FEATURE
disruptions include the direct physical injuries and death produced by the extreme incident but more likely will be the widespread secondary consequences of utility outages, evacuations, transportation disruptions or, as we now appreciate, public health measures. With an organization’s human resources often being the most diverse and dispersed asset, it is crucial that their complete vulnerability is assessed. KNOWING YOUR RESOURCES
This is one important point of interaction between HR professionals and their colleagues in emergency and continuity management. Understanding the organization’s workforce goes beyond knowing how ‘normal’ positions and duties may need to shift as part of an emergency response. It is necessary to understand how everyone’s skills may be put to the best use. Perhaps someone in accounting is also a volunteer firefighter: how will those skills be useful to the organization and how will those external responsibilities affect that employee? These are the questions that HR professionals can help answer as part of emergency and continuity planning. There are other external factors that can influence how quickly and for how long the organization’s human resources can be available to work. Issues such as residential location, mode of transportation and, family and community responsibilities can influence which employees are able to report for work following a large-scale impact. Do your senior executives and custodial staff all live nearby or do their residences tend to be geographically grouped along other social and economic lines? Such locational differences may determine what segments of the workforce face damage at home or altered commuting times. Discovering such patterns can help emergency and continuity planners anticipate delays and arrange alternatives. ADVOCATE FOR HOME PREPAREDNESS
This connects to another role HR professionals can perform advocating for home preparedness. In the Spring 2020
edition of HRmatters, Scott Park covered important points about working from home. The connection between the workplace and an employee’s home is growing tighter. It is prudent for organizations to actively promote and support home preparedness so employees are less vulnerable in a disaster and can return to work, either on-site or remotely, as soon as possible. The added benefit of encouraging home preparedness is it reduces the demand on the emergency services and other critical response agencies so that those resources can be more effectively deployed. EMERGENCY AND CONTINUITY PROFESSIONALS
One final contribution HR professionals can make to their organization is ensuring the necessary skills and knowledge are available to implement a comprehensive emergency and continuity program. The Canadian Standards Association’s CSA Z 1600-17 — Emergency and Continuity Management Program highlights the importance of having appropriately trained and educated professionals managing an organization’s disaster planning activities. While this expertise may take different forms depending on the size and risk profile of the organization, from occasional consultancies to a full-time emergency and continuity team, HR has a pivotal role in selecting and supporting these efforts. The current pandemic has all of us wondering what the ‘new normal’ will look like for our organizations and our communities. Citizens across the country, from places like Fort McMurray AB, Lac Me ́gantic QC, or Elie MB, have also wondered what would come next for their damaged homes, businesses and communities. Successful emergency and continuity management, whether at home, in the private sector or as a government function, relies on people. HR professionals have an enormous opportunity and even an obligation to make sure those people are safe, trained and ready to meet the challenges of the next disaster.
CPHR MANITOBA CONGRATULATES OUR NEWEST CPHRS! Lisa Baldwin
Lisa Park
Janice Demers
Carrie Perumal
Louise Gauthier
Michael Smith
Jessica Janzen
Mirna Torres
Cheryl Krestanowich
Bliss Yang
Evan Martin
Stephanie Zamora
CPHR MANITOBA CONGRATULATES OUR NEW CPHR CANDIDATES! Inioluwa Akintola
Rachael Olaniran
Harriette Asaam
Oluwatosin (Hannah) Olaonipekun
Emma Booth Ryan Cochrane Andrea Cruise Victoria de Haan Traa Renata Dennis Krista Derksen Serena Doak Teara Duch Kristie Dupuis Omoruyi Edegbe Stephanie Espinoza Branda Fernandes Alia Furtado Roselyn Garcia Lana Gibbons Stacy Gill Hemanta Vincent Gomes Crystal Gustafson Jenna Haverstock Holly Jarvis Arina Johnson Robyn Johnston Marycel Juan Charanpreet Kaur Raakel Ladyka Haley Lewis Sabrina Libatter Rubin Bryony Lloyd Jenny Lumagbas Tracy MacPhee Jayne Magbanua Jaspreet Malhi Benjamin McDonald Claudette Anita J McDowell Rosario Mejicanos
ABOUT THE AUTHORS: John ‘Jack’ Lindsay is an associate professor and chair of the Applied Disaster and Emergency Studies depar tment at Brandon University in Brandon MB. He can be reached at lindsayj@brandonu.ca.
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HRmatters / www.cphrmb.ca
Jayelle Morris Andrea Morrison Barbara Nordal
Gbemisola Oniyire Sandra Pachol Blaire Pearce Brent Peters Annika Pineau Melissa Power Ken Rooney Violet Rotimi Ojegbile Samar Seoudi Chetna Sethi Yaza Shapata Aditi Sharma Sarah Shrutwa Rena Solomon Brenda Tessler Jessica Tran Samantha Tumlos Meghan Van Den Bussche Diana Vieira Kimberly Wallace Madison Whitla Steven Wong
