Make disaster recovery planning a priority

Since all businesses are prone to a multitude of different disasters, then all could benefit from a disaster recovery plan that helps them prepare, save lives, secure assets and ensure that they will remain in business long after flood waters recede, fires are extinguished and buildings are rebuilt. And, because we spend the majority of our waking hours at work, businesses have a responsibility to prepare for the safety of all workers and customers in any type of emergency.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That old saying holds particularly true when it comes to businesses investing resources to withstand a major natural disaster or terrorist attack. There are resources to help companies establish an effective disaster and recovery plan. While some plans may be customized according to the business type, size or location, there are several key elements (see sidebar) that pertain to all companies, big or small, no matter where they are located.

When creating a disaster recovery plan, it's essential to ask and answer important questions about your business. Who will declare disasters and how? What are the critical applications you're trying to protect? How will you convene disaster-recovery team members if communications are down and members are evacuated to unknown locations? Do you have arrangements to quickly resume critical applications? How can you make sure employees continue to get paid?

Create or refine your disaster recovery plan

Here are some tactics to consider when planning or refining your disaster recovery strategy:

To help address these and other issues, you may want to consider retaining a disasterplanning consultant to help you develop a plan customized to meet your business needs. Or, request training and consulting on disaster planning from Ceridian LifeWorks Solutions, a comprehensive Employee Assistance Program and work-life/wellness solution. Ceridian provides a wide range of services, whether your organization is creating an in-house plan or seeking outside expertise to design a comprehensive response to emergency situations.

Your disaster recovery plan should provide specific guidelines for protecting employees, customers and workplace facilities, and offer advice on business continuation issues. Plans may also describe the responsibilities of individual employees for a wide range of emergency and disaster situations, including terrorist attacks, natural disasters, pandemics and other emergencies that require preplanning and preventive measures.

Whatever the plan, it's critical that companies test it. Rehearsals will reveal holes in planning that must be filled. One company, for example, had the foresight to arrange for telephone service at an alternate site, but in a rehearsal discovered that no one had thought to order telephone handsets. The lines were there, but nobody could use them. Plans should also be reviewed and updated regularly, as the business and its key players change over time. Lack of rehearsals and out-of-date plans are the two most common weaknesses in disaster recovery planning, according to the Disaster Recovery Journal.

After disaster strikes

All the preparation in the world can't save you from every disaster, but having a wellconceived and rehearsed recovery plan can be invaluable if disaster strikes.

As immediate danger fades, businesses must reassemble a scattered workforce and work toward getting the business functioning again - often without telephones, email or air conditioning or heating. Following the 2005 hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, companies were creative in tracking down their employees. One company leased an airplane to fly over an affected area with a banner instructing employees to check in by calling an 800 telephone number. Ceridian in the U.S. helped one of its clients locate employees by posting check-in instructions on its LifeWorks Online Web site.

Here are some other suggestions to reach employees in an emergency:

Protecting your payroll process is critical

Once employees "check in" with employers, they may soon ask about their paycheques. "When impacted by a disaster, the last thing employees need to worry about is receiving their pay," says Angie Carfrae, Ceridian Canada's Director of Corporate Governance, a division which oversees Ceridian Canada's contingency and disaster recovery planning and readiness. “Ceridian Canada's objective during a contingency event is to maintain a reasonable level of service to our customers. Our operational and administrative procedures are designed to enable continuity of operations in our data centres at a local level for relocation of operations to an alternate. Our Contingency Plan for Production can guide our business through incidents, including disasters, which would cause inaccessibility to or inoperability of one of our Production locations. Essentially, we can redirect the printing of paycheques to an alternate Ceridian site if required.” Businesses also need to determine if, and how long, they will continue to pay employees who have no job to return to. Some employers may voluntarily choose to continue paying their employees, while others may make one-time payments to affected employees. Whatever the plan, employers should clearly communicate the terms of such payments to avoid confusion.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that employers are responsible for paying wages during a disaster, especially for time the employees have already put in; however, policies vary for how employers compensate their employees during emergency closings.

