Businesses in Cascadia - CREW

THE ROLE PLAYED BY A BUSINESS’ CULTUREThe type of business, its organizational structure, and its internal culture all have a bearing on thelevel of preparedness. For example, some organizations, such as universities, are decentralized tosuch a degree that the level of preparedness varies from department to department. Banks, incontrast, are more hierarchical, and they tend to be ahead of other businesses in disaster responseand continuity planning in part because they must comply with federal mandates. Even withinbanks, however, the culture of the business has an effect on what will ultimately be done toprepare for an earthquake.A prominent concern in the roundtable discussions was how to create a culture of preparedness.If such a culture does not exist, even businesses that have response and continuity plans may failto keep them up to date, may never exercise them, and may not otherwise train employees indisaster response. In order to achieve results within businesses, participants agreed that themessages must reach the key administrators. Unless these people are persuaded of the need totake action, the business’ level of preparedness is unlikely to improve.PERSONAL PREPAREDNESSBusinesses that are more forward-thinking recognize that the level of personal preparationamong employees directly affects the business’ ability to recover from an earthquake andcontinue operations. To encourage robust preparations among employees, some employersprovide disaster supply kits at work, provide training to teach people how to prepare at home,and arrange for discounts to encourage employees to purchase disaster supplies for themselvesand their families. Employers may also provide easy access to disaster preparedness informationon their websites. In Washington, Puget Sound Energy has adopted a policy whereby thecompany’s initial focus following an earthquake will be to help its own employees and theirfamilies meet their basic needs. The objective is to make it possible for employees to return towork quickly and focus effectively on their jobs.The amount of effort that business administrators are willing to put into this aspect ofpreparedness is dependent on the culture of the business and its corresponding priorities.Likewise, the employees themselves may be more or less engaged in developing and maintainingtheir own disaster plans and supplies.MESSAGING AND THE MULTI-HAZARD APPROACHBecause of the need to persuade both the chief administrators of businesses and the employeesthat they should treat earthquake preparedness as a priority, a number of participants stressed theneed for a well-funded, carefully targeted professional messaging campaign. It was also notedthat adopting a multi-hazard approach, rather than focusing exclusively on the earthquakehazard, may be more persuasive and may make it easier to take advantage of existing policiesand laws, such as those that address fire safety. If people can see that by preparing forearthquakes they will be prepared for other more familiar disasters, including fires, flooding, andstorm-related power outages, they will be more likely to invest their time and resources.8 | CREW Business Roundtables