The Human(e) Side of Crisis Management - Recovering the  “HT” (Human Technology)
Gerald Lewis, Ph.D.

A senior vice president and treasurer of a large energy company in Houston Texas, was found dead on June 2, 2002 with a gunshot wound to his head. The death is being ruled an apparent suicide by the medical examiner’s office. He was forty-seven years old and a twenty-five year veteran of El Paso. He was believed to be in ill health. The company had been forced to restructure its balance sheet after it was revealed that it used off-balance sheet accounting techniques that were similar to those used by Enron.  It had also recently announced that it was cutting back on energy trading activities.

The markets, however, immediately connected his apparent suicide with the financial health of the company, and punished the company’s stock price. The stock lost as much as 25 percent in morning trading following news of the VP’s death.

A large banking organization sent 26 staff members home on March 29, 2003 after a teller who works in the head office in Hong Kong was discovered to be suffering from a strain of pneumonia (SARS) that has already killed 54 people worldwide. The bank employee lived on a block in Hong Kong where 34 people have already come down with the deadly virus – all of whom have been infected by a neighbor who recently visited a sick relative. The government has conjectured that the sick neighbors probably became infected after using the same elevator in their apartment complex.

The bank shut down the private banking department where the stricken employee worked and warned customers who came into contact with the infected employee to be checked by their physicians. The bank, however, decided to keep all other units of the bank open for business.

A branch of a large European bank was the target of what was characterized as a “brutal” robbery when three masked men entered the bank at lunch time and made off with about $470,000.

The detective who was working on this case reported that there were about five customers and six staff members present when the robbers entered the branch. The robbers proceeded to demand that everyone lie down on the floor and kicked one woman unconscious who they felt was too slow to move. After they emptied the bank’s cash drawers and a safety deposit box of money, they hit one of the employees on the head with a pistol. The money was placed in a large sports bag and the robbers made their get-away on a red moped. These examples were provided by Fitch Risk in their Optvantage F1rst Reports

Floods in the mid-west closed five stores of a national retail store chain. While there were no injuries or deaths, the store inventory has been severely damaged as well as the utilities and technological infrastructure.  Further, the majority of the people working there have also experienced significant damage to their personal property.  Community utilities are down, people are in Red Cross shelters or have gone to relatives/friends homes outside the area. 

In today’s global business environment, having a business continuity/crisis management/disaster response plan in place prior to an incident occurring is essential.   The growing body of information suggests that companies not having a BCP/CR plan may face a higher level of financial vulnerability and possibly legal liability.  As complex as plans for security, IT and other equipment/technical restoration may be, human technology (HT) recovery may be even more complicated because “best practices” for mitigating the impact of crises/disasters on personnel are not as well understood or even prioritized. Confounding matters, the reactions and needs of employees may vary and change over time, as the organization proceeds through the stages/phases of restitution. Often, it is not until a workplace is back “on line” and fully functioning from a technical point of view that the repercussion on the personnel is fully recognized.  By then it may be too-little-too-late to save an organization's most valuable asset… its workforce.

Organizational Assessment

A crisis management team should first assess the organizational milieu.  In much the same way as families or countries have different styles or cultures, each work organization has its own dynamics.  While work/organizational cultures are very complex and comprehensive to truly understand, answering questions such as the following can begin the process:  What type of work is done in this organization?  How large is it and how long has it been in existence?  Is it a centralized operation? Regional? National? What is its current financial status? Is it growing? Stagnant? Or receding?  Is there a pervasive management style? Describe the demographics of the workforce?  Is it predominantly male? Female? Is it ethnically mixed or homogeneous? Educated? Is it a “union shop?” Is there a lot of turn over and transition or has the organization been stable? Why do people like to work here?  Money? Security? Prestige? Moral values?  Is there a good communication between and within departments? 

