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With the holidays fast approaching businesses are entering that stretch of time when large numbers of employees are out for family activities or just trying to use up those vacation days before the end of the year. It’s very likely that key members of your staff will be out of the office. It’s always good when we can get out of the office and recharge our batteries a bit and spend precious time with our family and friends, but from a continuity perspective, this can be an increased risk if you don’t take the proper precautions.
I love this time of year. One of the reasons is that we’re smack dab in the middle of football season. Not only because I enjoy football, but because I can “mostly” get away with using a football analogy in relation to continuity without having to dodge too many low flying objects aimed at me. I know that sports analogies are the most overused cliché in business, but since it is football season I’ll give it a shot.
At this point, I’d like to address one topic, one that is very important to me because I feel that it is one of the most critical parts of a good continuity program – TRAINING. The fact is, if you don’t train your employees and team members on what they should do when your business is faced with a disruption or disaster, how can you expect them to be ready to actually execute what they need to do.
Have you ever felt the earth move beneath you? I’m not asking if you’ve metaphorically felt the earth move by falling in love, I’m referring to an actual movement of the earth beneath you – AKA an earthquake. If you’ve been through an earthquake you know that strange feeling of having everything under you moving when it shouldn’t be. We’re so used to having the earth be a solid and safe surface that when the forces of our dynamic world decide to let loose a bit, we’re normally caught unaware and unprepared.
On October 17th all across the country states, cities, businesses, schools, and other organizations will participate in the “Great ShakeOut” drills and education programs. This program is to highlight the threat of earthquakes across the country. Although most people associate earthquakes with the West Coast of the US, earthquakes are possible in all 50 states.
“You can be the Hero” is the slogan for this year’s 10th annual National Preparedness Month. If you’re reading that first sentence and asking what National Preparedness Month is or just simply going “so what?” you’re certainly not alone. Since 2004, our government and preparedness partners have encouraged Americans to prepare themselves, their families, and communities to be prepared for disasters. A herculean effort for 10 years that has resulted in – well let me be totally honest – a big disappointment to me.
Now, before you get too far ahead and start assuming anything, let me explain. I’m not disappointed with the Ready Campaign or anyone who has worked on any activities for National Preparedness Month (NPM), far from it. I appreciate their efforts and I think they’ve made a difference in many people’s lives. My disappointment is with one word in this year’s theme, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.
Continuity Observations from the Attack on 9-11
Written by Brian SiravoYesterday was the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001 and every September 11th is a significant day of remembrance for our Nation. The pain, the loss, the sadness, and the anger have faded over time for some and are still felt sharply every day by others, especially those who lost family and friends that day. I personally was working 2 blocks from the Pentagon that morning and I will never forget watching the ash from the burning building float by the window like large snowflakes and wondering if my friends who worked down the street were alive or dead.
As a member of the business continuity profession, as someone who spends a great deal of time talking to both businesses and individuals about preparedness, I have noted a few lessons from those events that I’d like to briefly share for your consideration.
If you have children in your home, you likely have been inundated the last week or two with school shopping, new backpacks and lunchboxes, and dealing with emotional roller coasters of kids being excited to go back to school and the next minute wandering aimlessly wondering where the summer went (or is that us parents?). This time of year is certainly a mad dash of completing paperwork and adjusting schedules (and alarm clocks) to put all the pieces together so our kids make it back to school without a hitch, and I’m sure you did wonderful.
As much as I know everyone hates them, it’s now time for our first pop-quiz. Pencils up – ready?
1. Does your child’s school have an emergency plan or a short emergency checklist for parents?
2. Does your child’s school have an emergency notification system and are you signed up for it?
3. Does your child (children) know what to do and how you will get to them if there is an emergency or disaster? Do you know what you’ll do?
I certainly hope everyone scored a 100% on our quiz. It’s on the honor system so if not, you’ve got homework to do.
The fact is from a continuity and preparedness standpoint, schools have to deal with all the same threats that any business has to deal with: fire, tornados, severe storms, blizzards, hurricanes, power outages, and violence. Schools also have other challenges to plan for that most business professionals would run from – food recalls, flu season, food allergies, lost and found, not to mention those pesky outbreaks of head lice. The even greater challenge that schools must work with is that unlike a business who can inform their adult employees of the company procedures and expect everyone to follow them (mostly), schools have a large percentage of their occupants who may not be old enough to handle themselves in a stressful situation. I think of school preparedness plans more like hospitals and nursing homes, very small staff versus lots of people needing to be taken care of.
