Taking the Show on the Road

I’ll be in Utica, Illinois this week for the Illinois Valley Network Users Conference. Although this is a general IT conference, this year things definitely have an Information Security ring to them, as power hitting Information Security presenters Laura Chappell and Loyal Moses will both be in attendance. 

How Changes in Environment Change Your Plan

A while back, the local newspaper ran an article about a new, longer runway at a local airport. It was intended to make the airport more accessible to larger jets. I didn’t think much about it except that it would bring more business to the small airstrip.

Continuity Simplified for the Small Business - Crisis Communication

When disaster strikes, the small business owner not only has the crisis at hand to deal with, but people clamoring for information. Depending on the type of crisis, there could be emergency responders and media both looking for answers – employees to direct, and customers or vendors to notify. Although each situation will have different players, those are the four main categories of communication needs during a disaster.

Emergency Responders

In the midst of the crisis, these people will always need your attention first and foremost. In the case of fire, explosions, violence and other situations that require possible evacuations and entry of first responders, count on preparing a center of operations. This allows emergency responders to get pertinent information in order to do their work safely and efficiently. Assign someone in your disaster plan that is knowledgeable about the building and its contents to be the contact person for emergency personnel. Get to know your local emergency response teams: police, fire, sheriff, and county or city emergency planning people, anyone who could be involved in a crisis situation. Developing a working relationship with emergency responder organizations before disaster strikes can ease communications during disasters.

Media 

 Designate a media communications contact within the organization. Larger organizations usually have some sort of marketing professional, but in the small business this isn’t always feasible. If possible, the media contact should be someone who can be the public face of the organization in all situations. Once the contact is chosen, find some emergency communication training to prepare for situations beyond press releases. For folks in Iowa, Safeguard Iowa lists publicly available training. FEMA and CERT occasionally have training available as well. Once a media contact is established, it should be policy that no one speaks to the media in crisis situations except for the media contact. The media will be hungry for information – and should be fed regularly, but only by the media contact. By channeling all contact through this one person, your organization can have some control over what information goes out to the public. By the same token, feeding the media as often as possible reduces the need to seek out information from other sources that might provide misinformation. And like emergency responders, developing a relationship with the media will enable smoother communications.

Employees

Ensure employee safety first. The next step is to keep employees informed about the work environment and decisions regarding the future of the organization. They will need to know where to report for work and when. If employees have been involved in the recovery planning process, they will need to know what part of the plan is being implemented so they will be able to refer to the plan and begin the process of recovery. In any case, at the least, they will need to know what is expected of them in the short term – during the crisis and immediately following the crisis situation.

There should be plans for reaching employees who are not onsite at the time of an emergency. For smaller organizations, this might be something as simple as a call tree. If your web presence is not affected, an internal company web site can provide detailed information – as long as it is accessible. If you have a number of employees scattered over a larger region, SMS communications might be used. There are also emergency communication services available, depending on your budget.

Customers and Vendors

Customers need assurance the organization will be there for them, even through the crisis situation. This assurance must be made directly, and reinforced through the media contact. In situations where the media is involved, your customers are going to see news reports and know something has happened. This is one area where the single media contact is important. While giving necessary details to the media, the contact is also giving information for your customers, telling them this crisis is not the end of the organization and what contingency plans are in place that will benefit customers, and how customers will be reached.

Vendors can become your partners in recovery efforts. Notify them as soon as possible of your needs and any changes in delivery locations or billing/payment methods. Keep a back-up hard copy or database of vendor and customer contact information that can easily be accessed if your computer systems are unreachable or down. Assign employees to notification tasks as part of your continuity plan.

Successful emergency communications rely on getting the correct information to the correct people as efficiently as possible, avoiding situations that can result in misinformation. Put a plan into place; assign tasks in that plan and train those who will need to provide that information.