Hurricane Sandy: Are Your HR People Ready?

From: When Disaster Strikes: How HR Can Prepare Your Workforce for Crisis
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy making its way to the Northeast US.
Image: NYDailyNews.com

Hurricane Sandy is preparing to pound the East Coast of the United States; the storm is predicted to be one of the worst in years. Flooding, blowing winds, snow and ice make this particular event potentially devastating on businesses, workers and HR departments in the area.

What compounds the problem is that Sandy arrives in the middle of a work week. As anyone who has experienced severe weather knows, storm conditions can make going to and from the job particularly dangerous. Getting stuck at work can also be a problem, especially for workers with families and small children.

Minutes before a natural disaster hits should not be the time for human resources departments to think about contingency plans. Since this threat is now looming large for significant parts of the Northeast U.S., it might be an appropriate opportunity for every human resources department—those not in the path of the storm—to evaluate their readiness in case of disaster.

Marcela Castro contributed an informative article in 2011 for HumanRecourcesIQ.com:

How does your organization rate when it comes to disaster preparedness? HR plays a key role in a scenario like the earthquake and evacuations that occurred in Japan this morning, March 11. How do human resources departments incorporate these initiatives into an organization’s policies?

Different actions can be taken from a preventive stand point…

Read the rest of When Disaster Strikes: How HR Can Prepare Your Workforce for Crisis at HumanResourcesIQ.com