Many organizations have invested significant time and money in planning but those plans may have very unrealistic assumptions, like relying on people to arrive or stay at work and operate at a reasonable productivity rate for a certain number of hours. Significant research indicates the following items will dramatically impact their performance and, therefore, an organization’s ability to respond and meet its recovery objectives:

• Perceived efficacy of individuals and their leaders to perform the response and recovery tasks required,
• Clarity of role,
• Perception of importance of role,
• Understanding of consequences of not performing tasks.

Our training is truly the tipping point between an effective response and recovery and one that simply cannot meet the recovery time objectives. XBRM Training and Education can improve your organization’s ability to respond to an incident or event by improving the effectiveness of your resources. In addition to standard curriculum, we also offer specialized training that improves a participant’s ability to accurately integrate critical human factors into policies, plans, procedures and exercises. The result is to more effectively reflect and mitigate the impact that negative emotional and behavioral reactions will have on your response and recovery.

We offer a comprehensive curriculum of on‐site or web‐based instructor led training and web‐based eLearning. Courses include workbooks, expert instruction and class certificates. Classes are organized into two basic categories: skill‐building (targeted towards responders) and awareness (targeted towards management) training. Instructor led training is available in full‐day or half‐day versions. We can also provide custom versions of our curriculum that is tailored to meet your organization or group’s specific needs and objectives.

Our courses are clustered for specific groups and/or audiences. Examples of clusters we offer are:

• Business Continuity Planners and Managers
• Emergency Responders
• Security Professionals
• Health Professionals & Health Emergency Responders
  

DRII (Disaster Recovery Institute International, which is the premier BCP certification board) has approved the XBRM’s eLearning programs for 2 Continuing Education Activity Points (CEAPs) each.

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XBRM Services
XBRM provides professional services that include: development and audits of business continuity plans, table top exercises/tests and training and education that reduce your organization’s risk level by improving  it’s ability to respond to an incident or event. Click here to learn more about our: Products and Services; Click here to learn more about our: Training and Education

Contact us for more information about how we can help your organization or arrange for a demonstration, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com or call us at 212.366.8200

Blending the Human Factor into Business Impact Analysis

Author: Steve Crimando and Marv Wainschel

Concerns about people and their contribution to the corporate bottom line do not fit neatly into recovery plans for operational failure. Still, the landscape of potential hazards has shifted dramatically over the past decade, ushering in a need to plan for novel and complex crisis scenarios wherein a focus on people cannot be avoided. Analyzing such crises as pandemics, dirty bombs, and economic meltdowns, and developing effective contingency plans for them requires new approaches to traditional hazard vulnerability assessment (HVA) and business impact analysis (BIA).

There is growing awareness in the scientific and professional communities, as well as within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, that some hazards will leave facilities and systems largely unaffected but result in substantial behavioral disruption to the workforce and surrounding communities. Failure to accurately anticipate the behavioral consequences of these kinds of threat scenarios can render disaster plans ineffective and even jeopardize lives. Yet, in recovery plans for operational failure, little to no thought has been given to protecting a corporation’s primary asset during a crisis-its people.

Human-focused Crisis Scenarios

The recent H1N1 influenza outbreak, declared a Phase 6 pandemic by the World Health Organization in May-and arguably overblown by the media-showcased the impact of behavioral issues on business continuity. Even in an outbreak of what was considered a mild flu strain, school closings in many jurisdictions had immediate and profound ramifications for students and parents, ultimately impacting employers.

Parents unable to arrange child care on short notice found themselves homebound even though they and their children were healthy. The impact on hospitals and healthcare systems was also dramatic with a substantial surge of “worried well.” Public health emergencies, CBRN incidents, and other hazards that lack clear parameters are known to produce high numbers of psychological casualties often not factored into traditional BIA models.

Traditional BIA-What’s Missing?

Continuity professionals who focus on operational failure know that a BIA will yield acceptable downtimes for business processes, which, in turn, leads to the identification and quantification of recovery resources, including personnel resources over pre-defined recovery phases. Longer downtimes correspond to slower recovery of resources. Corporate recovery strategy addressing operational failure is based upon the need for such resources over time.

What’s missing? Pandemics, terrorist attacks, and civil strife fall outside the discipline of operational recovery, but require planning for mitigation. While such events are not in themselves operational failures, they can affect operations- and planning for mitigation is not so much about recovering resources as dealing with behavioral issues.

