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Greetings!
We hope you are benefiting from the content of the Pipeline Newsletter. We are always open to suggestions and comments and would appreciate any feedback.
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Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.
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| Planning Ahead for Crisis, Part 2
 This article (Part 2) focuses on additional events that may impact your organization's ability to sustain operations and considerations which will assist you in the development of a continuity plan for your business.
Whether it's a large corporation or a small to medium sized business, the ability to respond swiftly and effectively to a crisis which results in an operational interruption has never been more important. Having a business continuity plan defines roles and responsibilities to key members of the organization within the context of the interruption. Foremost, it should provide clear emergency procedures based upon the type and significance of the situation to ensure that the safety of employees is a top priority. Secondly, the plan should list a series of contingencies that enable key business operations to continue in the most difficult situations. Finally, the plan should be practiced to ensure all the necessary components are addressed and actually do function as intended.
Disasters are defined by the organization which it affects. Crisis is the result of the impact of the disaster. It is important to identify those events (disasters) which can create business interruption (crisis) within or directly to your organization. During the planning phase, do not limit the type or scope of disasters; include fire, environmental impacts, (flood, tornado, snow, etc.) terrorism threats, utility outages, computer or telecom failure, people issues (absenteeism), utility outages, etc.
The main goal of a plan is to recover the critical components of your business to minimize the negative impact to employees and customers. An important motivating force to create such a recovery plan is to maintain the viability of the organization.
Some of the key questions that should be asked when constructing a plan should include:
- What are the potential identifiable disasters or events which would impact your organization- both internal and external (risk analysis)?
- How would each one of these affect your organization's critical services, functions, and programs (business impact analysis)?
During the analysis phase, concentrate on the following scenarios that will need to be addressed regardless of the event or disruption:
- Only the local office within the building is unusable
- The entire building is affected (fire, flood etc)
- A temporary disruption of services (utility outage)
- An impact in the large geographic area rendering the area uninhabitable for an unknown amount of time.
This strategy creates degrees of preparedness which correlate to the extent of planning necessary to continue operations and maintain continuity.
Each organization is different in its needs during a business interruption. It is extremely important to identify a planning group and conduct a thorough assessment of your organization's needs, prioritize actions and responses, and design a plan specific to your operations. Essential areas of your organization which should be considered during analysis are: personnel logistics, data/file management and storage (hardcopy/electronic), computer systems and technology, emergency contact information/systems, security, personnel policy and crisis communications.
There is no one size fits all response. It is important to invest in the planning process today that is specific to your needs. A well developed and practiced plan will reduce the confusion and increase the likelihood of getting your business back into operation sooner.
RGL Consultants would be happy to work with you to facilitate the development of a customized business continuity plan for your organization. |
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Outplacement
Outplacement support services are very common today at virtually all organizational levels and are a critical factor in achieving a "successful termination". A successful termination process is one where the organization achieves its desired goals in reducing staff, most often today for economically motivated reasons while, at the same time, preserving the dignity of the individual being released. This tends to minimize the risk of adverse legal action against the employer and provides the opportunity to preserve the corporate image within the community and with the public in general.
Jim Kacena conducting an outplacement seminar
Rich Lehr and Jim Kacena have many years of experience working with individuals and groups navigating through the job/career transition process. Our approach is "high touch and low tech". We try to initiate this process by meeting with the individual who is being released on the day that they are notified to immediately get them focused on their future; if that is not possible, certainly within 24-48 hours. We give them an outline of our services and what we are prepared to do to support them.
One on one, we help defuse any negative emotions and/or feelings toward the employer; work through a systematic and time-proven process to assist the individual identify and clarify life/career values, critical skills, talents, and abilities; prepare accomplishment/achievement statements; define their "ideal" job preferences; prepare an effective resume and related job search correspondence; effectively and efficiently utilize the Internet as a job search tool; and understand the job interview process, including preparation and practice interviewing; as well as counsel on negotiating strategy in the next offer.
A successful termination, whether impacting one individual or larger numbers of individuals, begins with planning. The earlier an outplacement consultant can be involved, the better. Our suggestion to a client company is that we should be actively involved as a participant in the planning process. We will be involved, hopefully, in terms of the planning, the strategy, and the logistics associated with the event. We provide training and guidance to supervisors and managers, who should be the ones who are communicating the separation to the involved individual.
The role of an outplacement consultant is to provide follow-up support services to the individual. The supervisor (or the manager of that employee) is the best person to communicate the termination information. That is the person to whom this individual has looked to in the past for supervision, guidance, and support. Although it may be very uncomfortable for the supervisor or manager, that is the person who should take the overall responsibility --- the one who should be communicating good news, as well as bad news, to the employee. The outplacement consultant quite often is also involved, on-site, to meet with the individual immediately following notification to be able to clarify and respond to specific questions or concerns regarding the outplacement support services, to mitigate or defuse any emotional response, and as a support to the supervisor and the management team.
Outplacement support is a wise and economical investment!
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Center for Disease Control has issued the following Situation Update:
During the week of October 18-24, 2009, influenza activity continued to increase in the United States as reported in FluView. Flu activity is now widespread in 48 states. Nationally, visits to doctors for influenza-like-illness continue to increase steeply and are now higher than what is seen at the peak of many regular flu seasons. In addition, flu-related hospitalizations and deaths continue to go up nation-wide and are above what is expected for this time of year.
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