Tag: liability

Since my goal for summer is a series of simpler Advisories, here’s another quiz – this one, for business owners. The quiz isn’t just a quiz, though. It’s designed to kick-start a “to-do” list (for all that free time you have this summer!).

The quiz is meant to get you thinking about your Business Contingency Plan. How solid is it, really?

Does it need reviewing? Updating? Maybe even completion because a few pieces are missing? Every improvement you make will give your business a better chance of avoiding an emergency and making it through if something does happen. We all know by now that without a workable plan, ANY emergency could blow up into a full-fledged disaster. Nobody needs that!

Let’s start with key elements of a solid business contingency plan. For example, does your Plan include  . . .

• Evacuation policies (Who turns off what? Who keeps track?)
• Adequate Shelter in Place supplies (What supplies? Where stored? How managed?)
• Procedures for Work-from-Home employees (Equipment? Software? Security?)

Your Plan may be complete, but is it up to date? For example:

• Have you updated your list of threats? New ones emerge every day! Cyber threats and financial challenges seem to be at the top of the list these days.
• Does your communications plan alert not just employees and employee families but other key players (customers, suppliers, regulators, etc.)? What if the emergency happens over the weekend or on a vacation day? A solid business contingency plan takes a look at the latest communications technologies. They are impressive!
• Given recent dangerous workplace incidents, should you update your security plan?

Often overlooked: Does your Plan consider Key Personnel?

• Does every key position have someone trained as back-up? That includes you, as owner!
• If a whole specialized team is suddenly knocked out (gets sick, for example), do you know where you’d hire a team of replacements – and where you’d put them?
• Who understands what the competition might do if your business closes? Is that person prepared with appropriate public relations messages?

Where’s the money going to come from in an emergency?

• How will you pay employees if the business is shut down? (Do they all have to be paid?)
• How will you deal with rent, utilities, etc. (Can any be cancelled, at least temporarily?)
• Will a business interruption trigger any fines for delays, broken contracts, etc.?

Does your Plan address potential legal exposure?

Are you doing what other owners in your industry are doing when it comes to planning for emergencies? If you don’t have a solid plan, could you be blamed for “negligent failure to plan?” You don’t need a lawsuit on top of your emergency!

This quiz is not a complete review!  There are many, many more questions that can be asked to help identify a solid business contingency plan. We hope that the quiz has reassured you. If it hasn’t, perhaps your “to-do” list now includes setting up a meeting with your emergency management team, or your insurance agent or attorney.

Did too many of these quiz questions make you uneasy?

You may want to take a closer look at your Plan. For easy-to-follow guidance, we recommend our latest book, Back Up and Running.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

P.S. As always, let us know what “hit the spot!” when it comes to your business!

P.P.S. If you’re interested in other Advisories for business owners, you might find these useful:

• Are you personally liable?
• Who will get paid in a disaster?

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Remember the movie “Sully”? Talk about emergency response!

Sully tells the story of the emergency landing of a commercial airliner on the Hudson River in New York in 2009. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger brought the plane down on the water after engines were lost when the plane hit a flock of geese.

Two great moments from the film.

The day after the movie we used it at our neighborhood meeting to highlight crisp and clear emergency radio communications.

Remember when Sully was asked if he wanted to attempt a landing at Teterboro (NJ), and we all knew that it was just too far given how low they were, how they were losing altitude, how the motors wouldn’t re-start, etc.?

Sully responded to the complicated situation and to the question with just one word: “Unable.”

The movie had another wonderful moment that inspired me to write. At the last minute, after Sully had checked the entire sinking plane twice to be sure no passengers were left, he made his way back up to the cockpit. He grabbed a clipboard, then turned and jumped out of the plane.

I don’t know what that clipboard had on it.

But it was obviously important. And since everything he and co-pilot Stiles had done so far was “by the book,” grabbing that clipboard was obviously on his list.

And thus today’s Advisory.

If YOU have to evacuate your office or workplace, what would YOU take with you?

Do you have a list? Below is one you can start with. I say “start with,” because obviously every business setting is slightly different.

But every business, no matter how big or small, has certain legal obligations to its employees.

And when the business needs to restart after the evacuation, in the same location or in a different one, it will need certain vital information. Your list needs to have your company’s vital info on it.

If you would like a full-size copy of the list, click here.

Action Item: Build a customized list.

Again, I recommend that you use this list only as a start. Take the time at your business to build a customized list. Some thoughts:

• Keep it to one page! Use big print, simple language and the words you use in YOUR business.
• You may want one list for employees and a different list for management.
• Be sure employees keep their list handy/visible at all times.
• You may want to assign certain employees as monitors to be sure certain areas of the office or workplace get evacuated.
• You may also want to add to certain lists instructions about systems or machinery that need to be SHUT DOWN in the case of an evacuation.

We all use lists for everyday activities. But they work particularly well in the case of an emergency, when people can be rattled and in a hurry. Put some time into building your “What to take” list for your business, and you’ll feel and be safer.

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team

P.S. The list, and this Advisory, assume you have a more comprehensive Business Continuity of Business Continuation Plan. If you haven’t really started to build one yet, sign up for our Advisories, because we’ll soon be announcing the 2018 version of our Guide to a Simple Business Continuation Plan.

 

Delivering services to homebound seniors

At a meeting last week at the local American Red Cross, we were discussing a new program aimed at preparing the senior community for disaster.

Most of the people in the room represented companies that deliver services to homebound seniors. There were folks from Meals-on-Wheels, SeniorServ, and a whole group of home health care providers.

Home health care staff members drive from home to home to assist their elderly clients. In the case of an earthquake disaster, these drivers will likely be on the road in their car or in the home of a client when the earthquake hits. The drivers will NOT be at their own home, and they will NOT be at their employer’s office.

Homes with few if any resources

These senior clients are people who, by definition, are not self-sufficient. They may be disabled or frail. This means that the driver, caught in the home with the client, will be faced with taking care of the client as well as him or herself.

If the driver is on the road when the earthquake hits, what is her responsibility? To continue on to the client’s home when possible? Return to the office? Or head for home to join the family?

Responsibility of the employer

This situation raises several issues for the employer that need to be addressed through training or investment in appropriate emergency supplies and equipment. Based on the group at the American Red Cross meeting, there was no one correct answer. But everyone agreed that these questions DID deserve consideration, and a positive answer.

1. Do your drivers all have an emergency supplies kit in their vehicle?

2. Does the kit contain enough to share with a client?

3. Are your drivers clear about their responsibility to their clients in the case of an emergency?

4. Do you know how you will communicate with your drivers in an emergency?

5. Do you have a plan for communicating with your clients’ families in an emergency?

Are you an employer with drivers?

What emergency preparations have you made to cover your staff and your customers?  What liability do you feel you carry as the employer?  Please share!