So once you take that deep breath after it all begins, don’t forget to ask at the school what their plans are and what your role as a parent is and what you need to know. I guarantee they will be happy to have someone ask those questions (unless they haven’t thought about it either, which means they have homework to do as well).
I was notified by a friend of mine in southern Maryland to a rather precarious situation that I thought was interesting. The water utility company had to repair a 54” main water line supplying the very populated area of portions of Prince George’s County and was warning more than 100,000 residents and local businesses they would be without water for three to five days during a hot July week. Needless to say, I bet you can’t find a bottle or jug of water in any store anywhere near there right now. In thinking about this situation, I see several areas of concern.
First of all, in the 90 degree heat of July there, dehydration can set in quickly depending on age, size, and activity levels. The increased strain on emergency services I would imagine would be significant. Some articles mentioned they planned on handing out emergency water but in these cases there just never is enough. The health impact of an outage is significant. When speaking with groups about home or personal preparedness I always emphasize the need for water, and even in my own family preparedness actions I find that having enough water is always a great challenge. I think it’s a solid assumption that most people in that area do not have any emergency water supply and thus would be reliant on the provided emergency water.
Looking at this from a business continuity perspective, I see many challenges to businesses that would need to be planned for and considered. For starters, does your business rely on a good water supply for sanitation or other purposes (e.g. restaurants, healthcare, barbers and hair salons, etc.)? If so, can your business function without water just to run your critical functions - probably not. Even if you are not in that situation, what business with employees can function without water for restrooms and hand washing for 3-5 days? I can’t think of any. Not to mention the non-life threatening discomforts of employees hygiene or (gasp) the utter lack of coffee. Even with a few days’ notice, how could businesses in the area properly prepare, especially small businesses that rely on day to day customers to survive? And closing any business for 3-5 days can be significant to catastrophic depending on the business. Now consider if there was no advanced notice?
Put your business in this situation – would you be ready to deal with this? Would you have plans in place to have employees work from alternate locations or telework? Does your business have alternatives to just closing shop while you wait for the water to be restored? What would you do if the main broke in the middle of a Monday night and you were told water would be out for an entire week? Looking at these concerns makes you realize that what is usually assumed to be a minor problem (such as water line repairs) can become a significant business disruption very quickly. The good news is if you have a strong business continuity plan and a good communication system with your employees you may still be able to treat this kind of a situation as an annoyance rather than a catastrophe.
In the last few months we’ve seen protests both peaceful and not peaceful. Regardless of your personal opinions of the various causes and reasons, businesses have to think about how they should prepare and respond during a civil disturbance. There are various possible impacts on businesses during protests and they range from minor inconveniences like increased road traffic to major business damage to your physical facilities. In the worst case, it could include direct risk to employee safety. There are many variables to consider in your planning for a civil disturbance, but here are a couple of issues that are critical to consider.
First of all, as a responsible employer you need to consider the safety of your employees. Is your workplace safe? Can employees get to and from work safely without crossing protest boundaries? Are customers, suppliers, or other visitors to your business safe? If the answer is no to any of these questions, you have some planning to do. Some people would automatically suggest “just close the office” but this isn’t always a good business decision either. Can you have your employees telework or work from an alternate office? Do you need to hire extra security? Can you use alternate work schedules to have employees come in at off hours when it may be safer? What alternatives do you have to deliver service to your customers if your office is not accessible or they don’t feel comfortable coming to your office?
Another important issue to consider is your communication with employees. You may need to provide instructions in off business hours so how will you do that as a manager or business owner? If you don’t have a good communication process in place before you need it, you will quickly realize that you really wished you had. The good news is if you establish a good communication process it is multi-purpose and beneficial during any kind of incident.
One more issue I’ll mention is your response and recovery plans. Do you know what you will do if something happens? Your response and recovery processes (for civil disturbances and all other disruptive incidents) should be well documented in your business continuity plan.
Civil unrest, protests, and riots are one of many threats businesses need to plan for. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a big city that has to deal with massive political protests or in a small college town that could suffer from a local college “victory party” riot because your local team won a bit title, your business needs to have a plan in place of what you will do should it happen.