Leveraging your EAP

Disasters impact every individual differently. While one employee might be ready to come back to work the day after a disaster, another might need to stay home for a while. Still another might initially seem fine, only to suffer from post-traumatic stress symptoms weeks later.

Following a disaster, employers should be on the lookout for the following significant changes in behaviour or mood as they relate to an employee’s performance:

These reactions, although normal and to a certain degree predictable, have the potential to cause severe distress for employees and significant loss for the company if not resolved promptly and appropriately. However, as an employer, it is not within your area of specialty to make a formal diagnosis of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, or the like based on changes in mood or behaviour. Instead, address the performance-related issues with the employee directly, and offer appropriate supports such as the EAP or recommend that they visit their family physician.

No matter what the situation, all employees can benefit from access to a confidential employee assistance program (EAP). Employers should communicate the availability of such programs and contact providers about making qualified counselors available on site or in areas where large numbers of employees have been affected.

“Ceridian's EAP and work-life offerings have expanded due to the many disasters in recent years. "We have the organizational infrastructure, technology, leadership and expertise to provide services during disasters. The breadth and depth of our services are really unique," says Ingrid Taylor, Director, Ceridian Trauma Services. “For example, we can provide Crisis Management Briefing and Critical Incident Stress Debriefing so that if a worksite is affected by disaster and remains accessible, trauma specialists can attend the site to provide immediate support to employees.”

Some of Ceridian's offerings geared toward disaster victims include around-the-clock access to master's-level counselors, a comprehensive library of educational materials, custom research capabilities, local emergency resource lists, state-of-the-art Web-based services and customized communication capabilities.

Succession planning equals successful planning

Before the dust had settled and before anyone even had a chance to grieve after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, employees at several companies realized that they had lost key executives in hijacked airplanes or in devastated buildings. They not only had to confront the reality that company talent and brainpower– and friends– were gone forever, but they also had to cope with gaping holes in their management structure. They immediately had to identify positions, competencies and skills that were needed just to stay afloat.

There's no way to completely plan for such catastrophic disaster, but there are specific things that organizations can do to prepare for unexpected events. It's essential to know which employees have the particular skills and competencies required to assume positions higher on the corporate ladder, what talents will be required in the future, and how best to train employees for management positions or hire from the outside.

Best-practice organizations use succession planning to prepare for potential problems and disasters, but they also rely on such plans to develop and maintain the strong leadership required under normal conditions.

Ceridian can help you prepare for the unexpected

Ceridian offers a variety of products and services that can help businesses prepare for and recover from disasters. The solutions include an Organizational Preparedness Checklist, backup systems to ensure customer payroll data is retained and paycheques are delivered, a variety of resources and counseling services with work-life and employee assistance programs (EAPs), employee succession planning consulting, customized training and much more.

Today, Ceridian is gearing up to help customers with another potential disaster - the avian influenza pandemic. We have already provided businesses with consultative solutions to help minimize risk, reliable facts and information online, employee communications planning and much more. To learn more, contact your Ceridian representative.

Are you prepared?

A good disaster recovery plan can help your organization recover, function and continue to survive if you're struck by the unthinkable. While leaders continue to delve deep in an effort to squeeze every efficiency out of their organizations, they may need to be reminded that disaster recovery planning and preparedness should be a priority and part of overall business strategy. Chances are, you've got a good thing going. It's critical that you protect it.

Sources

This article first appeared in Ceridian Canada’s e-newsletter, The Specialist, April 2006 issue.

Ceridian delivers best-practice Human Resource solutions to help customers acquire the best talent, pay their staff accurately and on time, improve HR decision-making and reporting, and drive employee engagement and wellbeing. To learn more about our suite of HR solutions and how we can partner with your organization, click here or call us toll-free at 1-877-CERIDIAN.

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