Part II
Dealing with Disasters

The information in this section forms the guts of how to respond when you are faced with a disaster, small or large: what to do when a disaster is unfolding, as you move through the aftermath, and as you work through the longer-term recovery period. These chapters cover the following topics:

• How to help employees at all levels deal with their emotional reactions to a sudden shift in the business equilibrium: fear, anger, shock, depression, guilt, sadness, or one or more other feelings. You’ll find a recounting of what one company did when an employee murdered seven of his fellow employees and how the company worked quickly to address the resulting trauma and to involve the affected employees in designing their healing process.
• How to train HR staff, managers, risk managers, and communications staff to prepare them to help their affected colleagues, and to protect the business as well.
• How to balance the needs of employees in the aftermath of a disaster with those of the business, including tips and tools for speeding up the business recovery.
• How to get yourself back to functioning effectively in the aftermath so that you can deal with employees and their needs.
• 68Gaining an understanding of the emotional wear and tear on employees at all levels, and helping employees heal in a timely manner through the use of outside behavioral health professionals.
• Some ideas on problem solving that will enable you to begin the planning process now.