Business Contingency Planning - the Human Dimension

Madeleine Campbell August 2005

Like everyone else I was horrified by the bombings in London on 7th July.

By mid-afternoon many companies had evacuated their offices and buildings, disgorging their staff onto the streets with no means of transport home and the likelihood of disruption for days to come. This made me wonder. Was any thought given to staff needs? Were some in a state of distress? Were they anxious about how they would get home; had they managed to contact their loved ones; did they have stranded dependents they couldn’t reach; did companies have up-to-date contact details to ensure they were all OK?

In addition, from a business point of view, was any thought given to how the company would function the following day in the face of a complete transport breakdown? After all, the whole point of Business Contingency Plans is to continue business with as little disruption as possible and maintain your company’s reputation.

Most companies have fully comprehensive Business Contingency and Emergency Plans, don’t they? These are the type that tells you what to do in a fire or a bomb scare. For a fire, evacuate the building and meet on the corner; in the event of a bomb alert, avoid all windows, close the doors and stay put. Aside from preventing serious injury or death, do those plans give any thought to staff handling in a crisis? Or any thought to their customers?

A Question of Reputation

Is this HR’s concern, you might ask? Well, staff welfare is always HR’s concern. Four times in four years I found myself responsible for implementing contingency plans in emergency situations. On each occasion I was grateful for my HR background because by far the most difficult and problematic issues that arose were related directly to people welfare. The way you treat your people will affect your reputation and your future business. If you want to keep your business running, you will need to take control of staff movements; if they leave today, they might not be back tomorrow, as was the case in many companies on 8th July.

I was the Senior Administrator at the British Government Offices (BGO) in New York during 9/11 and its aftermath of bomb and anthrax scares, followed two years later during the Great Blackout on the east coast of America. On 7th July this year, on a more modest scale, I took charge in a work situation where there were no contingency plans of any kind, this time with the additional responsibility for 60-odd customers on the premises.

The events of 9/11 and the subsequent associated terrorist issues forced us at the BGO New York to rethink our Contingency Plans in a very big way. Whatever future disaster might befall us – and the rumour and speculation at the time was rife – we knew we would have to continue operations regardless of events because looking after British citizens in distress and dealing with the political fallout was our business.

In the Dark

In the event, the blackout proved to be an even greater challenge as far as business continuity was concerned than the dreadful disaster of two years earlier. This is what happened during the blackout when the power went down:

Vacating the building was dangerous. There were no lights, no lifts (this was New York, we were on the 28th floor);
No lights, no public transport, no traffic lights, so the gridlock rendered cars useless;
No eMail, no mobile phone system (it overloaded and there was no power to the aerials), no landline telephones (lesson learned: keep an old fashioned phone in the cupboard, not a cordless or a conference facility, with no voicemail or answer phone. It does not need electricity to work);
No water, no heating, no air conditioning; no ATMs, no money, no credit card machines; shops forced to close, food in supermarkets, shops and restaurants ran out.

At the UK Mission to the United Nations a major international treaty had to be signed the following morning. How did we cope? Our plan contained the following:

a Contingency Team who knew they had to stick around for the duration;
beds for the night for the contingency team and anyone who could not get home;
a stash of cash;
a stash of food and water;
names and addresses – yes, a hard copy, on paper - of all staff;
alternative means of communication offsite.

The treaty was signed on schedule.

That was just a power outage. A different type of disaster or terrorist attack means people become afraid for their loved ones and for themselves. At the BGO we were lucky to have a trained welfare counsellor on the staff. You may be dealing with all of the above, but with heightened anxiety.

Déjà vu

Most of you won’t need all these things and, when I returned to the UK and moved out of the public sector, I thought I had seen the last of such measures. On 7th July, working in a training company with 35 staff and 60 learners, I was proved wrong.

A wide plasma screen TV in our rest area meant that the news travelled fast. When a colleague suggested we turn the television off and keep the situation quiet from our customers, I knew I had to act faster.

We held a meeting with customers and staff explaining the “power surge” and the possibility of casualties. As the tragedy unfolded, people became fearful for their loved ones and stranded children. We made landline, mobiles and eMail available to all. Some systems were overloaded, but everyone got through to their families and friends and alternative arrangements were made to pick up children and so on.

Some had travelled from the other side of London and as the day progressed we realised they could not get home, at least not by a direct route. With the whole of the tube and cross-London transport systems closed, we took lists of those who would face difficulty getting home. We downloaded maps and alternative routes from the Internet, teamed people up with others who could show them the way, gave lifts where it was feasible. Some staff were sent to the Town Hall to find out if their emergency plans would accommodate those who could not get home, staff who lived locally offered beds for the night and, although most preferred to make the journey home, the gesture was much appreciated. We even managed to send round a tray of sandwiches.

We didn’t do much, but we did what we could and what was appropriate. Moreover, we showed our concern. Some thanked us profusely, others didn’t notice. However, I am sure that if we had done nothing, it would have been noticed by everyone. It is a question of reputation, duty of care and, as a last point, making people feel useful and part of the solution in a time of crisis.

Incidentally, the Town Hall was full of wet people in swimsuits who had been evacuated from a sports centre adjacent to the tube station and we were asked to come back later.

Make a Plan

What do you need to do? Much will depend upon the nature of your business, and what you think is an appropriate level of responsibility towards your staff and customers. A school or hospital will be at one end of this spectrum and a partnership at the other end. Those organisations with remote or ex-pat workers, for example, might need to do more because people may lack the support systems of relations and friends and even familiarity with their surroundings.

Make a plan. Keep it short and simple or no-one will read it. Make sure everyone knows what might be expected of them, including their mutual responsibility towards each other and the pooling of resources.
Start with a core contingency team that identifies functions, rather than names (named individuals might not be available). For example, you might designate the most senior HR person present at the time to take charge and choose a team from the most appropriate people available
Consult managers to identify what key staff they need to continue business and hang on to those people.
Make a list of places where staff can sleep overnight. This might include hotels nearby or even spare rooms of other willing staff members.
Ensure access to money. Keep a supply of tinned food and bottled water.
Develop a simple chain of communications for staff to check in and to send messages back.
Have available an A-Z and maps of the local transport system.
Have an up-to-date list of staff details and keep it on paper as well as on the computer
Make sure the batteries in laptops are fully charged.

And anything else you might think is useful.

What was the fourth event? At the height of the anthrax attacks in the US the mailroom staff at the BGO opened a letter containing white powder and a nasty note. We were pretty sure it was a hoax, but the scared mailroom personnel were pretty unhappy.

What did we do? We called in the authorities and took the mailroom staff straight to a doctor. Coincidentally, I had made an appointment with a doctor for a couple of hours later to discuss medical provision in the event of ..…. an anthrax scare. I was in luck that day.