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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="85%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=2>Preparation can help businesses recover faster from disaster
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By David Hatton - Business Edge
Published: 11/02/2007 - Vol. 7, No. 22
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Experts are growing increasingly concerned that a crisis such as SARS or the avian flu will hit Canadian businesses when managers are left unprepared for how to react.
"There hasn't been anything lately in the headlines to make people sit up and pay attention to what needs to be done," says Laurie Martin, the CEO of Life Interrupted Inc., a firm based in Mississauga, Ont., that helps companies prepare for a range of different emergency situations.
"Whenever a crisis hits, a lot of people will suddenly pull back and say: 'I can't believe this is actually happening to us. We never thought it would happen here,' " she explains.
"The fact is that it can. You can't be prepared for every possible situation, but you can have a process in place to reduce the impact."
<TABLE class=graphic_table cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="20%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=graphic_credit align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD class=graphic_caption align=middle>Laurie Martin</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Martin - nicknamed "trauma momma" by some of her friends and clients - has written a book on what she calls "people preparedness."
She has assisted with several international disasters including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Manitoba floods of 1997 and the contaminated water crisis in Walkerton, Ont., in 2000.
Martin works with clients to come up with checklists and procedures to use in an emergency.
She also suggests employees form FIRST (frontline intervention response support team) committees to take a leadership role during these situations.
"People can be very emotional during these times and they will often think of how they would personally deal with the trauma rather than how employees might. Some people go through a great deal of grieving after a death while others will bounce right back," she says.
"You need to practise your procedures on a regular basis, too. I mean, it's like I wouldn't want firefighters coming over to my house to battle a blaze if they had never done any training on how to handle an emergency situation beforehand."
As managing director of human-resources outsourcing firm ENGAGE Human Resources Solutions Inc, Michael Bennett has seen companies that think they have done emergency planning.
"But the number who are actually prepared is not nearly enough," he says. "Everyone still has what I call wishful thinking - believing it can never happen to them."
Bennett's Mississauga offices are about 200 yards away from the site of a former train derailment. The 106-car freight train, loaded with explosives and poisonous chemicals, went off the rails late one night in 1979 and exploded into flames that could be seen from 100 kilometres away. More than 200,000 people were evacuated from the west Toronto suburb.
Up until the New Orleans flooding in 2005, it was the largest peacetime mass evacuation in North America. No one was reported killed.
Statistics show many businesses take months or even years to recover from emergency situations. Some companies even go out of business, says Bennett.
Working with small to medium-sized businesses, Bennett suggests taking steps to ensure daily operations can continue at a different site if necessary.
Backing up computer data, remote access to voicemail and e-mail, and keeping a supply of business cheques offsite are a few of the steps that you can take.
"Once we go out and buy a new server, maybe a few desks and chairs, we can be back up and running here in about a day or so.
" ... Simply backing up your data isn't enough. I know of one client who was backing up his files regularly, but he kept all the backup CDs on top of one of the hard drives. That's fine if your hard drive goes down, but what if there is a fire in your office?" he says.
Martin and Bennett will be in Toronto on Nov. 15 for a one-day conference about emergency preparedness, organized by the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO).
Association CEO Bill Greenhalgh has noticed interest in the third annual event has dropped lately. He worries that HR managers may not be ready when a crisis hits.
"There has been kind of an ebb and flow to it (emergency-planning awareness) over the years," he says.
"Two years ago, it was the flu pandemic that everyone was talking about, and then it kind of ebbed away for a bit.
Lately there hasn't been anything."
Greenhalgh says: "An emergency can be anything from a chemical factory blowing up to the weather taking out your phone system.
"The (HRPAO) conference will at least give them a guideline on what to concentrate on if that happens. It's a case of what should be done.
"It's a bit like insurance - you don't need it 'til you need it. But when you do, you're glad you took the time to get it."
