Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Communicating With Employees During a Disaster

By Noelle Bates, Director of Corporate Communications, LogoWorks
In the last year, and particularly in the last few months, the world has faced numerous natural disasters, from the hurricanes in the southern U.S. to the devastating earthquake in Pakistan. Disaster preparation and recovery has once again become an unpleasant topic of conversation for business owners as these reminders have come in that no one is safe or wholly protected from such an event.

While it’s critical to have a disaster preparation and recovery plan in place, one thing that is often overlooked is the communication with your most valuable asset and the backbone of your business ? your employees ? during a time of crisis. Having your data backed up, insurance papers in order, and a secondary operating location is important, but it all becomes meaningless if the people that make your business work don’t know what to do, where to go, or what to expect during or after a disaster.

By following the guidelines below, you can tighten up your disaster plan and feel confident that your company’s communication will continue to operate as smoothly as possible during a crisis:

• Continually update all of your employee records, and include multiple levels of telephone numbers (i.e. home, cell, and in case of emergency) and personal email addresses for each employee. You never know when a disaster may strike and where your employees might be when it does. Make sure all supervisors have access to these documents, 24×7.
• Create a restricted access link from your website or intranet or blog where employees can go to find up-to-the minute communication from the company when disaster strikes.
• Create an Emergency Card that employees can put in their wallet that lists the steps that will be taken during a disaster. The Emergency Card should include URLs that employees can check, a phone number where recorded messages are left, all of the phone number for their direct supervisor, and the health insurance company’s 800 numbers and URLs in case they need medical treatment and can’t find their insurance information.
• Create a reporting list so that all employees can be quickly accounted for. Designate a point person and let each supervisor know what steps to take before a disaster happens so there is a top down structure for communication and reporting.
• Keep in mind that all communications might go down during a disaster, particularly in the case of a massive earthquake, flooding or terrorist attack. In those cases, make sure to add contingencies to your plan. Determine point places for employees to meet at certain times (i.e., 10 a.m. the morning after a disaster) where they can check in and get information. By mapping out your employee’s homes, you can determine cluster locations that will make walking to a designated spot easy in case other transportation is not possible.
• It’s critical to call a company-wide meeting where disaster plans are discussed and where the Emergency Cards can be distributed. In this meeting, let employees know what steps are being taken to shore up the company in the case of a disaster, as well as what steps each employee should take during a disaster.

Once your plan has been put together, you should test it to make sure it will operate effectively. Call all of the numbers and test all email addresses to make sure they are working, and then distribute the disaster plan during an employee meeting for discussion and clarification.

By preparing and your business and your employees for a disaster, you show your concern for their welfare and bring structure and order to what can be a very confusing, stressful and upsetting situation. It’s an important step that will not only be immeasurably valuable in during bad times, but will make your employees feel more secure and confident in good times as well.

           

Posted on Sunday, November 20th, 2005 at 10:40 am and is filed under Employee Relations, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.