While much more goes into assessing a cultural milieu or workplace culture, it is an important first step to setting up a response plan.  Imagine this situation, a significant incident happens in a workplace, it could be an explosion, a flood, a downsizing.  One of the work sites is a factory, which is a predominantly working class, male group with the average educational level being high school. The workers have skills that are limited beyond the type of work they do in the factory. They are all people who have worked together for quite some time and many live and went to school in the community.  A strong social fabric runs among the workers and their families.  The factory is a “mom and pop” operation that has been owned and run by the same family for three generations.  In its heyday it employed upwards of 400 and now it has settled at around 250.  The management style is friendly and social yet hierarchical and people work cooperatively to meet established work orders and deadlines.  It is an aging workforce with limited turn over and many people have worked their for more than 20 years.

The other is a high tech computer software firm that has been established for ten years and funded by venture capital.  It has a very diverse workforce of 75 people representing a wide range of ethnic groups, ages and religious affiliations. The majority of the workers have a college or graduate level degree and have not been with the company for any longer than two to three years. Most of the people work as programmers and are between 25 to 35 years of age. Most commute significant distances and many work from their homes at least 1-2 days per week. They are highly educated and tend to work alone in their cubicles with limited contact among them.  The cultural norm is that “people come and go,” moving from one high tech company to the next as individual opportunities arise.  Management style is somewhat laissez-faire assuming that the individuals are independent and self-motivated.

While this article does not allow for adequate attention, one certainly can begin to see that the cultures of these two organizations would be very different and even if the same incident were to occur, the individual, group and organizational impact would be quite different.   The reason to begin with an organizational assessment is that when crises do occur, be it in a family, community or workplace, the underlying dynamics, issues, tensions tend to “float to the surface,” and can precipitate what this author refers to as “secondary crises.”  As an example, were there a layoff in either of the two work organizations, one might speculate that the factory in which people have a close sense of community and limited training or work experience would experience a much greater impact characterized by a sense of betrayal, guilt, upset, anxiety and anger.  There would be a greater need for services and programs for both the workers to be laid off as well as those who would be remaining. 

Incident Assessment

Not all incidents that may disrupt a business are the same. While on the surface, this may seem a simplistic statement, many organizations approach incidents with a one-size-fits-orientation.  A crisis team must assess the category of incident that has occurred in the workplace, as each type may precipitate a wide range of reactions on personnel. Briefly summarized:

Crisis:  a significant disruption from an established level of functioning that results in a systemic decrease in productivity. “Crisis” is used to delineate events that do not result in physical harm to personnel. Examples are:  layoffs/mergers, reorganizations, long-power outage, bomb scares, strikes, technology problems, “note-pass” robberies, etc.

Bereavement/grief: an incident in which an employee dies suddenly outside of the workplace.  While not witnessed by others, it may significantly impact the personal and professional aspects of the workplace.  Examples are:  sudden death due to accident, suicide, medical crisis, etc.

Trauma in the workplace:  an incident in which there has been serious injury or death to an employee(s) while performing his/her job duties. Often, this incident may be witnessed or experienced by other employees.  Examples are: industrial accidents, medical incidents, criminal acts, natural disasters, etc.

Disaster in the workplace:  an incident that results in traumatic injury and/or death to multiple victims, often including significant damage/destruction to property.  Disaster is defined as an incident that is large enough to feel overwhelming to the first responders (police, fire, EMS, etc.) that intervene.  Examples are:  industrial accidents, explosions, vehicular accidents, fires.

Catastrophe:  an incident that results in large-scale traumatic injury and/or death as well as accompanying property damage to a large geographic area.  Further, catastrophe implies that the surrounding societal/communal infrastructure has also been affected by the event such that communication, rescue, medical and other systems are affected. Usually state and or federal emergency management agencies respond to these types of events. Examples are:  earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, geographic contamination, large fires, war, terrorism.

Situational Assessment

Even given the above, there are a variety of situational factors that generate further dynamics on any type of incident.

