From: bizjournals.com

We live at a time when The Weather Channel has become a must watch – and a channel so important that even big brands are cutting deals to have meteorologists in the field wear appropriate logo apparel. We know to tell our teams to work from home when serious weather threatens. But what about when something unforeseen sends mega shock waves to your workplace?

Speaking – unfortunately – from first-hand experience, I know that every business needs a plan in place for what they would do if their building burnt down.

Thinking it will never happen to you is a fantasy. It will. It is only a question of when. And while this didn’t keep me up at night before… it does now.

I did not have a plan for that moment when my IT leader called at 4:15 in the morning telling me there were fire trucks around the building where close to 80 people would l be showing up to work. I also didn’t have a plan for no email. Which meant no way to reach those 80 people. And no way to let clients know that we were unreachable and not ignoring their calls, texts and emails.

And when this is one day, not a big deal. But two days, it starts to become a problem. And by day three, panic! Here are some tips:

1. Have a cell phone chain in place to reach all employees in an emergency.

2. Have a way to get your servers up and running as soon as possible. Cloud anyone?

3. Have an offsite location ready in your back pocket if you need physical working spaces.

4. Have ‘work from home’ policies in place if this works for your situation.

5. Have your insurance agent’s information on hand and SAVE ALL RECEIPTS.

6. And then patience… you’ll need a lot of that.

Clients are most understanding in a time of crisis and it actually brought our team closer together. But next time (which hopefully won’t happen), we will be prepared.