ist magazine December 2022

Feature

STEP 3 Redesign Your Training and Drills.

that is really necessary for employees to act during a disaster. Drills are equally as useless because most times, employees are converted into bystanders while managers do everything and simply bark instructions at staff. This is not condu cive to real situations when staff can be incredibly valuable members of a disaster team. Redesign your training and drills so that line employees are the stars. Train ing should focus on leadership ability and the basic steps in a disaster response and where to find the information they

Training and drills are the most

will need for more in-depth procedures. In fact, this should be reinforced with drills in which managers are made to stand on the side, and staff instructed to perform an entire disaster drill without management participation. This will give an accurate way to assess their readiness. It will also reinforce indi vidual initiative and responsibility so anyone can put together an impromptu emergency team. That is how you turn bystander employees into emergency team members who can work for you in any disaster.

important elements of a disaster program. They are more important than disaster plans and EST combined . This is because the way a workforce is trained and drilled will not only reinforce the behaviors necessary in a disaster, but also exposes the strengths and weaknesses of your program overall. The problem is that most training is actually too detailed . Going through earthquake or wildfire procedures point by point is boring and unnecessary. No one is going to remem ber it, and it detracts from information

IF YOU DON’T EMPOWER STAFF TO ACT WITH AUTHORITY AND LEAD DURING A DISASTER, THEY BECOME PART OF THE PROBLEM.

About the Author: Patrick Hardy is founder and CEO of Hytropy Disaster Management™, the largest full-service small business disaster management com pany in the US. A Certified

CONCLUSION Whether you run a large or small property, with 5 or 500 employees, it is critical that each team member be prepared not to respond to a disaster, but to actually organize a disaster team. It is more than just red binders, written plans, fancy equipment and an expensive communication mobile app. It’s about empowering staff to act with authority and lead during a disaster. If you don’t, you will turn them into bystanders who not only are excluded as part of the solution – they become part of the problem. ■

Emergency Manager® and a Master Business Con tinuity Professional®, in 2012 he was selected as the National Private Sector Representative to FEMA. His book, Design Any Disaster, will be published in March 2023 by Benbella Books. To talk about your next event, visit americasdisasterplanner.com.

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December 2022 istmagazine.com