Warning

Reacting vs. responding.  People respond better when they have had some time to acknowledge an event and to make preparations for its impact.  Even in the case of a large-scale climatic occurrence such as a flood or hurricane, people have time to get organized and to respond, rather than an earthquake where all that can often be done is to react to an overwhelming and threatening event.

Type of incident

Act of nature vs. man made.  Even the reactions to a disaster that has resulted in multiple deaths and injuries will vary depending upon the nature of the incident.  As examples, a fire that is the handiwork of an arsonist, results in anger, anxiety, security issues, vengeful feelings, etc.  A fire that is the result of poor wiring in an old building may also leave people feeling unsafe.  However, this may be rectified by having a professional inspect and upgrade to the existing electrical system.  A fire that is due to a lightning strike does not result in quite the same level and intensity of reaction, but rather a sense of bafflement at the unfair and often tragic nature of the world.

Severity of incident

When gauging the potential impact on a workplace, there are additional factors to take into account as part of a response plan.

            Number of victims.  Regardless of the type of incident, the greater the number of victims, the more significant the reactions of witnesses and survivors may be.

            Age of victims.  Certainly incidents that involve children as victims have a far more dramatic repercussion.

            Type of injuries/condition of the remains.  Tragedies in which victims/witnesses have been exposed to visceral damage or in which the recovered remains are decayed and/or mutilated, may often leave people more vulnerable to emotional reactions. 

Reputational impact

Even with events that have not resulted in any serious injury or trauma or even impacted the business continuity, events that influence the reputation or professional standing of a company may have serious long term impact on personnel at all levels.  Examples are:  litigation, negative media coverage, etc.

Timing/Stage:

Mental health professionals have known that people who experience tragic incidents in their lives proceed through stages or phases of reaction and recovery. () It is also known that people may have different reactions to the same event.  () Whether it be a workplace reorganization, a death in the family, a serious surgical procedure, a layoff or any other type of significant crisis, the victims’ reactions differ from day one to week one, month one and year one. This author divides these phases into five (rough) sequential time frames:  Survival (0-48 hours), Support (1-8 days), Adjustment (2 to 8 weeks); Resolution (2 to 12 months), and Recovery (up to 2+ years).  Often the human reactions may not become fully evident until the Adjustment (2-8 weeks) or the Resolution (2-12 months) phases.  As examples of this:

A woman has is diagnosed with breast cancer and has a mastectomy.  After 3 days, she is discharged home with visiting nurse care.  After 6 weeks of home care, it is determined that she can return to work.  Initially, her return is met with much attention and emotional fanfare with cards and flowers on her desk. However, by the second week back, the flowers have wilted along with the emotional support and she is beginning to find that it is difficult for her to keep up with her workload.  In addition, she has had to go for follow up visits to her surgeon and is beginning to “think about” reconstruction surgery and may need to be out of work again for two weeks.  Coworkers who were “covering” for her during her absence now expect to have some relieve as she is back to work.  However, they find that “she is not her old self,” is making mistakes and unable to produce as she had prior to her absence. 

A bank was robbed by armed perpetrators who were shouting loudly with threats and swearing and even fired their weapons into the ceiling of the bank.  The employees and customers were herded into an area of the lobby and told to lie on the ground with their faces down and eyes closed.  One customer was shoved down roughly and hurt his arm and knee.  The robbers then completed the robbery and left the bank.  After the alarm was sounded and police and bank security responded the employees were interviewed and finally able to go home about 4 hours later.  It was determined by bank administration to give the employees two days off.   All reported back to work with the bank’s expectation that it was all over, no one was truly hurt and let’s get back to business as usual.  For the first week all went well for most of the employees as there was a lot of support from administration as well as customers, along with increased police surveillance. Within a week or so, one employee began to experience problems with nightmares, difficulty falling asleep or early morning awakening.  Another employee began to have anxiety symptoms leading to panic feelings when she was driving to work. The first  employee began to call in sick and the other came to work but his concentration was impaired, took frequent breaks and made several significant errors.  As these problems were causing job performance difficulties, both were being counseled by the branch manager by the second or third week.  In response, the employee with a sleep problem went to her physician who “wrote her out” for a 6 week short term disability.  The other employee sought services from the bank’s employee assistance program (EAP).  In both cases, it was determined that the difficulties and the job performance impairment resulted from the bank robbery incident.  Morale within the branch began to falter as some thought that the employees were a malingerer while others thought that the bank was being insensitive.  Request for transfers to other branches began to be submitted.

