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Most companies are unprepared for emergencies wrought by terrorism, according to a survey, but some Fairfield County businesses seem comfortable with their plans.
Randy Feranec, safety, health and environmental manager at Stratford's ExxonMobil Chemical Co., said the manufacturing site developed an emergency plan long before the recent bombings. As part of the plan, ExxonMobil has put in a secured place on its premises telephone numbers of all 200 employees as well as walkie-talkies, flash lights and a laptop with crucial contacts.
"Our plan clearly states what management and employees are expected to do," Feranec said.
Jason Klein, information technology manager at Nishball, Carp, Niedermeier, Pacowta & Company P.C. in Shelton, said his company is also prepared. The 23-member accounting firm has prepared a disaster-recovery blueprint that will enable it to function in another location, if necessary.
"We have a way to get in touch with employees to make sure they are all right and to make sure they can get started on our recovery plan," Klein said.
But according to a 2004 survey by the American Management Association in New York City, 61 percent of corporate executives nationwide said their companies had a crisis-management plan. Only 43 percent said their plans were geared toward disturbances that may be caused by terrorism. Figures for Connecticut were unavailable.
Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed had up to 1,000 employees in their companies. Yet when asked if key personnel across all business lines and support divisions had been trained in crisis management, 61 percent said no. Only thirty-seven percent said they offer security training, and even then 90 percent said training is performed once a year.
Bo Mitchell, president of 911 Consulting L.L.C. in Wilton, says companies are unprepared. The former Wilton police commissioner said he often read reports that cited company officials as saying, 'This was not supposed to happen to us." "An emergency doesn't have to occur at a worksite to cause employee injuries or bring a company to a standstill" as the London bombings showed, he pointed out.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates businesses to have an emergency plan. It imposes fines on those firms that don't. The plan requires, among other things, having an escape route posted on premises, establishing procedures to account for employees after an evacuation and outlining how employees will be informed of the contents of a plan and trained in their roles and responsibilities.
The Connecticut OHSA office monitors government buildings' compliance with law. Richard Palo, the state director, said, "What do people do? Where are they to go? What are the emergency routes?" are essential questions organizations must ask now, not only when bombings start.
One piece of advice Mitchell offers is to allow employees check in with their jobs regularly when away from the office. "That way when family members call the office to find out the location of a loved one, you have more to say than, 'we don't know,' "
Keeping an updated list of workers' cell phone numbers and equipping them with communication devices, such as blackberries, can help. And, backup plans must be created to handle potential disruptions in resources on which the business relies.
TRC Analysis:
According to a 2004 survey by the American Management Association, only 61 percent of corporate executives said their firms had crisis management plans in place. Only 43 percent said their plans focused on acts of terrorism. Of the firms with more than 1,000 employees, some 61 percent of those polled indicated that their senior management staff across business lines had not been trained in crisis management. And, finally, 90 percent of the small number of those who offered security training only did so annually. If these statistics are to be trusted, US companies are woefully unprepared for the likes of a 9/11 attack (Terrorist Incident). And, such an attack would not have to target the company specifically to bring it to a standstill, as was witnessed in Oklahoma City (Terrorist Incident), on 9/11, in Bali (Terrorist Incident), in Moscow (Terrorist Incident), in Casablanca (Terrorist Incident), in Turkey (Terrorist Incident and Terrorist Incident), in Madrid (Terrorist Incident), in London (Terrorist Incident and Terrorist Incident), along with other major terrorist attacks. And, this lack of attention to terrorism comes in light of an unresolved spate of attacks in London, an increased threat to US entities in Saudi Arabia, a released video by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an elusive Osama bin Laden, among other portends that terrorism will not soon abate. Some advance preparation and exercise of the plan might help in disaster-recovery and continuity of operations.
Having a well-though out, prepared, and exercised plan would also go a long way in mitigating the common contentions that "this wasn't supposed to happen to us" or "this wasn't supposed to happen here" that are so frequently heard from victims. Should a workplace be high-profile and a possible target, these plans – and their practiced functionality -- become infinitely more crucial. Every employee – CEO to janitor -- must know what to do, who to notify, where to go, and how to get there in case of a crisis. Having this plan in place and practiced prior to an event, will avoid chaos, confusion, and undo fear. Some companies fund employees' training in first aid and CPR to help in case of injury. A plan should not, however, be exclusively an evacuation plan; it must also deal with kidnapping-for-ransom, which is a leading risk to executives in Colombia (Country Profile) and Mexico (Country Profile).
While many businesses believe that they are not a target of terrorism, this is no reason to draft a precautionary plan. As illustrated, an attack against a nearby – or relatively close by – target may impact operations within miles. Similarly, companies have an obligation to protect their most critical asset: their people, as Crisis Management International's CEO Bruce T. Blythe called it: a strong humanitarian response. A lagging economy or sinking profits are no reason to put the creation or updating of a planned response to catastrophe aside. According to Tom Knight, Director of Safety and Emergency Preparedness at Kerr McGee, which had a strong catastrophe plan and humanitarian response in place on April 19, 1995 at the Murrah building (see photo), "Any time the employees perceive that these [sic] is a sincere effort…to make the work environment safer…there is…an increase in morale and a subsequent increase in productivity and an acceleration of a return to work." The same concept can be translated to shareholders' perspectives on quick versus prolonged recovery. According to one Oxford University study, "Although all catastrophes have an initial negative impact, paradoxically they offer an opportunity to management to demonstrate their talent in dealing with difficult circumstances."
Perhaps OSHA, which mandates businesses have an emergency plan, should expand that mandate to include one specific for acts of terrorism. Much of a simple emergency plan would, in fact, cover acts of terrorism. Key issues that might remain include: business continuity, as staff may choose not to report to work but rather with the family; internal communication, as the Internet and cellular coverage may be brought down, as was seen on 9/11 and 7/7 in particular; external communication, as family members may call to locate loved ones; continuity of operations, as work must go on; critical infrastructure protection, as computers and their data might be lost or inoperable; backups, as disruptions might thwart initial plans; and survival, as employees may be instructed to shelter-in-place.
Point/Counterpoint
09-26-2005, 18:24
Terrorism not on most companies' radar 
