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A Special Presentation by the Homeland Security Human Factors Institute
It is very difficult to “un-scare” people, and fear can be as contagious as any disease. Right now, the monkeypox outbreak is bad and getting worse. It represents an unprecedented spread of this disease. At last count, the U.S. has identified 6,617 confirmed monkeypox cases, and at least 85 other countries have identified 26,000 more. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared monkeypox a Global Health Emergency, and now Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared it a national Public Health Emergency in the U.S., reflecting the seriousness and urgency of the situation. Researchers estimate that it might take a year or more to control this outbreak. By then, the virus is likely to have infected hundreds of thousands of people. While the virus itself is self-limiting, it’s potential to cause fear and anxiety is not. All public health emergencies are simultaneously behavioral health emergencies. Fear and anxiety about another novel virus is now surfacing in the form of anger and stigma, so much so that the WHO is considering changing the name of the virus, which they see as “discriminatory and stigmatizing.” Recent news stories have reported that some healthcare workers and lab techs have even refused to draw blood for patients suspected of having monkeypox. Not only is stigma corrosive to communities and organizations, it also prevents people from getting the testing and treatment necessary to prevent the further spread of the disease. Anyone can get monkeypox, and everyone can be affected by the emotional impact of a new ... Read more
Speak Up or Shut Up? The Great Communication Conundrum
By Tony Jaques Ph.D., Director of Issue Outcomes Pty. Ltd. When you’re in the public spotlight over a high-profile issue, the first question is often: “What shall we say to the media?” But there is another important question you may need to consider first: “Should we say anything at all?” Now, we have a communication conundrum. This article originally appeared on RothsteinPublishing.com and is reprinted here with permission. It’s a common misapprehension that an organization must speak to the media – and right away. That you somehow have a duty or obligation to do so. In normal circumstances this is generally not true. In reality, your principal obligation is to your organization, your investors and other stakeholders. Just as the journalist’s obligation is to their editor. Although it may be unaccustomed (and possibly counter-intuitive) advice, sometimes it is better for the media to report that you were unavailable for comment. Or were unavailable at this time. It can certainly be a better option than making a response you come to regret. Bearing in mind, of course, that making no comment is quite different from saying “no comment”. Everyone has their favorite example of an executive or politician or celebrity under pressure making an ill-judged statement which comes to define them. Think no further than BP CEO Tony Hayward in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster saying he “wanted to get his life back.” The New York Times called it “the soundbite from hell” Should You Speak Up or Shut Up During ... Read more
National Weather Disasters Are Becoming More Prevalent and Severe… and Help Is not Necessarily on the Way
By Frank Shultz, Infinite Blue: Twenty times last year a weather or climate disaster cost the US at least a billion dollars. These disasters also resulted in the deaths of at least 688 people, the most since 2017. The trend is not only for weather disasters to be more expensive, but more frequent; even adjusted for inflation, 2021 was only the second time in three decades that as many as 20 weather disasters cost so much. The only other time there were more than 20 was… the year before, 2020, with 22 such costly weather disasters. In our lifetimes, Hurricane Katrina is perhaps the signature weather disaster. It’s the costliest weather disaster in US history, resulting in $182.5 billion in damage. Besides Hurricane Ida, those twenty-billion-dollar weather disasters from last year included wildfires, heat waves, cold waves, winter storms, hailstorms, floods, tornadoes, and drought. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2022). https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/, DOI: 10.25921/stkw-7w73 It’s getting worse, too, according to a report by the UN agency, the World Meteorological Organization, which notes that the number of weather-related disasters has quintupled in the past half-century. The most lethal of these have been droughts, storms, floods, and extreme temperatures. The latter is of special concern, because the same report says the increased rate of disasters is related to climate change. According to a February 2022 scientific report prepared for the United Nations, however, the world isn’t keeping pace, and reaction to climate change isn’t happening quickly ... Read more
Customer Insights: The Importance of Safety and Preparedness
By Michelle Cassidy and Kurt Blomdahl, Fusion Risk Management: As highly impactful events continue to plague the world, risk and resilience professionals are tasked with planning for and responding to these significant events. Currently, many of us are responding to multiple events at one time. These events are ever changing, and given our roles, it is our responsibility to manage the response in a timely and effective manner. Crisis management teams, comprised of executive level leaders, look to us to provide answers to questions such as: Where are our employees located? Is everyone safe, and who is unaccounted for? And they expect us to have the answers to these questions quickly. Are you prepared to provide answers quickly? In a recent Community Exchange, our customers shared how they are prepared to answer questions and inquiries from leadership. People Safety and Wellness Many organizations have employees across the globe. A geographically diverse workforce can be a strong benefit to a large organization; however, this requires additional consideration for employee safety and accountability. It is critical that preparedness and due diligence happen prior to an event. If you wait until the event starts, it is too late. One example of preparedness may include your team having access to all personal contact information and work and home address information for all employees. Personally identifiable information (PII) such as email and home addresses are often safeguarded closely so that they do not slip into the wrong hands. Does your team have access to this information? ... Read more
Emergency Return to Work During COVID
