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Firestorm Insights October 2017

Workplace Recovery – Finding a Place to Work Post Natural Disaster

October 2017

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Workplace Recovery – Finding a Place to Work Post Natural Disaster

October 2017

Based upon an October 2017 webinar

Watch the recorded webinar.

Firestorm is America’s Crisis Coach® and we have assisted individuals and organizations in situations ranging from the Virginia Tech shootings to crises within local governments. We assist clients in the public and private sectors and schools and businesses alike. The contents of this brief focus on returning to work post natural disaster and summarizes key points made during a webinar with Firestorm CEO/President and Co-Founder, Jim Satterfield and Firestorm COO/EVP, Hart Brown. Joining Jim and Hart during the session was Dan Perrin, Global Solutions Director of Regus.

About Regus: Regus is the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace solutions, with customers including some of the most successful entrepreneurs, individuals and multi-billion-dollar corporations. The Regus network includes almost 3000 business centers, spanning almost 900 cities across 120 countries. Through their range of office formats, as well as their growing mobile, virtual office and workplace recovery businesses, they enable people and businesses to work where they want, when they want, how they want and at a range of price points.

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Focused on Natural Disaster

Planning for disasters can make a significant difference when your organization is struck by a crisis. Organizations often focus on brand image, violence issues or cyber crises and forget about natural disaster planning. Natural disasters can cause fatalities and reputation damages. Firestorm recently conducted a survey and asked business participants what crisis event would be the number one concern for their organization; 24 percent indicated natural disaster devastation.

Ask yourself the question: how robust is your business continuity strategy? More important, has your business continuity strategy been tested? Take a moment to think about the impact natural disasters have had on organizations exactly like yours; whether the event be a hurricane, the fires in California or the September 2017 earthquake in Mexico. When a disaster strikes, could your business continue operations? How quickly could your organization return to business? These are questions you must ask yourself before a natural disaster strikes.

Harvey, Imra, Maria, Nate – What’s next?

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate proved to be costly storms. Following these hurricanes, every organization should have reanalyzed their hazard impact matrix, regardless of if the organization does or does not reside in a hurricane-prone area. By using the graph below (or a similar one), first identify the probability of a specific disaster hitting your business. Next, categorize where the event falls in terms of: warning, duration, impact, property damage and operational impact. If the event falls within the 5th level of the matrix (the highest severity), it has a base risk level of 100 percent.

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The base risk level percentage can decrease based upon the amount of planning that has been conducted prior to a disaster in terms of preaction, internal resources and external resources. If a trained plan does not exist, your base level risk remains at 100 percent.

Two Types of Damages:

Direct Damages:

Harm to physical structures like buildings and the belongings inside of them.

Indirect Damages:

Caused by people losing their incomes and jobs.

National Impacts

Initial estimates from insurance companies like Hannover Re put the cost at $3 billion for Hurricane Harvey alone. In a note to clients, JP Morgan estimated that the insurance industry could lose $10 to $20 billion from Harvey, making it one of the top 10 costliest hurricanes to hit the U.S. Estimates for Harvey damages to-date have exceeded $30 billion.

“During Hurricane Harvey, we had a 24-48-hour RTO (Recovery Time Objective). Most organizations in the Houston area did not believe the storm would strike them. When the storm did hit, businesses could not communicate with employees, resulting in the communication to Regus being delayed a few days. During Hurricane Irma, however, organizations were calling us prior to the storm making landfall with

decision-makers indicating they needed to transport employees to alternative locations.”

-Dan Perrin, Global Solutions Director | Regus

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In addition to impacts to your business, employees and suppliers are affected simultaneously. Today, the largest single failure in a disaster or a crisis is supply chain failure. Although your organization may not have been directly affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, you may have suppliers who are headquartered or run through cities like Houston and Tampa that were directly hit.

What happens if no one can get anywhere?

A major disruption to commuting and travel times are road closures; whether they be due to natural disasters or other factors. Notable highway disruptions include:

• March 2017 1-85 Bridge collapse in Atlanta, GA

• July 2017 Tarp Collapse on Don Holt Bridge

• 35W Bridge Collapse in Minnesota In each of these scenarios, workflow was disrupted for not only commuters, but also for those transporting resources. An organization must create a dynamic crisis plan to properly respond to crisis scenarios. A dynamic plan incorporates multiple solutions to crises from a recovery point-of-view; including recovery sites.

