Human Resource Role in Crisis Management

Ram K Navaratna
Chief Executive HR Resonance

HR a Key Role in Employee Protection and Business Sustainability.

Crises can occur at any time and HR has to take the lead in protecting the health welfare and safety of affected employees as well of organisation.
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Natural  disasters  such  as  extreme  rains  and  floods,  corporate  frauds,  workplace  accidents including fatal and non fatal, fire accidents and health concerns    are some threats that could affect  your  organization  and  employees  and  in  turn  cause  disastrous  impact  on  your operations/business.

The challenge of identifying, preventing, and importantly managing crisis events has become a critical concern for many organizations.

Don't  wait  for  something  terrible  to  happen  to  learn  just  how  unprepared  you  and  your employees are. There is always a human side to a crisis as people might get hurt physically and/or psychologically. Unfortunately, one of the critical errors in crisis management planning is the strong tendency to focus attention and efforts on systems, operations, infrastructure and public relations, legal formalities with people coming in last on the list of concerns and hence often ending up neglected.

This is a problem as organizations need to pay greater attention to the impact of critical events on employees, their families and the community as a whole for one simple reason: business recovery cannot occur without motivated and trained well equipped employees.

For organizations with inadequate HR crisis plan in place, the effects of any crisis on your workforce could be catastrophic and might include:

• Loss of key staff and knowledge
• Absenteeism & high turnover
• Underperforming staff with lowered morale and lack of motivation
• Rocketing health benefits costs
• HR-related legal concerns and costly litigations
• Negative  publicity  for  the  organization  and  badly damaged reputation
• Immediate emergency guidance, aid and assurance of safety
• Clear information, leadership and reassurance
• Understanding and ongoing psychological support during and after the crisis
• Post-crisis support for rapid return to normalcy
• Managing the media and its impact​

For More Details

Looking at the Human Side of Crisis Management Is Good For Business :

Today's business environment requires a robust, enterprise-wide plan to deal with crises. Company reputation and brand, as well as the trust and loyalty of stakeholders, are all critical factors at stake during a crisis.

Crisis management is a major issue that HR leaders should take charge proactively of because they are the primary caretaker of employee welfare and motivation. HR is in the best position to ensure that an organization’s human capital can be preserved and can continue to create value under any circumstance.

HR can play this strategic role in organizational sustainability through advance preparation which includes safety and security initiatives to help prepare and reassure employees, leadership development, talent management and solid  communication plans to support effective crisis management. It is utmost important to know how to handle situation and crisis on its occurrence.
Defining HR's Role in Crisis Management:

HR leaders have a strategic role and responsibility to ensure their organizations are aware of internal vulnerabilities on the human side to different types of crises and to ensure their crisis management plan covers all potential risks and concerns.

To be included as a strategic partner in crisis management, with other functions such as risk management and business continuity management, HR professionals have to understand and speak the "lingo" of crisis management.

HR has the opportunity to ascertain that the human capital is taken care of in all crisis management and business continuity plans. HR could offer real value  protection or enhancement through deliverables such as crisis communication  plans, crisis resource planning, safety and security training, talent management , succession planning and new project execution by bringing normalcy on crisis occurrence.

In partnership with other organizational leaders, HR can develop an infrastructure for crisis management by motivating the company's human capital to support what need to be done. The support and commitment that an organization will need from its employees during and after a crisis can only be facilitated by HR professionals who understand the business and employees’ concerns.

Hence, HR professionals can influence the organizational culture and capabilities to provide effective leadership before, during and after a crisis.

Preparing Human Capital for Crisis:
Effective crisis response requires an understanding of what people need from management, and how to provide it. Following a disaster, beyond the obvious basic survival, employees and their family members need:

In developing a crisis management plan to provide for these needs, HR directly creates value for the bottom line by minimizing potential damages and downtime.

Some recommended strategic and practical steps regarding  crisis  management  planning: Action  Purpose  Set  up  in  advance  a  Humanitarian  Response  Team  To  ensure  adequate attention to human needs in the wake of a disaster Establish a diagnostic of the human side vulnerability of  organization to crisis To identify and prepare specifically for crisis scenarios affecting  employees  Develop  HR  policies  and  procedures  specifically  related  to  crisis management To avoid panic ad hoc actions and to ensure effective delivery of crisis –related human services Provide training to address specifically, and only, the human side of what happens during a crisis To provide employees with an opportunity to understand and learn to cope with the effect of stress and traumatic events Conduct crisis simulation exercises such as on  site  and  off  site  mock  drills,  preparation  for  equipping  such  situations  and  cr eating confidence in handling.. To train and program employees to know what to do during a crisis Establish an online resource with information about crisis management, employee benefits and other employee-related policies and programs linked to crisis. To provide employees with 24-hour easily accessible information and communication means

Additionally, a number of other activities may be necessary such as to protect and backup HR records,   to   identify   and   reserve   emergency   office   space   and   to   provide   suffic ient manpower/plan for business recovery.
Where Do You Start?
 
To be most effective, HR leaders should work collaboratively with other key organizational functions involved in crisis management such as risk management and business continuity management, build the case and obtain top management commitment to support the development of enterprise-wide crisis readiness plans that fully integrate the human side of crisis.

Having understood this, so far from 2015 I conducted day session for three  years.  “On Management of crisis and accidents” wherein awareness about crisis - accident - factory, construction site, road and also fire was dealt with varied focus including  legal,  social compliance in the matter. The faculty for sessions were department of factory, police, fire emergency services and HR resource professionals deliberated the matter. Programs received very well and each and every participants’ felt as value added program

Covid 19 is one of the world wide crisis faced by all including all industries across.  In this atmosphere Pre and post lockdown situations all leaders including HR played pivotal role in prevention, predictive, preparation, planning stages. While following innumerable guidelines of government, physical and emotional care blending with economic support to workforce managed on war footing basis. Now innumerable ways, measures are evolving in completely coming out of the peculiar crisis situation.   In the process many lessons learnt and become stable in management of such crisis.

Reference:  Disaster Management readings experience and exposure in the line
 
Ram K Navaratna is HR professional with more than three decades industry experience in senior management position.  Author of Eleven books in HR and Labour laws. Translated the labour laws into Kannada.   Now for more than decade having HR and Training consultancy service under brand HR Resonance in  Bangalore.     He can  be  reached at [email protected].
www: hrresonance.com YouTube: hrresonance channel.
 
Ram K Navaratna 
Chief Executive HR Resonance.
​At [email protected] visit
www:hrresonance.com. YouTube: hrresonance channel