By Ashley Goosman, Disaster Empire: Returning employees to offices during COVID. Emergency return to work during COVID is a challenging proposition. Many of you shared having employees working in offices throughout the pandemic. For the most part, the employees and contractors accessing offices are considered essential employees that need to continue critical functions. Often, crucial personnel fulfills key continuity roles. Some of you are in manufacturing or retail services organizations that require ongoing in-person presence. This week’s extreme weather in the Northwest and British Columbia highlights the hazards of non-essential employees who want to return to an office. If your organization returned your employees already, this is not an issue. Those ramping up to bring back your staff should consider enabling a process to get employees into an office on a short-term basis. Safety and security are your top concerns The record-breaking heatwave smashed hundred-year records in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. As with Texas extreme weather events in February, the West Coast finds itself unprepared to deal with the impacts. Reports are in the news of melting power cables, damaged roads, and overflowing cooling shelters. The area does not have the infrastructure to address this hazard type. We can debate the reasons, but increasingly we are being asked to respond to crises in unprecedented ways. We are still in COVID-19 response mode, with an uncertain forecast ahead of us. These circumstances demand our flexibility to respond to an increased demand for our services. Everything we do right now is ... Read more
The Importance of Incident Response Training for First Responders
By Charlie Maclean-Bristol, FBCI FEPS: In this article, Charlie Maclean-Bristol, FBCI FEPS, author of the new book, Business Continuity Exercises: Quick Exercises to Validate Your Plan, discusses why incident responders are important to have within your company and the benefits of training them to a high standard. This article was originally published by BC Training Ltd. and Rothstein Publishing and is reprinted with permission here. This week, I traveled down to the Midlands for my first onsite visit in 16 months. I have been preparing a training course for a manufacturing company, they wanted incident management training for their shift leaders. I thought this week I would share all the ideas and thoughts I had while developing a training programme for them. The dictionary definition of first responders is “a person whose job entails being the first on the scene of an emergency such as a firefighter or police officer.” When I am using this term, I am expanding it to include those from the organisation who should be at the scene of an incident and are expected to respond to the incident. This role could be enacting a contingency plan such as the fire evacuation procedure or it could be when the person or team is expected to respond to an incident such as a chemical spill Importance of First Responders I sometimes think when we are developing plans or conducting training and exercises that the activities of first responders, those who are going to respond immediately to an ... Read more
The Post Pandemic Workforce
By Lynnda Nelson, President at ICOR: As organizations reimagine the post pandemic organization, the impact of how the workforce returns to work and determining when remote work “works” and when it doesn’t, is top of mind. In this blog we will discuss the positive and negative aspects of remote working and factors to consider when building a more resilient and flexible workforce. Which one best describes you? “I just had 3 virtual meetings and I am exhausted…” “I haven’t had any meetings today and I can’t get motivated to do anything…” Understanding How You Like to Work and How Often You Like Interacting with Others Impacts Where/How You Do Your Best Work. Remote Working – Not New, But a Significant Increase in Numbers Forbes reports in its February 2021 article that even before the pandemic, there were over 5 million U.S. employees working from home at least half the time. 56% of the U.S. workforce have jobs that are at least partially compatible with remote work. A typical employer can save about $11,000 USD per year for every person who works remotely half of the time. “Being forced, and without notice, to a new way of work, was not easy for any organization that had not yet considered work from home prior to the pandemic. It was a challenge, but some found it to work well enough to not return to the office, while others are struggling to make it work. There are companies and employees that love the new work ... Read more
A Case for Business Continuity Managed Services
By Bob Farkas, Virtual Corporation: Fifty-one percent of organizations surveyed by Mercer Consulting were caught without business continuity plans when the current COVID pandemic erupted. Moreover, other surveys revealed the potentiality and impact of a pandemic were virtually ignored. Low priority and insufficient investment in business continuity continue to jeopardize the business resiliency of many companies. However, the lack of preparedness and response has caught the attention of Boards and executive management and could facilitate the commitment for business continuity. To overcome many of the financial and operational risks of standing up a business continuity program, a managed service model is emerging along the lines of IT services such as Software as a Service (SaaS). The Business Continuity as a Service, “BCaaS” is an outsourced service offering. BCaaS provides a suit of best practices business continuity management services at affordable, predictable fixed cost managed by business continuity professionals that allows companies to address their business resiliency needs while allowing them to focus on their core competencies. COVID-19 Pandemic’s Big Reveal Earlier this year, Mercer Consulting published a report based on its Business Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak survey that revealed 51 percent of organizations around the world do not have a business continuity plan to respond to disasters or other business disruptions such as the current pandemic. The report provided insights from over 300 businesses across 37 countries and revealed that 27.2 percent of companies do not have a business continuity plan in place, while 23.8 percent are in the ... Read more
Healthcare Workers Continue to Deal With Workplace Violence
By Oscar Villanueva, Managing Director of Security Services & Crisis Preparedness, R3 Continuum: Tips for Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare. Workplace violence in healthcare settings has been an issue for some time. Threats of violence against doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel can come from irate patients or family, from co-workers often due to working in a stressful environment, and because of a termination or another typical workplace action. The COVID-19 crisis has intensified workplace violence in healthcare even more by adding additional demands on already tense conditions. Workplace violence can come in many forms including intimidation, bullying, threats, abuse, insults, and physical aggression. Sometimes these incidents can result in serious injury or death as in the case of an active shooter situation or other violent attacks. Long before COVID-19, healthcare facilities experienced a high degree of workplace abuse, so much so that California has implemented legislation to protect healthcare workers in the form of the Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention Act in Healthcare (learn more about this legislation here). Many states are joining California in drawing up similar legislation that is expected to be introduced nationally at some point in time. During the current COVID-19 crisis, there are reports of medical staff in the UK being told not to wear their uniforms outside their facilities to prevent attacks from people thinking they are spreading the virus (see that news article here). Similar reports have appeared in the US with nurses and other medical staff suffering verbal and physical abuse from ... Read more
