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Telework,
risk mitigation & emergency preparedness
Anyone
involved with telework knows it
can
help
mitigate business disruption during strikes, bad weather
(snow, ice etc.), and other emergencies. Many
organizations and jurisdictions are incorporating telework in
their emergency preparedness strategies. Here are just a
few articles that shed some light on how telework can help us
prepare for emergencies and mitigate business disruption: |
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May 2010
US
government "snow days" will be replaced with work at home days
predicts Jon Desenberg, policy director for the US Human Capital
Management Division |
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March 2010
Telework cuts federal government's losses during DC area
snowstorms |
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Feb 2010
Massive blizzard closes US Federal Government for a second
straight day. Teleworkers and emergency staff continue working,
but regular staff excused from work. |
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56%
of US federal agencies have fully integrated telework into their
continuity of operations planning |
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Department of Homeland
Security uses week-long COOP, telework exercise to prepare for
pandemic |
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Costa Rica's president catches swine flu, but is able to keep
working with telework |
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OPM Encourages Teleworking After Metro Crash |
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Singapore government, employers and labour movement employ
telework as one of the measures to deal with swine flu |
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Telework deters "presenteeism," allowing workers to work from
home during times of flu - make it an option employees who
are improving, but are perhaps not ready to return to work full
time |
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Telecommuting will be a key mechanism to keeping our businesses
and government operational during a pandemic flu |
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California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declares state of
emergency as gas tanker crashes, bursts into flames near San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Resulting traffic nightmare
will last for weeks -- commuters urged to telework |
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Bird Flu 'Could Kill Millions, Cripple US Economy'.
Telecommuting one of the ways to reduce spread |
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Flood
floats telework to top priority at IRS - the more than 20 feet
of water that flooded the HQ's basement last July has helped
float telecommuting to a top agency concern |
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New OSHA guide on Preparing Workplaces for a Pandemic Flu
recommends telecommuting to reduce the number of your employees
who must be at work at one time or in one specific location |
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New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan calls for
extreme measures to reduce the spread of the virus, including
urging workers to stay home or telecommute |
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US office of personnel management to use telework in event of
pandemic |
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Telecommuting, now more commonly called telework, has always
been critical to the Continuity of Operations workforce mobility
strategies during emergencies |
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US Congressional Budget Office says the cornerstone of
continuity-of-operations (COOP) capability is a technically
robust and cost-effective telework system that delivers
instantaneous, highly secure access to all remote users —
wherever and whenever they need it to do their jobs |
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Few IT Pros Prepared for a Pandemic: 69% of senior IT and
business professionals believe in likelihood of a disaster or
crisis will interrupt their business workflow over the next 2
years, however 60% have not increased their budgets in
preparation (Sept 2006 study by Forsythe Technology) |
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Flood
closes IRS Headquarters for 6 months. Employees telecommute or
are assigned to other space |
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Telecommunications Industry Association tells Congress that
broadband connections are critical for effective COOP
preparedness and post-disaster teleworking |
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The US Office of Personnel Management is crafting a legislative
proposal that would allow agency heads to require work from home
or other alterative sites during a pandemic health crisis |
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In pandemic, homes could become 'safe havens' for work |
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US-based
“The Conference Board” publishes the results of a comprehensive
survey into ‘flu pandemic planning. Results show that 93% of
organizations are concerned about telecommuting capabilities |
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Water damage closes IRS headquarters building - some 2,400
affected employees to work in other IRS bldgs or will telework |
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Pandemic: World Health Organization projects 57% mortality rate
of those infected. Telecommuting urged where possible |
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US
Government policy-makers push telework to the center of business
continuity planning |
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Business Planning For A Bird Flu Epidemic |
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US - If a flu pandemic forced 40% of workers to stay home,
telecommuting could help keep governments and businesses running
-- but hardly any are set up to do this, experts told Congress
Thursday |
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Ten Remote-Access Failures to Avoid in an Emergency |
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AUSTRALIAN companies can not rely on teleworking to keep them
operating in the event of a disaster, an expert warns |
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IT
critical in pandemic response says Gartner, but many are not
paying attention |
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Is Your Company Prepared If All Employees Must Work from Home? |
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Majority of business officials believe that an influenza
pandemic would significantly affect their business, but only 18%
have completed a preparedness plan. The poll also suggested the
importance of telecommuting: an 85% majority agreed strongly or
somewhat that employees would be reluctant to come to work in a
pandemic |
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Telecommuting can be antidote when flu strikes a small business |
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IT aids New Yorkers during transit strike |
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Association
of Contingency Planners (ACP) joins with the Telework Coalition
to promote telework as a business continuity response to
pandemic influenza |
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How avian flu could threaten IT security - Telework [working
remotely] is certainly an option they should be discussing |
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In wake
of London bombings, US Office of Personnel Management and
federal executive boards conduct hiring and emergency
preparedness symposiums in 24 cities. Teleworking included among
strategies to allow business to continue |
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Recommendations for disaster contingency include enabling and
preparing for remote accessm working at home, and remote
management |
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ITAC research: Can your organization survive a disaster?