Alternate Work Options

Alternative worksites must be dynamic and established. A dynamic recovery site provides employees multiple locations to work from; for example, a Regus location or a national hotel chain. The recovery

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site(s) should not be next to the primary location or across the street. If a worksite is destroyed or damaged during a natural disaster, the neighboring building may be as well. Ensure the recovery worksites are equipped with a secure internet connection. Train your employees to avoid using open internet connections – even if working from home – to mitigate cyber breach exposure.

Employees may be unable to return home

Although training employees to work from home is one solution, issues may arise. If roadways are blocked, employees may not be able to safely return home. In the case of Hurricanes Sandy, Harvey and Irma, power was not restored for multiple days throughout the affected areas. If an employee does not have power at home, they cannot work remotely.

Have you tested the resiliency of your supplier?

The single greatest failure in a disaster or crisis is supply chain failure. Not only must an organization test their business continuity strategy, but testing alongside the plan of the vendor/supplier is a necessity. An organization may have the best plan, but if their vendors and suppliers do not have a practiced plan, business will not return to normal. The best time to practice your plan is now. The worst time to practice is when the disaster is already occurring.

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Problems in Disaster Recovery Sites:

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Points to Consider

• Proper disaster planning requires that companies PREDICT the vulnerability, PLAN the response and PERFORM when the event occurs.

• The PREDICT phase classifies the critical vulnerabilities, identifies key emergency personnel, ascertains critical decision processes, analyzes gaps, identifies infrastructure and supply chain needs, and defines communications requirements.

• The PLAN phase develops the strategy, constructs the plan and involves the appropriate personnel to assure their buy-in and commitment.

• The PERFORM phase establishes protocols for implementation, community involvement, communications, test exercises, audits, reviews, updates and compliance.

Is Remote Working Feasible?

• Would your organization be able to continue its core operations remotely (home)?

• If so, are there any special requirements?

• What is the impact from a loss of utilities and communications capabilities for an extended period of time?

• Have solutions been tested?

• Keep in mind issues that may arise including: employees unable to return home and loss of structure or power.

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What are your organizations’ checklists? They will vary from business to business, but the following Regus lists will provide an idea of factors to consider when creating a disaster recovery plan. Use these checklists as a guide when creating lists unique to your organization.

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Various events, not only natural disasters, can displace employees or senior leaders. From a recovery standpoint, you must think about the scenarios that call for a remote office, i.e., a strike inside a facility or a protest outside a facility. Summary of key characteristics for office recovery worksites:

• Available locations

• Fully furnished/private office suites

• High speed internet connectivity/VPN

• Inclusive declaration allowance

• Inclusive testing

• Same business day access

• 24/7 declaration line

• Flexible/portable contracts

• Recovery space is not syndicated/shared

What Next?

Follow a PREDICT.PLAN.PERFORM.® approach. Predict your organization’s vulnerabilities, plan how to recover after a crisis, practice test exercises so your organization can perform during a crisis. Understand the difference between what to do in a crisis and how to complete those tasks. Ensure leaders who are critical in the disaster recovery response are aware of their roles and responsibilities. Encourage senior leadership to have a conversation about disaster response and recovery and the amount of detail that goes into a proper plan. Once your organization’s plan is complete, test. Test not only in a table top simulation, but also via a walkthrough. Conduct an exercise in a remote location, like a Regus office. Organize a hot wash after every test to

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identify: what worked well? What did not work well? What are the lessons learned? This step will maximize results over time. Need assistance creating a disaster recovery plan? Contact us confidentially – webinars@firestorm.com Related resources:

• Natural Disasters and Preparedness

• Benchmarking Preparedness – How do we know if we’re ready?

• How Leaders Lead in a Crisis Contact Firestorm to learn how to:

Align your plans to best practices.

Create your own Intelligence Network.

Schedule CRISIS COACH® training.

Attend any of our other webinars by registering here.

View previous Webinars on our YouTube Channel.

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Link: http://www.firestorm.com/engage-us/contact-firestorm

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