Leading People Through Disasters

Book description

Flood, fire, hurricane, earthquake, workplace violence, bombings, even the arrest or sudden death of the CEO—sooner or later, most organizations will face some sort of disaster. Leading People Through Disasters breaks new ground in disaster-recovery by focusing on supporting the people who keep the business running in times of crisis.

Kathryn McKee and Liz Guthridge show how to ensure that your business continuity plan addresses human as well as business issues and they offer detailed advice on what to do when disaster actually strikes—how to keep people safe, calm, and informed; help managers care for employees; and deal with employees' immediate and ongoing emotional and psychological needs while getting the organization back on its feet. This comprehensive guide features a wealth of examples, checklists, forms, and other practical tools that will help you take action when you need it most.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Praise for Leading People Through Disasters
  5. Foreword
  6. Preface
    1. Why This Book?
    2. The Audience for This Book
    3. How to Use This Book
    4. Part I: Planning for Disasters
    5. Part II: Dealing with Disasters
    6. The Resources Section
    7. Principles to Live and Work By
  7. Prologue
    1. How HR Started Leading—First by Accident and Then by Design
  8. Part I: Planning for Disasters
  9. Chapter 1: Preparing to Lead in the Face of Fear
    1. Overview
    2. Preparing for a Disaster
    3. Dealing with a Disaster
    4. Facing a Disaster Head On
  10. Chapter 2: Developing a Business Continuity Plan That Addresses Human Issues
    1. Introduction
    2. Overview of Requirements
    3. Your Business Continuity Planning Team
    4. Experts to Complement Your Planning Team
    5. The Urgency of Planning
    6. Developing the Plan
    7. Team Operations: Planning versus Dealing with a Disaster
    8. The Role of Employees
    9. Creating an Emergency Operations Center
    10. How Many Business Continuity Plans Do You Need?
    11. Practicing Emergency Response
    12. Considering Employees
    13. Planning for Timely Business Resumption
    14. Ensuring the Success of Your Plan
    15. Communicating with Employees
  11. Chapter 3: Creating Contingent HR Policies
    1. Philosophy on Interim Human Resource Management
    2. Basic HR Policies
    3. Returning to Work
    4. Planning for Emergency Employee Communication
    5. Action Steps
  12. Part II: Dealing with Disasters
  13. Chapter 4: Taking Care of Employees
    1. Overview
    2. Seven Critical Steps
    3. Modeling Self-Awareness and Self-Control
    4. Caring for Employees under Extreme Conditions
    5. Tips for Managing the Human Element
    6. Action Steps
  14. Appendix
    1. Managing Stress after a Disaster A Guide for Employees
  15. Chapter 5: Guiding Managers and HR Staff
    1. Overview
    2. Enlisting Expertise
    3. Developing Special Employee Relations Training Programs
    4. Managers and Supervisors
    5. Responsibility Structure
    6. Action Steps
  16. Chapter 6: Balancing the Needs of Employees with the Need to Return to Work
    1. Getting Back to Work after a Disaster
    2. Employee Trauma
    3. Responses to Performance Decline
    4. Specific Performance Problems
    5. Meeting with an Employee Who Is Having Trouble
    6. Action Steps
  17. Chapter 7: Restabilizing Yourself and the Organization
    1. Overview
    2. 10 Action Steps
    3. Planning the Restabilization
    4. Action Steps
  18. Chapter 8: Building Resiliency While Helping Hearts and Minds to Heal
    1. Overview
    2. Psychological Recovery
    3. More on Employee Assistance Programs
    4. Three Stages of Disaster Recovery
    5. Anger and Weariness
    6. Action Steps
  19. Chapter 9: Starting to Prepare Now—Five-Minute Planning Steps
    1. Overview
    2. Connect with Your Internal Partners
    3. Refresh Records
    4. Run Through Redundancies
    5. Estimate Risk and ROI
    6. Hunt and Tame the Silent, Sugarcoated Moose®
    7. Review with New Eyes
    8. Check Your Supplies
    9. Build a “Just-in-Case” Inventory of Emergency Supplies
    10. Build Goodwill with Employees
    11. Action Steps
  20. Resources
  21. Literature and Websites
    1. Business Continuity Planning
    2. General Crisis Management
    3. Dealing with the Human Aspect of Trauma and Grief
    4. Dealing with Natural Disasters
    5. Employee Assistance/Behavioral Health Management
    6. Leadership
    7. Strategic Planning
    8. Internet Resources
  22. An Outline for Business Continuity Planning
  23. A Sample Telephone Tree
  24. A Sample Wallet Card
  25. Employee Emergency Response Procedures
    1. Earthquake
    2. Outside
    3. In a Vehicle
    4. Inside
    5. Preventing Fires
    6. When a Fire Occurs
    7. Whom to Call
    8. What to Say
    9. Emergency Telephone Numbers
    10. Evacuation Procedures
    11. Fire Extinguishers
    12. Sheltering in Place
    13. Severe Weather
    14. Hazardous Materials
    15. Utilities
    16. Bomb Threats
    17. Bomb Threat Checklist
    18. Emergency Evacuation Procedures
  26. Suggested Actions to Take at Home
    1. For Your Home
    2. In Your Car
  27. Notes
    1. Foreword
    2. The Purpose of This Book
    3. Prologue
    4. Chapter 1
    5. Chapter 8
    6. Chapter 9
  28. Acknowledgments
  29. Index
  30. About the Authors
    1. About Berrett-Koehler Publishers
    2. Be Connected

Product information

  • Title: Leading People Through Disasters
  • Author(s): SPHR Kathryn McKee, Liz Guthridge
  • Release date: July 2006
  • Publisher(s): Berrett-Koehler Publishers
  • ISBN: 9781605092539