Exploring Telework as a Business Continuity Strategy -- A Guide
to Getting Started. See full paper here (pdf) |
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US House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va. says
"Telework is not just common-sense efficiency but an important
national security consideration as well" |
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US
government. Telework slow to take hold in emergency planning,
GAO says |
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For
a healthy dose of productivity, many employees are forgoing
their search for the hard-to-find flu vaccine. Instead,
employers are encouraging their staff to leave their fuzzy
slippers on and their immune systems intact by teleworking from
home |
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Don't let a flu epidemic paralyze your productivity. Companies
urged to overcome 'presenteeism' and use the flu season as an
opportune time to promote telecommuting, for example, by setting
up a SWAT team of people, with representatives of each
department, who can work from home when the flu strikes |
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With a serious flu season looming, the idea of the ‘hero worker’
that manages to punch in for a full-day’s work, despite illness,
needs to be discouraged. SHRM says companies may wish to
encourage telecommuting if they have employees who feel they
cannot stay away from the office when they are sick. Rather than
have them come in and use their computers to get work done and
infect everyone else around them, they can continue to be
productive without making others sick |
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Telework a very strong component in OPM's new guidelines for
emergencies |
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US
agencies urged to develop teleworker corps for emergency
situations. The US Office of Personnel Management releases
updated emergency guides emphasizing the need for agencies to
have plans for employees to work from home during emergencies |
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Boston plans transportation lockdown during Democratic
National Convention. Major roads and
commuter trains will close from July 26-29. Telecommuting among
measures to cope |
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US
Office of Personnel Management emphasizes the importance of
having a network of telecommuters in place in the event of an
emergency |
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Snow storm creates record levels of
telecommuters in Oregon.
While some 150,000 and 200,000 Oregon employees already
telework regularly, many others (eg
8,000 at Intel and 6,000 at Nike) to
telecommute |
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Case study: Telework helps American
Express after 9/11.
In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks
of Sept 11, the company's telecommuting practices also helped
ensure that the business could continue functioning.
The high-rise building that houses American Express'
World Financial Center was close to the World Trade Center, and
in the weeks after the attacks, it was out of reach due to the
rescue work at Ground Zero. Throughout this period, the whole of
building's staff was effectively working from home |
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Separate but equal? OPM struggles to create parity between
teleworkers and in-office workers. US
Office of Personnel Management appears to flip flop on treatment
of teleworkers during snow and other emergencies. Just some of
the issues involve pay, discrimination, clear policy statements,
ensuing continuity without disincentive. See
article here |
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Crisis
management, continuity plans must consider human element,
including options such as telework |
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Cool
article by Brendan Read: There's No Place Like Home. Dorothy,
in The Wizard of Oz, had it right -- There's no place like
home: especially when disaster strikes |
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Despite
being right in the path of Hurricane Isabel, AgilQuest VP
telework allows Matthew D. Fahy to work right through the
storm |
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One
lesson from the blackout of 2003, argues John Girard, a vice
president at Gartner research, is that companies should let
more of their employees telecommute |
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Worldwide
survey of HR executives [from the Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development and Cendant Mobility and the
National Foreign Trade Council] reveals new focus frequently
considered alternatives to relocation and international
assignments include more local hiring (30%) and telecommuting
(28%) |
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Travel fears feed online 'commuting' growth: As fears of
terrorism, the mysterious respiratory disease known as SARS and
consequences of the Iraq war have mounted over the past several
weeks, many businesses are reducing travel and more employees
are learning to telecommute |
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India:
Tech helps business cope with flu. With the aid of tools like
video conferencing, the Internet, email and of course the
telephone work continues while helping people avoid
face-to-face interaction |
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SARS supports need for mobile workforce: The rapid outbreak of a
deadly flu-like virus has underlined how ill-equipped
Asia-Pacific companies are in supporting a remote workplace,
according to market researcher Gartner |
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Canadian
Federal Government issues SARS guidelines to departments.
