Where Should Businesses Focus to Prepare for Extreme Weather?
There are a lot of details to focus on if a business expects to survive an extreme weather event or natural disaster. Yet four areas stand out as mission-critical: staff, communications, operations, and power supply. If you do not have a plan in place for how you will respond in these four areas, you are leaving your business in a precarious situation.
Staff
The top priority of any business needs to be its employees. These are the people whom you have invested in and they are the people who will move your company forward. If you do not protect them during an extreme weather event, then you are also leaving your business unprotected.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Are you up-to-date with contact information for everyone on your team?
- Are there specific knowledge sets that would be lost if certain employees were not able to get to work?
- If you must close operations temporarily, will your employees be able to survive until they can return – or will you lose them to other employers?
Communications
Cell phones are the top mode of communication for most people yet they can quickly become useless during an emergency situation. Cell service crumbles, people can’t charge their phones – and what’s left is zero communication.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Who do you need to keep informed of events before, during, and after an extreme weather event?
- How will you keep informed of conditions at different facilities or with your suppliers?
Operations
The facilities you use may become uninhabitable for extended periods during and after an event. That can lead to business shut-downs. Even where operations can continue, there can be long-term damage that may create health hazards for your team.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What alternative spaces could you use if your primary facilities became unusable?
- What tasks can be outsourced and who could you outsource them to?
- How would you adapt if you lost your primary suppliers?
Power Supply
The most critical resource to keep businesses running is power, yet utilities are very vulnerable during a natural disaster. That means you need a back-up plan in place.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- What back-up system do you have?
- How long could you operate on back-up, based on different usage patterns?
- Would a micro solar grid give you more flexibility than storing gallons of gas or propane?
Proper Planning Increases Business Survival
The more you prepare your business for extreme weather, the more resiliency you give your employees, your customers, and your community. No one can predict extreme weather events and their impact. The one thing we know is that businesses that prepare are more likely to navigate them successfully.
Photo by Khamkéo on Unsplash