Hurricane Katrina. The big blackout. Sept. 11. Whether for natural calamities or man-made ones, more businesses are giving disaster and continuity plans a second look.
Not that many are prepared right now. A 2006 Fusepoint/Leger Marketing survey revealed that 72 per cent of Canadian business leaders have no disaster recovery or business continuity plan at all.
While most multinational corporations already have detailed readiness plans or are developing them, the trick is to get the little guys on board.
What if
No one says preparing for every possible scenario is easy, but there are ways to try to tackle some of the most likely, says Michael Smith, president of ReadySmith Inc., in Oakville, which helps companies plan for emergencies.
Start with a risk assessment. What are the threats? Which ones are highly probable and would likely have a high impact on the company? In other words, play the odds. Is it more probable aliens will take your vice-president of sales away, or that he'll be homebound after a big snowstorm?
Then do a business impact analysis. What's critical for the company to continue running?
“Ask yourself, ‘If I need 30 people working on Day 2 somewhere with this set of computer applications, how do I do that?'” he says. Then figure out how to make it happen.
Pandemic planning
Many health care officials say when it comes to a pandemic it's not a case of “if,” but “when.” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says if a severe flu pandemic were to strike, business absenteeism could reach 40 per cent.
“What separates the pandemic from other disasters, is that the impact is on the employee as opposed to the bricks and mortar of the company,” says Dan Miller, chairman for Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.'s Internal Pandemic Planning Committee in Mississauga.
Roche, the pharmaceutical company that manufacturers the antiviral flu medicine Tamiflu, has its own pandemic disaster plan including more typical things to fight this particular calamity such as teaching employees how to wash their hands properly – giving them a good, long scrub with warm water and soap – and the importance of social distancing, also known as the one-metre rule, to teach them to stay away from crowds. But the company is going an extra step: It's handing out Tamiflu pills now to protect employees and their families.
The program is voluntary, the company can't force its employees to take Tamiflu, but Mr. Miller says the company feels it's important to ensure business continuity during the pandemic simply because it won't be able to afford vast absenteeism during its busiest time.
Will telework save us?
That's what a lot of businesses hope, but don't count on it. In Australia, a Queensland government department recently sent home hundreds of workers indefinitely due to a structural fault in a building. Although the division had the technology in place to offer teleworking, the executives didn't have a plan in place to make it work.
But even if they did, would it matter?
“Everybody in the industry is saying, ‘all of our employees will telecommute.' Well, when everyone goes on the Internet at once, what happens?” says John Rostern, director of technology risk management for Jefferson Wells International, Inc. in New York.
Mr. Smith thinks he knows. “The Internet will come to its knees,” he says.
The little guys
Smaller businesses are most at risk in a disaster. Jeanne Hurlbert, professor of sociology and an affiliate of the Hurricane Center at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, says one year after Katrina swept in, more than 40 per cent of small businesses affected by the hurricane failed.
Why? With cellphones down and land lines shot, employers simply couldn't find their employees.
“The typical evacuation scenario is that you evacuate and then you come back after a few hours, days or even a week. But with Katrina, people were gone a month,” she says. “They literally didn't know where they were.”
Ms. Hurlbert says small businesses need to develop a contact system. Every employee identifies a contact person 200 or 300 kilometres away to act as a relay point. Or turn to social networking sites. They're a boon for small businesses that don't have the money to hire a tech firm to come in and set up disaster infrastructure.
“It's not the most secure thing in the world, but you don't need to be sending company secrets. You need to find each other,” she says.
Keep at it
A plan is no good if it's not up to date, says Dale Avis, vice-president of information technology and chief information officer for Crawford & Co. (Canada) in Kitchener, Ont. The insurance adjustment company outsources its plan maintenance.
“Sometimes you let things slip. If you only bring it out once a year and brush it off, it's not going to be that relevant. I bet you that at least half the people listed on that plan will have either left the company or changed positions,” he says.
Instead, if there's a change in the company, make a change in the plan, too.
Cheap advice
Although larger companies might need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop plans, some advice is cheap and easy, Mr. Smith says.
Do your employees know where to hide if there's a tornado? How about if there's a noxious chemical spill? They're different, you know. If a tornado rages, employees should find the strongest internal room in the building and stay there. If there's a noxious chemical, they need to head to the second floor to get away from the ground-hugging gasses.
“It's just a simple thing. But as soon as you say that, people go, ‘Of course.' If you haven't helped them think it through before though, people don't know what to do,” he says.
