Drawing off the enormous flooding in Colorado and Naval shipyard shootings in Washington, D.C., the second in a series of webinars being wear for National Preparedness Month focused on unforeseen crises as examples of the will for organizations to have well thought out emergency plans.
Titled “The New 10 Steps to Preparedness,†the webinar was presented by Agility Recovery and the United State Small Business Administration. The webinar followed last week’s webinar, “Protect Your organization by Preparing Your Employees.†Next week’s webinar is “Crisis Communication for Any Origination.â€
The webinars are timed with National Preparedness Month in September, an idea that sprang out of the tragedies of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
A webinar timed with National Preparedness Month outlines some lessons to be learned from recent events.
They are timely, since the ought to be prepared for any event is being driven home for U.S. businesses and citizens. The widespread flooding in Colorado is being viewed as an “unprecedented†event through which losses will take quite your time to calculate. The impact of the D.C. shootings that left 13 dead would be still being assessed.
“Already this month we have seen two gigantic tragedies impact the u. s. ,†said Bob Boyd, Agility’s president and CEO.
The lesson eliminate from these events, he said, is “if you don’t already have a plan…it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to be able to recover, but boy it makes is tricky.â€
During the webinar Boyd offered 10 Steps to preparedness:
- Assess your risk - both internally and externally
- Assess your critical business functions
- Back up your data
- Prepare your supply chain
- Prepare your employees
- Create a crisis communications plan
- Assembly emergency supplies
- Plan for an additional location
- Review your insurance plan
- Test your plan
Prioritize
Good planning starts with a risk manager, executive, or insurance agent advising clients, asking themselves and the organizations they represent several questions.
“You would like to think about it,†Boyd said. “What are different departments or services or functions that you provide to you stakeholders?â€
This enables business managers to prioritize those functions and training session what need to be sorted first in crisis.
For example, member services for some businesses can be a critical function, whereas accounts payable will not be a priority.
“The day after a disaster, I’m not likely worried about writing numerous checks,†Boyd said.
Following that assessment, it enables organizations to cross-train employees to serve in alternate functions during an emergency, reminiscent of having accounts payable employees learn how to work in customer services, he said.
Backing up data is another important planning step, in line with Boyd. Again, he suggested asking questions: Is this the info backup automated? Is it backed up daily? Is tit stored in an off-site, secure location? Is the certainty backup plan tested regularly? Is the organization’s regional footprint, who the customers are and where they're, being considered?
Also essential, but not always obvious when designing an emergency plan for a corporation, is communicating with key vendors and suppliers about their recovery plans, Boyd said.
“Call them up and ask them,†he said. “That’s not an unreasonable request to call them and say i personally depend upon you.â€
He added, “(Superstorm) Sandy was an incredible example of this. There were lot of people that didn’t get directly impacted by Sandy, but they'd vendors go down.â€
He also suggested developing relationships with alternate vendors to “eliminate single points of failure.â€
Beside company-wide preparedness, employee preparedness is equally important, he said.
Steps suggested to prepare employees include:
- Involving employees in planning and testing the emergency strategy
- Preparing employees for work at home challenges
- Cross-training employees, even between departments
- Addressing family preparedness
- Providing build a kit workshops or other family involvement days
- Formally sharing the plan with new hires
- Participating in local emergency management drills
Beyond just the steps, there are considerations to be made with each measure. Preparing employees to earn a living from home close to an emergency isn’t always the most productive answer, Boyd said, adding that working from home during Superstorm Sandy wasn’t effective for many organizations cause power wasn’t just on inside the office, but there was not power in people’s homes as we;;.
“There are hundreds big events where that won’t work,†he said. “It’s a sensible choice to have, but it just can’t be the best choice.â€
Bringing in a mobile unit, or going to a hotel to take care of workflow going might be other options to be prepared for possible power outages, Boyd advised.
Crisis Communication
“Creating a crisis communication plan is so critically important,†he said. “You have the desire to make sure you have various different ways which you can communicate with your stakeholders after a disaster impacts you.â€
Some ideas offered include:
- 24-hour phone tree
- Password protected web page
- Previously established radio/TV/print news partners
- Call-in recording system
- Email alert system
- Text/data alert system
Boyd suggested making an emergency call list for employees that includes a home phone, alternate mobile phone, personal email and family contact information.
Lest nobody forget, essentially the most important parts of being prepared is to ensure proper insurance is in place, Boyd said.
“Please, please review your insurance,†he said.
Insurance considerations include:
- Be sure the organization is insured for all potential risks
- Consider business interruption insurance and added expense insurance
- Keep up-to-date photos of the property, equipment lists and policy information stored in safe and secure offsite location
- Asset management program
“There are thousands of employers fighting with their insurance carriers because they thought they'd coverage,†Boyd said.
Finally, he suggested, conducting annual exercises to work the kinks out of the plan.
“Conduct a test of it, at least once a year,†he said.
Testing data restoration, the alert notification system, employees’ knowledge of the emergency plan, vendors resilience and knowing power needs are all checks that should be made at least annually, Boyd said.
“Find the failures and simply update your plan, make it better,†he said.
The next webinar is “Crisis Communication for Any Origination†on Sept. 25 from 2 to 3 p.m. EST. Stay tuned to InsuranceJournal.com for coverage of that webinars.
