Food will be the next thing with which you can be helpful. You can provide groceries for the in-town family and gift cards to local restaurants and fast food locations to those from out of town. Think of what the in-town families will need for the next two weeks, stock their pantries and don’t forget beverages. The stress that they will be under can promote dehydration so make sure plenty of bottled water is included. Also provide an occasional catered meal that would accommodate the in-town and out-of-town family members. Be a gracious host. Similarly, provide the catering for any memorial or funeral services.

The family’s emotional well-being should also be a priority. If the city or county does not provide victim counseling, then make counseling, via your employee assistance program provider, available to them and pick up the cost. They are going through a tremendous amount of stress, grief, and general emotional turmoil, so having the family meet with counselors through your program will be a huge benefit for them.

Money will be a large issue for them as well. You have picked up the tabs for meals, lodging, and counseling, but your employees may wish to help as well. Place donation jars at a few appropriate places around your facility and encourage your associates to donate the cost of a premium cup of coffee or the change from their lunch purchase.

If the victim has children, consider setting up a trust fund for them with a local bank; make a sizeable donation and publicize how the community can add to the fund. You might also consider other needs for the children, such as back-to-school clothing, school supplies, or holiday gifts if the incident took place prior to these events.

Have you ever called a health care insurance agency regarding a claim and the only result was personal frustration? If you haven’t, you’re in the minority. Prevent this additional frustration for the immediate family by providing a single point of contact within your benefits group. The family can then call that point of contact with any questions or general help in getting medical or death benefits related to the victim. This should be assigned during your planning stages so that the benefits department can be well prepared. The family should also be provided with a single point of contact within the human resource group in order to give any other assistance they need.

Your management and human resource staff should stay close to the employees to determine if they are having psychological problems or do not feel safe working at your facility. In order to deal with their fears, this may also be the time to execute your enhanced security plan.

There are many reasons to keep the news media away from your employees. In the “Public Communication” section, we will cover the emotional effect the media may have on your employees. Many associates will feel uncomfortable with the throng of media trucks and reporters that will be descending on your premises after the event. Some will not want to rehash the events that have just occurred with a throng of reporters. Others will be in emotional trauma and it will be detrimental to their mental health to be approached by the members of the news media. Therefore you will want to let the media know that no one at the location will be talking to them. In most cities, counties, and states, you can keep the media off of your property if you can show law enforcement where the legal boundary lines are located. Again, the time to determine the boundary lines is during your planning stages, not once an event has occurred.

Immediately after the event, inquiries from the media should be referred to the public information officer from the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the crime scene.

Any public statement that your organization is planning to release should be vetted with the investigating agency’s public information officer. This is done to insure that any statements supplied to the media do not relate information that the police department does not want made public.

Getting back to business is important for both the healing of the community and your employees. The people in the surrounding area will be devastated that such a heinous deed has scarred their community. Seeing your business reopen will help their sense of feeling good about their neighborhood and the businesses in the community. Additionally your employees will very quickly want to get back to work so they can commiserate with their coworkers and return to a sense of normalcy. Everyone should have had several visits with your employee assistance counselors who have helped them overcome their grief and anxiety, readying them for a return to work. There will be those that are reluctant to return and you will probably find that many of them did not follow up with their counseling sessions. This is another reason why it is important to encourage everyone to take advantage of the counseling you are offering. The counselors should also be on hand during the first few days back in business to assist any of the employees who might be feeling any anxiety over returning to work.

But are you prepared to carry on if your business is closed as a police crime scene for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, or a month or longer? The larger or more complex the crime scene, the longer it is going to take for the police to process the evidence and turn the facility back over to you. Your interruption may be even longer if you determine that remodeling the facility would be in the best interest of your returning staff.

Every organization should have a business recovery plan in the event that a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake takes the facility off-line for an extended period of time. After a shooting is another time to execute your business recovery plan. If you have not yet developed one, answering the following questions is a great way to get one started:

If you do not make a statement to the news media, it may get turned into an issue; for example, the story could read, “The company is keeping mum about what happened. They have not returned our numerous calls.” Suddenly the fact that you haven’t made a statement becomes the story, which may be perceived as if your company has something to hide.

You also want to avoid creating an adversarial relationship with the news media. Respond to their calls, treat them with courtesy and respect, and be open and honest about which topics you can discuss.