Although the Midwest does not typically experience impacts of natural disasters such as hurricanes, the climate and geography opens the region to other risks that can affect businesses and the community.
Disaster preparedness is important to everyone involved, and being collectively organized allows the community to be stronger and more resilient. It can work faster when a disaster occurs, and by working together in advance, assure effective response.
In recognition of National Preparedness Month, the American Red Cross of Greater Chicago held a Disaster Preparedness Summit Sept. 29. Sponsors included Grainger, Zurich and FedEx, while Kirkland & Ellis supplied a conference room for the event.
The event featured a panel discussion about business continuity planning and key relationships, comprised of:
o James Duncan, director, National Preparedness Division, Region V, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Dept. of Homeland Security
o Jeffrey Stump, senior risk engineering consultant, Zurich Services Corp.
o Sharon Kemerer, corporate director of occupational health and safety, Baxter Healthcare Corp.
o Michael Schroeder, life safety manager, Willis Tower, U.S. Equities
o Brian S. Tishuk, executive director, ChicagoFIRST
The discussion was moderated by Damien Walch, director, Deloitte, focusing on business and technology risk.
Businesses must understand that disasters are not always natural; they could arise from power outages, fires, flooding and technical glitches, Walch said. Traditionally, the Midwest has the second-largest number of annual residential disasters, after the Southeast, according to Duncan. Even though the disasters are not as serious as earthquakes or hurricanes, they have a large impact on the community.
Businesses should know the risks in their area and focus on a plan that will help prepare them in case of an emergency. Duncan emphasized a whole community concept, which takes the entire community, including children, elderly, pets and those with disabilities, to tackle a plan for immediate response.
Related: Read "Perfectly modeled."
Through whole community planning, an organization can distinguish how it can strengthen and support the community, and how its staff fits into the community. Companies should prepare employees in and outside of the office. Duncan advises businesses to formulate a plan to allow its employees to know how they can contact family members in case of an emergency.
"The most important thing is to test your plan," Duncan said. "And more than just a fire drill, you have to really walk through it and make sure your employees know their responsibilities."
Businesses need to evaluate what threats to the organization can do serious harm and develop a business continuity plan to prepare the company for a disaster and help it recover from one.
To start creating a plan, a company needs to have a steering committee, comprised of department heads who can bring knowledge of operations to the table. The committee will identify threats to the organization categorize them in order of severity, then take it to the next level of the business impact analysis, which is what the plan will be.
For business continuity, an organization must create and evolve a plan, and have a recovery time objective. "If you do not have a recovery time objective, you may fall behind, and this may not make the plan work," Stump said. "If you have a plan, tested the plan and rehearsed and updated it, then you are in a much better position to withstand an event that can threaten the survival of your business."
Tishuk suggested that firms should have a resilient system to survive a disaster.
A business must be aware of how emergencies are handled within their area, Tishuk said. This includes not only fire drills or knowing police officials, but knowing what these emergency response teams do and the timeframe for handling certain situations.
Corporate needs good communication relationships with its branch locations, according to Kemerer. She suggests corporate provides resources to its locations such as putting an icon on the homepage of the website for when there is a critical period of need, or a way to help drive messages to individuals.
"When working with multiple locations, provide a baseline or foundational tool to provide consistency and allows local ownership," Kemerer said.
A good idea is to provide a checklist for precautions, audit and verify implementation so the company knows each location is actually doing what it writes on the checklist.
Businesses should create teams on local, regional and corporate levels to maintain key local relationships and plan regular meetings. Talking points should include identifying key critical products and recover time objectives. "Businesses need to understand where they are vulnerable, where they need to plan and where they need to cut back," Kemerer said.
Schroeder suggests that organizations analyze their risks on more than an annual basis. A risk that may have been a threat a year ago may not pose the same threat in the current year. An organization should build business continuity on a monthly basis, according to Schroeder.
It is also important to have immediate impact planning which is within the first few minutes of a disaster. The organization should not only look at servers or software, but people, as well.
Schroeder said it is important to have an immediate response structure, along with following standards. There are standard programs that certify business continuity and emergency preparedness. "All standards are a little different, but one can help your business and help you stay consistent," he said.
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