.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text11 colSpan=2>
By David Hatton - Business Edge
Published: 11/02/2007 - Vol. 7, No. 22
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=text11just colSpan=2><HR color=#000000 SIZE=1>
Experts are growing increasingly concerned that a crisis such as SARS or the avian flu will hit Canadian businesses when managers are left unprepared for how to react.
"There hasn't been anything lately in the headlines to make people sit up and pay attention to what needs to be done," says Laurie Martin, the CEO of Life Interrupted Inc., a firm based in Mississauga, Ont., that helps companies prepare for a range of different emergency situations.
"Whenever a crisis hits, a lot of people will suddenly pull back and say: 'I can't believe this is actually happening to us. We never thought it would happen here,' " she explains.
"The fact is that it can. You can't be prepared for every possible situation, but you can have a process in place to reduce the impact."
<TABLE class=graphic_table cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="20%" align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle>
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=graphic_credit align=right></TD></TR><TR><TD class=graphic_caption align=middle>Laurie Martin</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Martin - nicknamed "trauma momma" by some of her friends and clients - has written a book on what she calls "people preparedness."She has assisted with several international disasters including the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Manitoba floods of 1997 and the contaminated water crisis in Walkerton, Ont., in 2000.
Martin works with clients to come up with checklists and procedures to use in an emergency.
She also suggests employees form FIRST (frontline intervention response support team) committees to take a leadership role during these situations.
"People can be very emotional during these times and they will often think of how they would personally deal with the trauma rather than how employees might. Some people go through a great deal of grieving after a death while others will bounce right back," she says.
"You need to practise your procedures on a regular basis, too. I mean, it's like I wouldn't want firefighters coming over to my house to battle a blaze if they had never done any training on how to handle an emergency situation beforehand."
As managing director of human-resources outsourcing firm ENGAGE Human Resources Solutions Inc, Michael Bennett has seen companies that think they have done emergency planning.
"But the number who are actually prepared is not nearly enough," he says. "Everyone still has what I call wishful thinking - believing it can never happen to them."
Bennett's Mississauga offices are about 200 yards away from the site of a former train derailment. The 106-car freight train, loaded with explosives and poisonous chemicals, went off the rails late one night in 1979 and exploded into flames that could be seen from 100 kilometres away. More than 200,000 people were evacuated from the west Toronto suburb.
Up until the New Orleans flooding in 2005, it was the largest peacetime mass evacuation in North America. No one was reported killed.
Statistics show many businesses take months or even years to recover from emergency situations. Some companies even go out of business, says Bennett.
Working with small to medium-sized businesses, Bennett suggests taking steps to ensure daily operations can continue at a different site if necessary.
Backing up computer data, remote access to voicemail and e-mail, and keeping a supply of business cheques offsite are a few of the steps that you can take.
"Once we go out and buy a new server, maybe a few desks and chairs, we can be back up and running here in about a day or so.
" ... Simply backing up your data isn't enough. I know of one client who was backing up his files regularly, but he kept all the backup CDs on top of one of the hard drives. That's fine if your hard drive goes down, but what if there is a fire in your office?" he says.
Martin and Bennett will be in Toronto on Nov. 15 for a one-day conference about emergency preparedness, organized by the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO).
Association CEO Bill Greenhalgh has noticed interest in the third annual event has dropped lately. He worries that HR managers may not be ready when a crisis hits.
"There has been kind of an ebb and flow to it (emergency-planning awareness) over the years," he says.
"Two years ago, it was the flu pandemic that everyone was talking about, and then it kind of ebbed away for a bit.
Lately there hasn't been anything."
Greenhalgh says: "An emergency can be anything from a chemical factory blowing up to the weather taking out your phone system.
"The (HRPAO) conference will at least give them a guideline on what to concentrate on if that happens. It's a case of what should be done.
"It's a bit like insurance - you don't need it 'til you need it. But when you do, you're glad you took the time to get it."
.
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