Imagine a strong earthquake strikes and you are inside your office working. Your reaction is to protect yourself. You find yourself calm enough and cover your head and torso to avoid being injured by falling objects. You wait until the shaking stops before going to the exit door. This fictitious scenario is ideal, of course. Experts observe that in a real, extreme earthquake, people (such as those trapped in buildings) react differently. While some individuals would respond well during an emergency situation, others would panic. Reactions to an incident depend on several factors, such as emotional health and level of emergency preparedness.
Resilience pertains to the ability to adapt to unexpected changes and recover quickly from any negative event. At the individual level, human resilience points to the person’s capacity to deal with life adversities and triumph over those challenges. Dr. Paul Stolz, a noted thought leader and business consultant, calls it “Adversity Quotient.” It involves managing one’s thoughts and feelings to improve reactions to negative situations and bounce back quickly with less stress. A resilient employee can respond quickly and properly when faced with a critical situation such as an accident or a natural disaster.
At the organizational level, resilience is improved when managers fully comply with the law strengthening compliance with occupational safety and health standards (Republic Act 11058). This government policy protects workers against all hazards in the workplace. Through this safety law, organizations develop capacities for improving resilience through better preparedness or prevention measures for workers’ safety. These initiatives cover many areas, such as safety rules, emergency preparedness and response plans, and safety and health training.
Human safety is paramount since workers are viewed as the most important resource in an organization. However, managers are also responsible for ensuring stability of the organization during an incident or emergency. This can be addressed through the implementation of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for the organization. It is a systematic plan that helps ensure that business operations can resume quickly right after an incident or a crisis. It helps maintain financial viability and prevents further losses due to disruptions in processes and systems resulting from the incident.
Having a BCP is a best practice for today’s business organizations. It contains tools, techniques and detailed courses of action to be taken before, during and after an incident or emergency. A BCP typically includes emergency response and management, as well as business recovery for information technology systems, communications systems, utilities, personnel and other vital supply resources. The BCP is important not only for critical service organizations (banks, utilities, medical institutions) but also for other businesses, whether small, medium and large. It can be tailored to fit the varying needs and requirements of all types of organizations.
In adopting resiliency measures, a common concern for decision-making is priority. For instance, which specific incident related to information technology management systems should be resolved first? Which type of business disruption is more urgent or has more impact? A BCP helps provide a classification of incidents and assessment of various risks, which would indicate their priority for the business owner.
Opportunities for resiliency measures are many. For instance, there are cases where business continuity and human safety measures of some local companies have expanded to their outlying areas. Experts contend that this is because when disasters (such as earthquakes, fire, massive flooding) occur, the impact may be extensive and may cover surrounding communities. Thus, some large companies have now radiated their disaster preparedness and recovery strategies to their surrounding barangays. This approach to resilience has been created through partnerships between the large company and the surrounding village leaders. Together, they pursue a common goal to create more resilient and humane communities for inclusive growth that will improve the lives of more people, especially in marginal areas. After all, when natural disaster strikes, it affects a large populace whose constituents must help each other.
Resilience measures are also continuing to grow as part of employee training. Interestingly, in one service company, this specific question is posed to its employees during emergency training: “Suppose a major emergency occurs at your office and you are right there, what items should you quickly pick up and bring when you go out for safety?” Employees in that service company are required to pick up and bring only two items when exiting—their personal safety kits and their individual laptops.
Hopefully, more organizations will join the social movement to improve resilience through innovation and creativity in business continuity plans and human safety initiatives
Dr. Rachel Alvendia-Quero is an associate professorial lecturer at the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University, Manila. She teaches Human Resource Management with Organizational Behavior as well as Business Organization and Management. She has done research studies on the private sector’s role in disaster risk reduction and management. Comments are welcome at rachel.quero@dlsu.edu.ph. The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
