June 2009 / How IT Can Help Your Business Survive a Crisis

The success of your business is dependent on the productivity of your workforce. One of the keys to maintaining employee productivity is the ability to continue business operations during a crisis situation. The definition of a crisis is not limited to major disasters but should be defined as anything that impacts your standard business processes in a negative way. There are major crises that should be covered within the scope of your Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Plan, and others that have smaller impact but can occur with greater frequency. Crises can be brief such as a blizzard or severe weather, or long in duration such as a pandemic outbreak that could last for months. This month’s tech brief is going to focus on the essential steps you should take to deal with common crisis situations that have the potential to impact your business on a regular basis.

The first step is to identify how you will communicate the emergency situation to your employees. You should identify a person who is responsible for “making the call” regarding the nature and type of emergency and is empowered to notify employees when conditions warrant. This person should determine the level of crisis and what the next steps will be. You should have a plan to inform employees of the situation both during work hours as well as non-working hours. Ideally you will want to use a few different means of communication such as broadcast voicemails, email, SMS messages (text messaging), and a phone number that employees can call to obtain additional information.

Once the level of crisis is determined and communicated, you will need to estimate the duration of the situation. For example, severe weather and power outages are usually short in duration. Alternatively, a flu pandemic can last significantly longer, and would therefore require a different type of plan.

For short-term emergencies, you will want a way to inform your employees of the status of work – will business be open that day and operational, will a skeleton crew be required, or will the facility be completely closed. To keep business running for a short duration emergency employees will probably need to access key business information and have the ability to respond to incoming requests from customers.

For longer term situations such as a pandemic, you can expect that at any point during the 6-8 week peak duration of the outbreak approximately 40% of your workforce will be out of the office. Excessive absenteeism has its own challenges including information transfer between employees, productivity issues and interrupted supply and delivery to the business. Keep in mind that your business partners may face similar challenges and this can also impact your business.

Additionally, sometimes you have to consider the human side of a crisis, such as employees being hesitant to travel to areas more severely affected by a pandemic. Sometimes leveraging a remote solution instead of a business trip or onsite presentation can be the wise decision. There are many remote meeting solutions available such as Web & Video conferencing, as well as traditional conference calls. These solutions offer your employees peace of mind during times of crisis, and have the additional benefit of reducing your business costs for travel to customer’s locations.

Many businesses have taken steps to ensure that their workforce remains both happy and productive by offering flexible hours and work from home policies. These types of policies can offer you a way to keep your business operational while still meeting the needs of your employees and their families. Several studies indicate that employees who are provided with flexibility in where and when they work are not only more productive, but have greater job satisfaction and company loyalty then employees who are not provided these options.

Final Thoughts...

Planning ahead is the most important step in handling business crisis situations. Who makes the decisions when a business crisis is identified, how do you communicate the emergency situation to your employees, and how you empower your staff to continue to perform their job duties even when they cannot be in the office are decisions that every business owner must make. Not making these decisions can result in confusion, frustration, and productivity loss from your staff when a crisis hits, and the cumulative impact to your business can be considerable. By being prepared you can help ensure that your business minimizes the level of productivity loss that is inevitable whenever a crisis situation arises, and can ensure the viability of your company during the crisis and beyond.