Chemical, biological, and radiological events are fraught with uncertainty and fear. Disease and radiation cannot be seen, felt, heard, or smelled. Pandemic fears are compounded by additional uncertainties: persistence (duration), recurrence (in waves), geography and speed of spread, as well as the change in virulence of the virus. In a June 24, 2009 Washington Post article, John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, cited the two most significant aspects contributing to impact: the virulence of the virus (over which we have no control) and interventions.

Corporate interventions include the establishment of employee assistance programs (EAPs), stocking of antiviral drugs, awareness and educational programs, increased hygiene, and social distancing. These mitigations can be costly, and the question a BIA can answer is, “How much is enough?” Current BIA protocols that address only operational failure do not answer this question, because the impact on personnel contributions is not a factor in the BIA.

While BIA protocols for operational recovery depend upon acceptable process downtimes, impacts to personnel contributions depend upon the human condition. Determination of acceptable downtimes is rooted in losses that have a lasting effect on customer service, financial position, corporate image, and the ability to meet legal and regulatory obligations. Traditionally, those four measurable exposure areas have been the central issues of business impact analysis. However, there is a fifth measurable area of exposure that can have a lasting effect on the corporate bottom line. That area is the potential

degradation of personnel contributions.

BIA Evolution Needed

It’s obvious that personnel contributions affect operational recovery, but what issues affect personnel contributions? How realistic can our strategies be for meeting recovery time objectives (RTOs) if the likelihood of people remaining or returning to work in various hazard scenarios is not fully anticipated? On a process and enterprise level, what long-term losses to personnel contributions will ensue if a company’s human factor mitigations are insufficient? Philosophical responses are barely helpful in quantifying solutions. Astute executives look for measurable indicators of impact. What could the business stand to lose if it didn’t protect and enable surviving personnel?

From a corporate welfare perspective, the humanitarian view of protecting people is not germane. It’s not the people; it’s the contribution they make to the organization. The distinction is non-trivial. People have characteristics like family, the need to survive, hunger, personalities, leadership abilities, skills, knowledge, the ability to operate under pressure, friends, experiences, hopes, etc. While the combination of those things supports their contributions to the firm, they are not the contribution. They are not what we need to measure in analyzing impact when things go awry.

To determine the need for human factor mitigation, what continuity professionals need is a tool that can reflects the downside of personnel contribution. The downside is more than “the lack of personnel contribution,” it includes obstruction to the corporate mission in the form of poor decisions, lowered morale, and the contagion of reduced productivity.

Business continuity professionals, take heed. The risks that lie ahead require a new approach to assessing and integrating the complexities of operational risk and human factors in a manner that go beyond today’s best practices. Evolving risks require further evolution of BIA models. Enhanced BIA featuring the seamless integration of a human impact audit or human factors assessment may represent the next generation of BIA. CI

___________________________________________________________

Steve Crimando is the Managing Director of XBRM, a company focused on the human factor in business continuity. He can be reached at steve@xbrm.com.

Marv Wainschel is the CEO of McWains Chelsea, a business resilience consulting firm. He can be reached at marv@mcwains.com.

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To contact us for more information, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com, or call us at 212.366.8200

The American Counseling Association Foundation (ACA), has recently published it’s third edition on terrorism, trauma and tragedies, which focuses on current events, the field of disaster mental health, and how counseling professionals respond to various forms of disasters, and set strategies/ techniques for coping before, during, and after a traumatic occurrence.

The first two editions focused on events like the Columbine High School shootings, and the aftermath of September 11. This third edition has been revised to reflect more recent tragedies (Hurricane Katrina, the devastating hurricanes in New Orleans and Haiti, the Gulf Coast, Multiple tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc.), to show the dramatic growth in knowledge and experience within the field of disaster mental health. The goal of these editions are to share experiences, strategies, and lessons learned from the front lines, in hopes of ensuring that counseling professionals are well-prepared for future  events that lie ahead.

This book is a collaboration of 51 authors including XBRM’s Steven Crimando, and Cynthia Simeone. Their contribution to this edition, Coping with Financial Crisis,  focuses on the correlation between financial collapses and pandemics.

Excerpt:

“A great deal of time, effort, and money has been spent in the United Stated and  abroad developing plans and procedures to mitigate the effects of a pandemic on the workplace. The financial crisis has triggered  many of the same workplace dynamics anticipated by pandemic planners, including high levels of stress and fear; diminished or depleted workforce; decline in retail, travel, entertainment, construction, and many other economic sectors; escalating unemployment; and disruption or closure of financial institutions.”

