums on benefits plans if the business is closed.

Employee Assistance Programs: While an EAP offers value under normal circumstances, once a disaster occurs it can provide information on where to seek shelter, how to access Red Cross and government benefits, and even what to do with pets. In addition, EAPs offer counseling to employees affected by trauma and loss. Mr. Gibbons and the executive committee of Burger King set up 14 booths at the communication command post to address these concerns and brought in 10 crisis counselors to provide over 300 sessions for the affected families.

Practice does not make perfect
When a disaster strikes, it bears little resemblance to any pre-planned disaster recovery drill. A plan should not undergo its first test during a crisis. Conduct an evacuation drill once a year. Task the response team with updating the plan every year.
 
Measuring employee commitment in crisis recovery
While many disasters do not have advance warning times that a hurricane or encroaching wildfires afford, we are often caught off guard by the scope of destruction. What seemed inconceivable becomes overwhelming in the light of day.

Organizations can begin by measuring not only employees' safety and security concerns, but also how employees view the overall organizational concern for employees' welfare and well-being. When it comes to the employee survey item, "Senior management of this organization is concerned about the employees, HR Solutions' National Normative Database reveals that only 52% of employees answered either with an agree or strongly agree response. However, the Best-in-Class organizations (top ten percent) registered a full 18 percentage points higher, coming in at 70% of employees in agreement with the statement.

The indelible mark left by Burger King's approach to disaster response is still remembered by US corporate headquarters' employees six years down the road in the annual employee survey. They continued to share a common bond and scored well above other business units in regards to Concern for Employees and Community/Social Responsibility areas. "Absolutely, the culture changed, shared Ron Biskin, former Senior Vice President at Burger King.

The approach your organization takes in the hours and days following any disaster will resonate in your employees' level of commitment and influence the ability of your organization to rebound in the aftermath.