Granting of telework is among the options for employees
concerned about their health |
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SARS
Outbreak Highlights the Need for Telework. Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has led Hong Kong authorities to
impose controls that may keep employees from traveling to
work. The crisis shows why enterprises should enable
telecommuting as part of business continuity planning |
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IT
during war takes a whole new skills set, including emergency
management policies and ensuring that remote access systems
for telecommuting workers are ready, easily scalable and up to
the task of providing uninterrupted access for a protracted
period |
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The
Storm of 2003: Colorado businesses continue working from home
despite most people being confined to their homes by raging
snowstorms. Telecommuting keeps homebound connected |
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Bad
weather is a good opportunity to test your telecommuting
capabilities |
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Telecommuting
proves helpful during US Capitol Hill anthrax disruption |
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Metro
and Telework Can Mean Business As Usual During IMF/World Bank
Protests, Says Board of Trade |
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Fire,
floods, and other traumas or catastrophic events can easily
render a workplace uninhabitable. A distributed array of
smaller regional work sites, including a widely-distributed
pool of teleworkers, solves the problem, can speed recovery
after such disasters |
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Canadian
Security Establishment paper provides security and risk
management guidance to Federal departments implementing
telework |
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The
National Mental Health Association suggests telecommuting to
D-C-area employers to help a spooked workforce cope with the
impact of the region's sniper shootings |
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Wash.
DC. With the sniper loose, and workers terrorized, US Office
of Personnel Management asked to encourage telecommuting for
federal employees |
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American
Press business writer telecommutes during Hurricane Lili |
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The
man who cheated death - twice. Employers of couple involved in
earthquake and in 9-11 disaster allow them to keep their jobs
by telecommuting from upstate NY |
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Telework
helps workers be productive while battling winter workplace
disruptions; tips for winterizing your work life |
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Scattering
employees may keep them safe, but networks aren't up to the
task. Companies must make technology reliability a top
priority and demand the same of their suppliers. Let's not
fool ourselves: None of this can be fixed overnight. But I
can't think of a better time to start |
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US
Government deals with role of telework in the disaster
recovery needs of Federal Employees |
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Following
terrorist attacks, HR and facilities experts must embrace
alternative officing and telework strategies |
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Gartner
Group's Disaster Management Plan for Remote Access:
Telecommuting and mobile access can help enterprises cope with
emergencies. When disaster strikes, key company locations may
go offline or be physically inaccessible. Remote work
capability will keep businesses running |
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Jack
Nilles talks about telework and terrorism: "...what if
all those information workers in the World Trade Center were
teleworkers?" |
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Disaster
will see many workers become even more adamant in their
preference for telecommuting..."The whole allure of 'I'm
a person on a train going downtown to work in a tall
building,' doesn't look so smart now" |
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Telecommuting
an effective way to keep workers working during strikes |
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Business
continues after Seattle quake though some of it from home |
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Some
Microsoft employees asked to work from home until 'quake
damage assessed |
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Rescue
efforts: Telecommuting lets businesses remain open after
disasters such as El Nino, World Trade bombing, LA earthquake,
Oklahoma City bombing, Red River floods |
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Deloitte
and Touche: Limiting risks associated with telework |
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Developing
a wireless security plan for teleworkers |
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PRESTO!
INSTANT TELEWORK PLAN! How to quickly establish re-plan for
emergencies with an express telework program |
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Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce supports telecommuting as part of strike
contingency plans |
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Hawaii:
City of Oahu to urge telecommuting and flex hours to ease
traffic during bus strike |
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Washington
telecommuters work despite shutdowns due to protests against
World Bank and IMF |
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Telecommuting:
Solution of choice for millions who face holiday time
shortages, winter storms and sick children at home |
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A
Y2K Christmas Carol (Anon from the Internet and modified
for telework by The Telework Guys™ ©1999) |
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The
US Federal Emergency Management
Agency, which oversees disaster management and mitigation,
supports the use of telework |
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Managing
during an emergency Work options work in a jam |
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Rick
Tobin talks about telework for emergency planning in
Telecommuting and Y2K |
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The
Accidental Telecommuter: How office-bound workers should
be prepared for circumstances that call for telecommuting |
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The
New Buzz: Telecommuting: Emergency preparedness and recovery
guide from Southern California Telecommuting Partnership
(1-800-6463649) |
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Telecommuting
Contingency Plans |
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Bob Fortier articles |
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Telework and businesses recovery
following Sept 11 and other
disasters ... By The Telework Guys™ |
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Telework
allowed many to continue working during the Great Ice storm of
'98 which cut power for millions for up to several weeks -
Bob Fortier |
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