To purchase this book please click here to visit: The American Counseling Association Foundation

Click here to view a PDF of  the: Front Matter

Contact us for more information about how XBRM can help your organization, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@XBRM.com or call us at 212.366.8200

Click here to view the article, “Leader’s Struggle with Crisis Risk Management“

Contact us for more information about how we can help your organization by clicking here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@XBRM.com or call us at 212.366.8200.

This is an informative segment on how businesses can also incorporate these best practices in developing and updating their organizational resilience plans and enable themselves to not only prepare for crises, but deal with the emotional aftermath of traumatic events.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE INTERVIEW

This is Steven Crimando’s second interview with SmartPros. To view the first segment, click here: Swine Flu: Are You Pandemic Ready?

About SmartPros Ltd.:
SmartPros’ FMN Video programs make it easy for finance professionals to stay up to date on the issues that affect them. SmartPros is a leading provider of professional education products to Fortune 500 companies, as well as the major firms and associations in each of its professional markets.

Founded in 1981, SmartPros is an industry leader in the field of accredited professional education and corporate training. Its products and services are primarily focused in the accredited professional areas of corporate accounting, financial management, public accounting, governmental and not-for-profit accounting, financial services training, banking, engineering, legal, and ethics and compliance. Visit http://www.smartpros.com.

About Steven Crimando:
Steven M. Crimando, MA, BCETS, Steve has more than 20 years experience in disaster planning, consulting and training.  Steven is Managing Director of Extreme Behavioral Risk Management.  He is a clinician and educator specialized in crisis intervention, disaster recovery, and traumatic event response. He has been conferred the status of Diplomate of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress and is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress. He also holds Level III Certification in Homeland Security through the American College of Forensic Examiners International, where he serves as the Vice Chairman for the Division of Forensic Counseling.

He is a member of the FBI’s InfraGuard program and serves as a consultant and trainer for the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Emergency Management Agency and United Nations. He has served as faculty member at the Rutgers University Center for Management Development and Fairleigh Dickinson University graduate program in Management of Organizational Behavioral

To contact us for more information, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com, or call us at 212.366.8200.

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When/Time: Friday, September 24, 2010: 2:15PM – 3:45PM
Session: Telephone Threat Management and Crisis Communications
Where: Renaissance Orlando Resort at SeaWorld -  Orlando, Florida

For more information on this event, click here to view the: 2010 ABCHS Conference Brochure
To register, click here: American Board for Certification in Homeland Security web site

Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit: TableTop Exercise (TTX): Leadership During a Crisis–

In conjunction with Eagle Rock Alliance, facilitators Steve Crimando (XBRM) and Marv Wainschel (McWains Chelsea) will be conducting a TableTop Exercise for the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit. Attendees at will be able  to interact during a mock crisis event to enhance their skills and comprehension level in responding to a Dirty Bomb scenario.

When/Time: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 9:15AM – 11:30AM
TableTop Session Title: Leadership During a Crisis
Location: Wahsington, DC

To register for this session, or for further details, click here:  Gartner Summer Events

To contact us for more information, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com, or call us at 212.366.8200

by: Steven Crimando

[March 2010 - Disaster-Resource.com] — From a psychological standpoint, public health emergencies are very different kinds of disasters. Unforeseen emotional and behavioral reactions the workforce, among clients and vendors, and in the general public can undermine even well developed continuity plans. There are two ways in which the human factors in any disaster, but especially a threat like a pandemic, can trip up planners. The first is the failure to integrate human factors into the BC plan. The second is basing plans on flawed assumptions of how people are likely to behave in certain disasters or emergencies.

Planners should be aware of three behavioral reactions to disasters and develop effective countermeasures to mitigate their impact. Consider these responses as they may shape reactions to the H1N1 flu, as well as other event types:

• Type I: Neighbor-helps-neighbor: In most disasters people are willing and able to reach out to friends, neighbors and co-workers affected by a crisis. Planners count on this, the most common behavioral response, which preserves community and organizational cohesiveness.
• Type II : Neighbor-fears-neighbor: When a contagious, invisible threat,
  like disease, chemical, biological or radiological hazards are present, fear becomes an obstacle and breaks down the social networks and sources of support we all count on in disasters. This can magnify many of the operational and human factor challenges in any crisis.
• Type III : Neighbor-competes-with neighbor: Panic is unlikely in most
  disasters. It is more common in situations in which people perceive there is a limited opportunity for escape or limited availability of critical supplies. It brings out a survival instinct, breeds competition between people and pits neighbors and coworkers against each other.

