Family disaster planning goes mainstream

ContinuitySA has unveiled the latest trend in international business continuity best practices in South Africa, personal crisis management planning. Available for the first time in South Africa, personal crisis management planning ensures that employees develop personal disaster recovery plans to ensure their families are safe in an emergency situation.

Whether it's weather, industrial action, financial meltdowns, pandemics, serious power outages or old-fashioned fraud, the number of crises a business has to prepare for is increasing,” says Ansophie Strydom, GM of business development at ContinuitySA. “Fortunately, most enterprises have realised the importance of preparing for emergencies and have enacted business continuity policies and practices to keep their companies running when emergencies strike.

“However, having a business continuity plan ready to roll when trouble strikes does not mean your employees will be ready to implement it as effectively as they do in practice runs. When disaster strikes, business needs its employees to devote 100% of their efforts to recovering the business.”

If the disaster is localised to the business itself, staff commitment will not be an issue. However, if it is a general disaster that affects a suburb or city, employees will naturally be worried about contacting their families and ensuring they are safe, distracting them from their jobs and potentially hindering the recovery of the business. Even if a disaster does not affect an employee per se, but the community he/she lives in, a similar emotional response may occur.

When a disaster strikes, it is natural for parents to worry about where their children are, if they are safe and cared for, and have access to food, water and if needed, medical care. A comprehensive personal crisis management plan will ensure the individual's family is safe, even if telecommunications services are down.

Due to the proliferation of natural disasters in the US, American businesses are now starting to insist their employees have their own personal crisis management plans. These plans will ensure that if a major external event occurs, such as a terror attack or earthquake, employees can focus on their jobs knowing their families and loved ones are safe because plans have been put in place to deal with all eventualities even if the phones are not working.

“Creating a personal crisis management plan not only offers peace of mind when a disaster strikes, but also empowers the whole family with the knowledge of what to do when lesser problems strike, such as a car breakdown,” adds Strydom. “Everyone will know where safe havens are, where to meet, who to call if parents are unavailable and what to do.”

Moreover, from a business perspective there are also tangible benefits to ensuring each employee has a personal crisis management plan. Apart from peace of mind and the ability to focus on recovering the business, a personal plan makes business continuity part of every person's 24x7 thinking instead of some boring exercise everyone has to take part in once or twice a year.

Personal crisis plans are not simply a way for companies to ensure their staff are committed to the business, but they put a human face on corporate governance by helping people prepare effectively for any emergency. Instead of stressing when a problem arises, the preparation involved allows people to deal with them in a professional manner, knowing their family, pets and homes are also being managed efficiently.

“In the same way that a lack of business continuity planning in business leads to panic and chaos when a disaster strikes a company, the lack of a personal plan can also cause panic and potentially severe emotional trauma,” concludes Strydom. “With a plan in place and everyone aware of their roles and responsibilities should something go wrong, panic is avoided and people are able to focus and become productive in defeating the problem on a personal and business level in the shortest possible time.”

The following are some aspects, among dozens of others, which could form part of a personal crisis management plan:

1. Every family must have a personal crisis management plan that exists in hard and softcopy format
2. Close friends and family must be briefed as to what their role will be in the case of an emergency. Family and friends must be told who will fetch the children and from which school and where they must be taken. Family pets should also be included in the plan
3. Bank account numbers, medical aid details, insurance policies, a list of monthly accounts to be paid and a list of close family members can be left, in a sealed envelope, with the family attorney as a backup. Those children who are old enough to read and manage the situation at hand must also have access to their own copy of the crisis plan. They must also know who the family lawyer is so that he/she can be contacted in an emergency
4. Families should have at least one table top drill per year to test their personal crisis management plans for any problems. The drill should involve all relevant friends and neighbours who should sit around a table and discuss their roles and responsibilities for a host of what-if scenarios
5. The family crisis plan should be handed to the employers of both parents for their records. All personal details like bank passwords must be left out