The violent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon demonstrate the importance of disaster preparedness as never before. Until September 11, many businesses, with the possible exception of those located inside earthquake, hurricane, and flood zones, considered themselves at low risk for natural disasters and emergencies such as bomb threats or terrorist attacks. In the aftermath of the strikes on New York City and Washington D.C., many organizations have realized their vulnerability to these types of crises and are now taking measured steps to protect the lives of their employees and their business assets.

Disaster or emergency preparedness is not only about assessing your organization’s vulnerabilities and resources – it’s about creating and implementing defined action steps that will allow your organization and employees to recover from a crisis event. Emergency management is a dynamic process. Planning, though critical, is not the only component. Training, conducting drills, testing equipment, and coordinating activities with the community are other important functions. One component is absolutely critical – support from all levels of management, especially senior management.

Human resources professionals can and should play a key role in creating disaster-survival and recovery plans. HR advice and consultation helps to protect the organization’s most valuable asset – it’s employees. Whatever role HR plays, there are some basic elements that should be part of any disaster recovery plan.

• Create an Emergency Management Team – This group should have the authority to determine the short and long-term effects of a disaster, order evacuation or shutdown and interface with outside organizations and media. All departments and locations need to be involved. The functional head of various departments and/or their direct reports may be good choices for the team. An Emergency Coordinator should be appointed to lead this group and have ultimate command and control during a disaster. Each team member should have defined responsibilities and authority based upon strengths, skills and expertise.

• Create a Disaster Response Mission – Evaluate your organizational mission. Once appropriate steps have been taken to preserve the lives and well-being of your employees, what is the next priority? Is it resuming operations, preserving data, or safe-guarding inventory? Once this has been done, consider the departmental functions. Which ones are critical to sustain or resume operations? What support systems (vendors, utilities, etc.) are essential to the maintenance of those critical functions? These considerations will help in the development of contingency plans.

• Analyze Vulnerabilities, Capabilities and Hazards – What type of insurance protection is in place? What communication systems can be utilized? How is the back-up of information systems data and storage of paper records handled? Are there established evacuation routes, emergency information for each employee, and is there adequate first aid capability and medical supplies to handle injuries until trained medical personnel can take over? Organizations that store hazardous materials on site should contemplate the safe storage of these materials to withstand a disaster. Examination of resources available in the community and how they would be available in an emergency situation should also be done. Finally, consider how operations following the disaster will be resumed. Itemize what needs to be retrieved if you’re forced out of your building and identify an alternative location where business can be conducted if you’re unable to use the normal site. Determine how you will assess damage, restore equipment and property, pay your employees and schedule them for work.

• Create a Disaster Recovery Plan – After the above analysis is completed, commit the plans to writing. This should include an overall plan for all types of emergencies and disaster-specific plans that describe what to do in the case of fire, flood, earthquake, electrical outage, telephone outage, workplace violence, computer sabotage or failure, inclement weather, bomb threat, or terrorist activity. The plan should be maintained in each department and office location, and each key executive should keep a copy at home.

• Train Employees – A plan should not undergo its first test during a crisis. Having employees rehearse ahead of time is the best training they can receive for the real thing. Simulated training exercises can be used to test parts of the plan so that the entire organization need not be disrupted. These exercises should include walk-through drills, functional drills for data recovery, emergency medical response, etc. and evacuation drills.

• Evaluate and Assess – Plans need to be reviewed at least annually to assure that changes in personnel, operations, and facilities are accounted for.