A Type II reaction is very likely in the unfolding pandemic scenario. Common sense and repeated messages from public health authorities instruct people to stay away from others if they’re sick, to cover coughs and take other  distancing precautions. While Type III reactions are not common, they should be a consideration in the H1N1 risk profile. There are also the seeds of a Type III reaction due to potential shortages of vaccine, antiviral medications, masks, sanitizer gels and other flu-related supplies. This is likely to breed competition between otherwise cooperative individuals. The UK experienced
a run on pharmacies in late July when the number of H1N1 cases there doubled in one week. People raced to stock up on masks, thermometers and
sanitizers. If the pandemic significantly disrupts the supply chain, competition
for even basic goods at the local grocery store is foreseeable.

Effective Behavioral Countermeasures
Planners can use the three general behavioral response types as a way to test
their assumptions about how people may behave at different stages or phases of the evolving H1N1 situation. It is unlikely that there will be a sudden or dramatic increase in mental health or Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services for PTSD or other psychological issues typically associated with disasters. Fear and anxiety are likely to be the dominant emotional themes and as such, planners can apply some common fear management
strategies and techniques:

• Create openness. Acknowledge employee fears openly and confidently. Let them know their fears are understood and appreciated by management. When people feel that others are not “getting it” or recognizing the emotional impact of the event, they are likely to escalate their reactions. Don’t invite an escalation; get out in front of emotional response early with a supportive posture.

• Provide links and other resources specific to the emotional challenges of the pandemic. Many of the national mental health organizations have createdhelpful downloadable brochures, FAQ sheets and Web-based materials discussing the psychological impact of H1N1 and ideas for coping. Examples of this are the American Psychological Association’s, “Managing Your Anxiety about H1N1 Flu”¹ or the American Red Cross fact sheet, “Preparing for a Swine Flu (H1N1) Pandemic: Coping and Emotional Well-Being.²

• Redirect emotional energy into actionable tasks. The noted risk communicator, Peter Sandman (www.psandman. com) is credited with the saying, “Action binds anxiety.” People are at their most anxious when threats seem uncontrollable and unpredictable. While pandemics are predictably unpredictable, there are action steps that can help ground the types of stress and anxiety that, left unchecked, can further disrupt operations. Whether at home or in the workplace, suggest tasks, assign roles and otherwise focus people on what is controllable. The national pandemic planning website, www.pandemicflu.gov provides checklists and other tools that can help people and organizations take greater control over what otherwise can seemlike an overwhelming hazard. There is both a physical and mental health benefit to taking preparedness steps. Championing readiness pays substantial dividends.

Don’t Go it Alone
There are many good sources of behavioral health information that can be valuable to general disaster planning efforts, and specifically to pandemic preparedness. These resources are often known to local health departments and Offices of Emergency Management. Nearly all states and many nations have some degree of disaster mental health response capability and these are often very accessible sources for this important information. Regardless of how the H1N1 flu unfolds, it is a safe assumption that there will be significant behavioral consequences. Ignoring the human factors in a pandemic is ill-advised. Proactively recognizing and managing these reactions can help.

To contact us for more information, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com, or call us at 212.366.8200

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Mitigating the impact of foreseeable threats is a critical element of bolstering Business Resiliency.  When a threat to an individual, the business or property is received, staff is prepared because they can instantly open TeleCrisis™ on their desktop to better manage the situation.  TeleCrisis™ supports and guides staff by helping them control and manage the situation, capture the right information and communicate by automatically notifying the right people and reporting on the incident. the right information and

TeleCrisis™ provides expert scripts to help the call-taker remain calm and focused.   Those scripts will direct them through the process of capturing vital information that supports real-time evaluation of the event, possible security or law enforcement response and later incident reporting.  As soon as the call-taker initiates the software, TeleCrisis™ instantly alerts others.  This alert helps management understand if the event is isolated or not and enables them to provide real-time assistance and coaching to the call-taker through the software’s chat and alert features.

The intuitive TeleCrisis ™ ”Command Center” dashboard allows supervisors to monitor, administer and manage threat-related activity and supports post-incident reporting, including standard government forms. TeleCrisis™ is pre-configured with 13 threat scenario response protocols, expert coaching and scripting and allows for easy customization of the protocols and development of additional protocols to address an organization’s unique risk profile.

Click here to learn more about: Threat Management Software

Contact us for more information about how we can help your organization or arrange for a demonstration, click here to go to our Contact Page, email us at info@xbrm.com or call us at 212.366.8200

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