10/29/07 6:30 AM

Disaster Plans Put to the Test: ‘We Moved Very Quickly’

By Kathy Gurchiek

When California wildfires started closing in on the homes of employees in the satellite offices of Los Angeles-based TelePacific Communications, the state’s third-largest telecommunications provider responded swiftly, thanks to its disaster plan.

“Our offices were never officially closed, they were not in any danger whatsoever,” its HR director, Lalita B. Nordquist, said, but that wasn’t the case for some of their employees.

The fires touched the lives of 45 employees in the company’s San Diego office and about 125 employees in its Irvine, Calif., office. At least 10 employees had to evacuate their homes, and one employee and the father of another employee lost their homes to fire.

In addition, smoke from the San Diego fires permeated the office, affecting the air quality.

“We moved very quickly,” said Nordquist, who gives the plan that is in place a B+, and a B for overall effectiveness.

The plan reflects insights from employees who had experienced California’s 1994 earthquake and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, she said, noting it “kicked in very well.”

Any plan has to be a team effort that establishes priorities unique to an organization and the functions critical for sustaining or resuming operations, according to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) white paper.

Among the elements of TelePacific’s disaster plan, Nordquist told SHRM Online, were:

• A virtual war room. This included maintaining a list of all employees who are accounted for during a disaster, with several key people designated as points of contact for locating any employee not on the list.

Two HR professionals from TelePacific’s 14-member HR staff were designated to oversee the war room.

That was a big help, Nordquist said, because “the rest of HR had to go about their regular business, and because they were right by my office I was able to get minute-to-minute updates.”

In hindsight, though, e-mail updates rather than quick conference calls with management would be more efficient. That is a change she plans to propose to TelePacific's disaster response, Nordquist said.

TelePacific had a GPS system in use that tracks the vehicles of all its employees in the field.

“We knew where everybody was at all times, and for larger offices that’s a big feat,” Nordquist said.

• Air quality. Smoke from fires near the San Diego and Irvine offices affected air quality, causing breathing problems and other issues for some employees, Nordquist said.

TelePacific used a vendor to correct the problem with fans and air purifiers, and it followed up with a senior HR manager from headquarters who checked on those efforts.

Addressing air quality issues was not in its disaster plan, Nordquist said, but it was “one of those things we decided to do based on complaints” from employees in the Irvine office.

• Disaster pay, other help. TelePacific had about 140 employees who had material losses, were forced from their homes or had to assist loved ones who suffered from the fire, Nordquist said.

Employees suffering direct losses received a week of disaster pay and were given other assistance, such as a power generator for one employee and restaurant meals for dislocated employees and their families, Nordquist said.

HR sent e-mails to management to coordinate relief efforts, such as collecting necessities like blankets for employees and their families in need.

TelePacific authorized emergency time for employees not directly affected by the fires to assist their families or others. One employee, for example, was able to use sick time or vacation time without prior notice in order to volunteer at a shelter.

• Drills. Employers shouldn’t wait until disaster strikes to learn of any weaknesses in their disaster plans, according to SHRM’s white paper, which notes that “no matter how carefully crafted it is, the plan will probably reveal deficiencies during practice.”

“A rehearsal will also provide employees with valuable training.”

TelePacific ran two drills in 2007, including one at its Las Vegas campus that simulated a biochemical attack, Nordquist said, because the company is mindful of the role it plays for clients.

“We have to make sure our services keep going for our customers,” she said

• Communication. “We were always in contact with each other, texting, e-mails, landlines, cells [and] just word of mouth,” Nordquist told SHRM Online.

HR did not communicate directly with employees, instead sending e-mails to management to instruct them how to respond to employee questions and concerns so that there was a uniform message, she said.

Lessons Learned

“The only thing that surprised me was the voluntary evacuations—people kind of just left, and our having to react to that,” said Nordquist.

Voluntary evacuations were not part of the disaster planning, but it’s a preparedness issue that TelePacific needs to address, she said.

Employers should try “to mitigate some people’s panic response” and remember that employees don’t work in a vacuum and can tap into the Internet to get news on a disaster’s progress.

Employees in the San Diego and Irvine offices who were affected by the smoke-tinged air or concerned about road closures started to leave work without any notification.

While the majority of its employees have laptops with Internet or other connections that allow them network access and webmail from home, voluntary evacuations “became a major factor in trying to maintain our critical business functions,” she said.

As the state’s third largest telecommunications provider, “Shutting our offices down is not an option for us.”

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org.

Related Resource:

The Southern California Fires: An Employer’s Perspective, SHRM Online, October 2007

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