Emergencies and telework. The Telework Guys speak about earthquakes, snow & ice storms, bomb scares etc

This changes everything
The day of the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks, a prominent US politician was quoted as saying "this changes everything". He is, without doubt, absolutely correct. One of the changes will be in our workplaces. Here are some of the likely changes:

	Increasingly, US and Canadian businesses will start dispersing their people, hardware and data.
	More workers will simply demand the ability to telework, despite company impressions that it represents a duplication of costs. Already some employees are refusing to work in tall or heavily populated buildings.
	Technology that facilitates telecommuting and video conferencing will allow work to continue in times of national crisis, a premise supported by the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It's report released just after the disaster said, that telecommuting can "insure seamless customer relationships if each department is evenly split - half working out of company offices, the other half as telecommuters." Even if a section of staff is forced to vacate a building, a "telecommuter squad" can take over, the report added.
	Similarly, many business travellers will increasingly replace flying with telecommuting and videoconferencing. This will become a more viable solution as the technology improves.

There will always be emergencies, so be prepared
We know that emergencies of all types can severely disrupt businesses. Aside from the recent terrorist attacks, the long list includes: snow and ice storms, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, bomb threats, cyber attacks, political demonstrations, explosions, toxic spills, fires, power outages, transportation strikes and other labour disputes. Also included is a global flu pandemic predicted within the next ten years. Whether or not your business feels imminently threatened by any of these, history proves that emergencies are both unpredictable and inevitable.

One way to prepare is to include telework (another word for telecommuting) in your emergency preparedness strategy. By having some of your employees telework from home, you can minimize business disruption and maintain services. Many organizations have already discovered the bottom-line saving capabilities of this strategy.

Other recent examples
	1999's �Battle of Seattle": How many Seattle businesses now wish that they'd had a telework strategy in place when martial law was imposed during the economic summit, virtually closing the city down?
	The Great Ice Storm of 1998: This storm created all types of disturbances. Included were power outages for millions of residents and workers. Tens of thousands of federal workers were prevented from getting to work; some for up to several weeks. However, telework allowed thousands to continue working because power did not go out for everyone. Some homes never lost power, and others had intermittent power while their office buildings were either unreachable or totally without power. Doug Redden, then Executive Director of the Canadian federal government's Institute for Government Information Professionals, said: "if it were not for telework, I would not have been able to do anything." His tools: a computer, pen, paper and phone.
	The 1989 California earthquake: The quake cut off over a million workers from their businesses. Telework permitted almost 700,000 to continue to work from home or other locations near home, minimizing business disruption, and in many cases, helping businesses survive. Even with much of the power shut off, telephones continued to operate. Telework was so effective that the government and business sectors formed a partnership to promote telework to provide emergency preparedness.