NORWICH – With the one year anniversary of the tragedy at the American Civic Association in Binghamton only days away, it is no wonder the issues of workplace violence and crisis management are on the minds of local business leaders.
“I think it’s a very timely topic,” Commerce Chenango President Maureen Carpenter said Wednesday, as she welcomed members of the local business community to a Good Morning, Chenango! breakfast hosted by her organization focused on these issues.
The event, held at Park Place Restaurant in Norwich, was sponsored by GHS Federal Credit Union and featured a presentation by Rebecca Snow, director of community services for the Southern Tier Chapter of the American Red Cross.
Snow said her presentation, titled “Preparing for the Unexpected,” was designed to encourage business leaders to start taking steps toward emergency preparedness.
“This is a fairly new curriculum for us,” she said, although not necessarily a new role for the organization. There are many parallels, she explained, between crisis management and the disaster preparedness efforts for which the Red Cross is well known.
Why is it important to plan for the hypothetical?
“Anything can happen. That’s what an emergency is, an unpredictable event,” Snow said.
According to Snow, there are four basic steps in the planning process: Establishing a planning team, performing an assessment of existing policies and procedures, developing the plan itself and, finally, implementing the plan.
“There is no one-size fits all,” she reported, because every organization is different. But in all cases, she said, having management support and staff training are essential.
Snow also stressed the importance of both prioritizing and establishing a timeline for the process.
“If you do one thing this month, and one thing next month, that’s that much closer to preparedness than you are today.”
According to Snow, several items are key to any preparedness plan. The first, she explained, is that it should identify step-by-step instructions and be in writing. In addition, everyone in the organization should be familiar with the plan. A clear chain of command should be identified, as should a communication/notification process. Instructions regarding evacuation and a designated “safe location” should also be included, as well as a list of supplies, she said.
“It really is a process that needs to be well thought out,” Snow explained, adding that the process is often a lengthy one.
The Red Cross executive also discussed the issue of workplace violence, a topic which has hit home in neighboring Broome County both with the ACA shooting and the murder of a Binghamton University professor in December.