Both of these cases show that it is often not until the adjustment phase that individuals or organizations begin to bump into the reality of the incident. 

What to do?

1. Be sure that your BCP/DR/CR plan takes the most valuable asset in your workplace into account… the workforce. 
2. When possible, remember that the worker might have family members who may be reacting to the incident and thus be an additional source of stress for the employee.
3. Be sure to have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  Effective EAPs are a great resource for mitigating the short and long-term effects of trauma and crisis. Characteristics of an effective EAP include the following:

a.      A well publicized organization that provides confidential, face-to-face as well as telephonic communication with employees and their family members.

b.      Management consultation to all supervisory levels within the organization.  This type of consultation should not come from the “counselors” within the EAP, but rather higher level clinical or administrative personnel with training or experience in organizational development, project management, etc.

c.      An ability to make on-site visits after a significant crisis or trauma in the workplace in order to conduct group meetings.

d.      Has staff trained and experienced in providing these types of psychological debriefings.

e.      Your organization should have an on-going relationship with the personnel of the EAP through educational seminars, get-to-know-your-EAP sessions, management training seminars, etc.   Ideally, if the EAP is responding to a troubling situation, it should not be the first time that your organization has had contact with the program.

f.        Talk with your EAP prior to any incident to see what type of response they would be able and willing to provide.  As an example, one EAP director described to this author his experience after a significant flood in the mid-west in which many employees lost their homes and/or belongings. As people were coming back to work, the EAP was extremely valuable by helping people complete and submit insurance claims.  Also, as ATMs were not working throughout the city due to the flood and power outage, the EAP became the company “bank.”  The company provided cash to the EAP and employees could “withdraw” (limited) cash for food, clothing, etc. by going to the EAP, who kept confidential records of the transactions.  When the electricity was restored, people were then able to pay back the funds that they borrowed.

4)    Be sure to have printed material available that describe the potential reactions that individuals may have to the incident. 

5)    At times of crisis, supervisors/managers/department heads are also victims of the incident, but must provide support and encouragement for their staff.  Often, this may be a daunting task requiring additional support for the supervisory personnel themselves. Train supervisors and department heads to recognize the signs and reactions of employees who are having a tough time at different stages of recovery.  Extra “debriefing” or “coaching” sessions for managerial staff are advisable to provide both support and some coaching as to how best to facilitate the recovery of their personnel.

6)    Have knowledge of your policies and benefits such as: ADA, FMLA, sick leave, disability benefits, etc.

7)    If possible, allow for flextime with regard to scheduling.  Often, individuals may have their own reactions or family needs that warrant some reasonable accommodation.

8)    Senior administrative staff should be highly visible for the first 2-3 months after a significant incident.  While they may be busy dealing with many of the details that have resulted from the event, it is essential that they give as much  “face time” to employees as possible.  This personal touch is best and it does not need to be a formal meeting or statement. Just walking around, checking in on departments, employee cafeterias, loading docks, smoking areas, etc makes a big impression on personnel.  If it is a large company, this may not be possible and should be done via electronic medium.

9)    If people have been displaced for any significant amount of time, it is recommended that they receive a re-orientation program prior to the expectation of full return to duty.

10) Even if you do have an EAP, often an out side consultant who specializes in this type of work can save a lot of time and resources in helping to formulate a plan.

Being prepared to manage a crisis is not a matter of crisis management.