Communications Planning Before Natural Disasters

When operations are disrupted, the communication plan has to work before everyone starts asking what is happening.

A natural disaster doesn’t have to damage your building to disrupt your business.

Employees may not be able to get to work. Public transportation may be suspended. Roads may be closed. Power or communications may be interrupted. Vendors may not be able to make deliveries. A building may be perfectly usable but temporarily inaccessible.

Then the questions start.

Are we open? Should employees come in? Can tenants access the building? Are deliveries being accepted? When will operations resume? Who is making that decision?

If those questions are being answered for the first time during the emergency, the communication plan started too late.

Decide Who Communicates Before You Need to Communicate

Most organizations have plenty of ways to communicate.

Email. Text messages. Phone calls. Websites. Social media. Emergency notification systems. Building management platforms.

The harder question is who has the authority to use them and what information should be communicated.

Someone needs to determine the operating status of the facility. Someone needs to communicate with employees. Someone may need to update clients or customers. Building management may be communicating with tenants while corporate leadership is communicating with employees.

Those messages need to agree.

A sophisticated communication system doesn’t help much if three people are distributing three different versions of what is happening.

Know Who Needs Information

Employees are only one audience.

Depending on the organization and facility, the communication plan may also need to address:

• Tenants or occupants
• Clients and customers
• Property management
• Contractors and service providers
• Critical vendors
• Security personnel
• Emergency response contacts
• Landlords or building owners

Not everyone needs the same information.

Employees may need to know whether they should report to work. A critical vendor may need to know whether the building is accessible. Clients may simply need to know whether the business is operating.

The plan should identify those audiences before an emergency occurs.

Don’t Depend on One Communication Channel

In normal operations, sending an email may be enough.

A natural disaster isn’t normal operations.

Internet service may be unavailable. Employees may not have access to corporate systems. Cellular networks may be overloaded. The person responsible for sending the message may not have power.

That doesn’t mean every organization needs an elaborate emergency communications platform.

It means the plan should answer a simple question:

If our normal communication method isn’t available, what do we use next?

The answer could include text messaging, personal contact information, a website, social media, recorded telephone messages or another established channel.

The specific technology matters less than having an alternative before it is needed.

Verify Before You Broadcast

Speed matters during an emergency, but so does accuracy.

A message saying the office will reopen at 10:00 a.m. creates a problem if building management hasn’t actually authorized reentry.

The same applies to transportation conditions, utility restoration, building access and expected operating hours.

Someone should be responsible for confirming the information before it becomes the organization’s message.

“We don’t know yet” can be better information than a confident answer that turns out to be wrong.

It also tells people when they should expect the next update.

Communication Is Part of Business Continuity

Emergency communication shouldn’t sit apart from the rest of the continuity plan.

If a facility is unavailable, employees need to know where or whether they are expected to work.

If critical building systems need attention, the appropriate contractors need to know whether they can gain access.

If operations are being restored in stages, the people affected need to understand the sequence.

And if nobody can enter the building, the organization needs to communicate what happens next.

The communication plan connects those operational decisions to the people who need to act on them.

Test the Plan Before the Weather Arrives

Before the next major storm or other foreseeable event, ask:

• Do we have current contact information?
• Who decides whether the facility opens or closes?
• Who communicates that decision?
• Who speaks with building management?
• Who contacts critical vendors?
• What happens if our normal communication system isn’t available?
• Where will employees look for authoritative information?

Those aren’t difficult questions.

They’re difficult when nobody has answered them until the emergency is already underway.

Leadership takeaway: A communication plan isn’t a contact list. It establishes who makes the decision, who communicates it, and how the organization keeps people informed when normal operations are disrupted.