Tips from Idea15 Web Design

I used to work in an office which was based at Glasgow Airport, although it was not part of the airport’s operations. Because of our unique location, employees had airport ID badges, airport emergency training, and were dependent on the airport for utilities, IT, and security. (Useless trivia: I know which terminal has a special door which can convert it into a hermetically sealed morgue.)

In time I inherited the HR role within the company and began my HR audit by conducting an inventory. I was amazed to find that there was no single list of employees which could be used in an emergency and no business contingency plan. Even the payroll system lacked a means to generate one simple list including names, home addresses, home phone numbers, spouses and partners, NI numbers, and so forth. Every company needs an emergency plan, and the thought that a company based within an airport’s boundaries lacked both a plan and an employee list was astonishing. In the event of an emergency, I would presumably grab the two huge metal fireproof file boxes this information was stored in, along with the keys, and run for the evacuation point with heavy steel slashing my legs open. If the emergency happened out of hours or at the weekend, I’d have to find employees using the yellow pages. If, in a worst-case scenario, I needed to contact an employee’s spouse or partner, and that person did not share the employee’s name, how would I know what their name was or where to begin looking for them?

And with the airport responsible for IT, that meant the airport owned our network server.  In the midst of total chaos, would we stand a chance of getting our data back?  Were there backups on and offsite?  Nobody knew.

Before tackling IT, I set about to create a simple spreadsheet containing the vital information we’d need to contact employees in the event of an airport emergency. While most staff were happy to comply, one notoriously toxic individual used it as an opportunity to stir up trouble. This person began to ask loudly whispered questions about why I was looking through people’s HR records and why I was asking personal questions. They twisted the issue so that my initiative was not seen as common sense or security; it was seen as digging for gossip and trying to build an empire for myself.

I never did finish that list, and it wasn’t long until I found myself handing in my airport ID badge and hitting the want ads.

Since I left the company, there have been two occasions – most recently today – when both the airport and the roads leading to it have been completely shut down. When these incidents have happened, I’ve had to chuckle out loud, and that’s not meant as disrespect to those affected by the incidents. If nothing at the company has changed since I was there, all employees’ basic contact information is still locked away in fireproof boxes, and the company and its employees have no standardised way to communicate outwith business hours. If the airport is forcing the company to stay closed tomorrow, they would have to find it out from the news, not the management.

Cynicism tells me, though, that the troublemaker probably finished the employee list after I left and took credit for the idea.

Do you know how to reach your staff out of hours?
Can your staff reach you out of hours?
What would happen in an emergency?
Who would take charge in a crisis situation?
Could your business run without its physical premises?
Are there secure copies of your vital records offsite?
Are there personal issues which have prevented precautions from being taken?
Could your staff put the company over their egos in a crisis situation?
For UK companies, do you take the concept of HR seriously? What objections do you have to it?
What elements of your company’s culture need to change to make a role for HR?