It seems that whenever we turn on the evening news we are reminded that disaster can strike any time and any where. Disaster struck the Belaire Condominiums on October 11, 2006 when a small private plane crashed into the 52 story high-rise building on New York City’s Upper East Side, igniting several apartments. Shortly after the building was evacuated, a team was deployed to establish control of the loss site and to begin the restoration. Four months later the project was completed, thanks to a critical vendor that walked them through the restoration process.
So, how does a disaster restoration company fit into your contingency plan? If this happened to your facility, what would you do? Who would you contact in the event of an emergency when the project is too big for you and your staff to handle?
In today’s competitive environment, information sharing is necessary and getting the “red tape” out of the way before services are rendered often saves crucial time and money during the remediation process. Contingency plans should be closely guarded since it is formal documentation of your organizational vulnerabilities in the time of need. However, critical vendors need to be privy to such information as they are the ones that will help you to sustain your critical operations. So, where does one draw the line?
The parts of your contingency plan that can be made public should be shared with your entire internal organization. Each employee needs to understand the protocol for disaster recovery and exactly where they fit into the plan. However, it is not necessary to blast the final plan via organizational email for the company to read, discuss, and potentially share. For example, general audiences do not need to see contracts or agreements you have negotiated as this will have no barring on their ability to perform their responsibilities and made public it could compromise your business relationships and be a valuable tool for a competitor. This assessment is crucial to the decision-making capacities of organizational leaders. Finally, and most importantly, your contingency plan should prioritize what is operationally most important to keep you in business.
Choosing a Vendor You Can Trust
Consider these simple but effective guidelines when selecting a vendor.
- References: Ask the organization for references, and check the references. You should feel at ease about working with the restoration organization.
- Company history: Find out how long the company has been around, what their expertise is, and how many full-time employees they have. This will answer many of your questions about their ability to respond in a timely manner.
- Gut check: Ask to meet the individuals that you will be working with, from the account managers to the project directors. You want to develop a rapport and comfort level with the people you might be working closely with if disaster strikes.
- Ask questions: The restoration industry can be confusing, especially with the high emotional stakes of a loss. If you have a question, ask. The restoration company representative owes you the respect and patience that the situation merits. They should walk through every step of the process with you remember, you are paying them for their expertise.
- Consider Simplicity: Rather than complicating the situation with an elaborate strategy or multiple vendors all reporting to different individuals, consider crafting a handful of simple rules that all vendors and decision-makers are aware of. Thus, your plan ultimately consists of a unique set of strategically significant reporting relationships and the handful of simple rules that guide the decision-making process. That said, consider how the basic rules that you use everyday in making decisions about your organizational strategy can be adjusted and applied to information sharing with critical vendors.
Rules to Guide Decision Making
How-to Rules. This is the aspect of planning where you should consider the special needs that your organization might have, such as document storage. For instance, the National Archives has a very detailed organization process regarding how and where specific documents are stored. When performing recovery work, it is important to understand they must be able to identify exactly where documents are located and in what stage of the process they are in. Due to JAHCO and HIPPA laws, the same principles apply to hospitals as well. Intensive Care Units and emergency rooms are another part of medical facilities that often have specific needs. Your restoration company should be able to address your special needs and the governmental and industry restrictions that go along with housing such organizations. This does not just apply to company-owned facilities, management organizations should also be aware of the special needs that their building tenants have.
Limit Rules. Sometimes simple rules delineate boundary conditions that help restoration companies and mangers sort through opportunities quickly. When an unexpected change occurs with the scope of work, what approvals are needed for the restoration company to proceed? If the changes result in an increase in cost of more than $500, $1,000, or even $25,000, consider when and who needs to be included in the updates? Should the company proceed or wait until a decision is made before the changes are pursued? If this is discussed prior to a loss, your organization has given your restoration company a rule of thumb to be able to make clutch decisions on your behalf that could ultimately save you time and money.
Priority Rules. Whether you are the building manager, building owner, or both, you have a responsibility to the organization or tenants to know what business priorities are most important to keeping them in business and profitable. For example, Courtyard Marriott can probably function for a while without their exercise rooms or their ball rooms, but they always need to physically get “heads in beds.” Many times this information will be intuitive to your restoration company, but it is not always evident. Manufacturing is another good example, the most profitable product lines should be addressed first. This aspect of restoration falls back onto the organization’s business interruption costs, and although those numbers do not need to be made public, an overall priority chart will benefit your tenants in the long-run.
Help Rules. Know when the loss is outside the scope of what you and your team can handle internally. Place a time limit or a square footage limit, whichever is most applicable to your line of business, on a loss so that you can make sure and bring in the appropriate help when necessary. When property losses are not cleaned properly, more damage occurs over time, making the cost of recovery sky-rocket if the loss is not remediated sufficiently.
Trust Rules. You need to trust your restoration company enough to know that when remediation is not a cost effective means of meeting your needs, they will tell you. Sometimes it just makes more sense to rebuild rather than refurbish or remediate. Sometimes specific expensive equipment is not needed or you can handle the loss on your own. It is important to trust your restoration company, knowing that they will walk you through small losses, offer a set of eyes on losses that are in question, and show up on time and ready to meet your large loss needs.
Your organization most likely already has a rough sketch of the rules established above. It is the process of formalizing and communicating them that will make the difference when a loss occurs.
Risk management experts often find that the effects of disasters are underestimated. In his book, Disaster by Design, Dennis Mileti, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, explains that “people, businesses and government, have a tendency to overestimate the capacity they have to deal with disaster,and have a tendency to underestimate the effect it will have on them. When you underestimate the impact—you are completely unprepared.”
Lastly, remember that even the most quality contingency plans are often too concentrated on internal processes and not concentrated enough on the external processes. Building managers, risk managers, facilities managers and contingency planners need to remember to “look out the window.” The most effective contingency plans are synchronized with local government and community organizations, ensuring the smoothest recovery possible, from the inside out.
Where does your company fall in the overall preparedness spectrum?
Karee G. Huggins is the Director of National Accounts at BMS Catastrophe. She can be reached at khuggins@bmscat.com.
