Are You Prepared for an Emergency or Natural Disaster? 10 Tips for Your Business' Productive Preparedness

Each September, we are reminded of the need to review how prepared we are for emergencies and natural disasters as National Preparedness Month rolls around. The need to be prepared is increasing, evidenced by how the insured losses from the 330 natural catastrophes that occurred during 2017 reached an incredible $134 billion per a report published by Impact Forecasting. This included a very active Atlantic hurricane season, severe weather events from convective storms as well as many wildfires. It can feel overwhelming to prepare for such disasters, but here are steps each of us can and should be taking to be prepared, minimizing our negative repercussions:

1. Plan for what makes most sense for your location. Whether you face hurricanes, tornadoes, snow blizzards, thunderstorms with lightening or another type of natural disaster, there are differing steps to take. Determine what types of disasters are possibilities for your area so you can customize your approach, planning for those specific risks.
2. Gather necessary supplies. Visit Ready.gov/build-a-kit for what to include in your company's disaster supplies and, then, cull those items together where they are easily accessible. Add a recurring appointment to the electronic calendar of whichever team member will be accountable for maintaining the kit so it's reviewed regularly.
3. Create your communication plan. Establish from where employees, customers and vendors can obtain updates during an emergency situation, especially when and where team members need to return to work. Decide where folks will go and with whom to connect for check-in should your team have to evacuate. Be sure to communicate the plans.
4. Address potential gaps in what tech will provide. Verify all computer programs, data and documents are being automatically updated as well as backed up from each computer to a remote location. Include a hosted exchange server, VoIP, updated apps and a cybersecurity strategy in your steps to prepare for data issues.
5. Prepare for lack of electricity. Power outages are often a by-product of disasters, particularly if there are strong winds. Be sure you have cash, back-up batteries for all mobile devices, flashlights to see without office lights and an emergency radio supporting multiple power sources. Fill gas tanks for personal and company vehicles alike.
6. Get ready for the risk of a fire. Locate all fire extinguishers, making sure there are enough to cover your entire facility, and ensure everyone learns how to operate them. Find out where your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are located; mark the calendar of whichever team member will be responsible for replacing batteries so they are alerted when that recurring commitment arises, and learn which sounds indicate what. When possible, prepare and maintain adequate firebreaks and green spaces around your property. Consider installing fire glass in windows and doors. Locate your sprinkler shut off valves so first responders can easily access them and prevent residual flooding; routinely test your sprinkler systems to keep them in good working order. Also, know the location of major HVAC, piping, gas and water lines to aid in preventing the domino effect of damage being done to your facility. Keep emergency exits clear and marked with plenty of signage to direct anyone through that area.
7. Know what to do if evacuating is required. Decide where all team members will go in an evacuation and who should be contacted should you have to evacuate. For example, will you notify senior leadership who will relay the message to their teams or will there be a mass communication sent out via email, automated calls and text messages? Make a list of what essential equipment must be taken from your business' premises at that time, and designate who will be responsible for removing each item on that list. Cull together items that you need to grab when leaving, and store them in a quick-grab bag.
8. Verify your insurance coverage. Make certain you have proper insurance and it is up-to-date. Ask your insurance agent, broker or underwriter if you are adequately covered for potential property damage as well as what business interruptions you could possibly face.
9. Consider how to continue beyond an emergency. What functions need to continue no matter what sort of craziness is happening? Decide how you will facilitate payroll if you are displaced, lose power or have intermittent Internet connectivity.
10. Have your plan documented. Keep your business' policies and procedures in writing to be accessed from anywhere at anytime. Include within this documentation how contact data for employees, customers and vendors will be kept up-to-date for facilitating the aforementioned communication plan. Upload your documentation to the cloud so folks can access the necessary information during an evacuation or relocation. Then, be sure to review your plans and supplies every 6 months; you'll want to incorporate updates as things change

Is your business prepared for what natural disasters might strike your area? If not, which of these steps can you take to boost how productive your preparedness might be?

Organize Your Files to Quickly Find What's Needed

Each day, we are faced with an onslaught of information. Much of that information avalanche comes from email, and there are solutions specific to controlling your email instead of letting email control you. Yet, there is an equally pressing need to address the overwhelm from paper and electronic documents. Follow these steps for relief in accessing knowledge via paper and electronic sources.

- Limit what you retain. Whenever you have to dig through more files to find whats needed, it takes longer. Make friends with delete and discard, keeping only what is accurate, applicable, useful, bringing you joy as well as difficult to replicate or find online. Then, schedule time to maintain this system, continually evaluating what comes into your space while addressing your retention cycle so things are not kept longer than needed.

- Convert what paper you can to an electronic format. It is easier to find content needed in electronic form. Further, filling electronic storage space creates fewer pains and often takes longer to reach existing limits. To reach this goal, choose from physical scanners, like Doxie or Fujitsu, install the Scannable app on your iPhone or CamScanner app on your Android device and partner with scanning companies to help catchup on your backlog, like The File Depot or Shoeboxed, culling together in your preferred option.

- Control the funnel into your space. When left up to the person delivering paper to your office, each will be piled atop the last on your desk or bureau; however, once something gets stacked on top of something else, you no longer know what is below. Counter that situation by hanging an inbox (and, ideally, an outbox) near the door to your workspace, whether a Three by Three Wall Pocket, reisenthel Clear Wall Pockets, a Rustic Marche Wall Pocket, a Yamazaki Nest 2-Pocket Wall Organizer or something similar. Tools like an inbox and outbox empower you to address what's most important when it's convenient for you and separate those items from what is currently being handled atop your desk.

- Implement naming conventions. If you can mirror names between email mailboxes, paper files and electronic document folders, it will be easier to know what you have, put things where they belong and, then, recover what's needed quickly. There is no "right" or "wrong" verbiage for labeling, although I discourage using "miscellaneous" since that is non-descriptive; however, there is an art to creating a filing system... You want enough folders so everything has a home but not so many options that any one item could realistically be filed in more than one place. Balance carefully between generic and specific so each email, paper or electronic file has a clear destination that is easy to maintain. The worst scenario is to struggle in determining where something should be kept as it means you'll struggle even more when looking to retrieve it later.

How do you choose what papers and electronic files to keep? What system do you use for successfully retaining them? Or how do you struggle with your documents?

Is Your Workspace a Tool in Your Productivity Toolbox?

Although many focus on personnel, processes, priorities and technology as the best tools for fueling desired results, the space in which you work can be another tool in your productivity toolbox. Just as important as what you keep can be where you keep it all, and there are key concepts to consider as you organize your office to support your greatest success.

Consider your current situation. When you look around your workspace, whether a cubicle, vehicle, co-working space, corner office or table in a coffeeshop, what do you see? Are you able to quickly find what you need? Or does the clutter overwhelm you? Is there an established process for how your work flows in and out? If it is not helping achieve your goals, take time now to organize your workspace to reinforce your efforts at attaining each goal.

- Edit the contents of your workspace. The more stuff in your space then the more you must dig through to find what is needed; therefore, utilize delete and discard to boost productivity. Keep only what is accurate, applicable, useful, bringing you joy and difficult to replicate or find later online, always taking into account any legal ramifications. As you purge accumulated excess, think about what can be recycled, shredded, donated, moved elsewhere or consolidated into fewer devices. Particularly for technology, what can be sold via Gazelle, letgo, NextWorth, OfferUp or Swappa?

- Assign homes to what will be kept. As the quote "a place for everything and everything it its place" implies, when you know where something goes, it is easier to find what you need when you need it and put it away after you've used it. Store similar items together, following the mantra of "like with like", and choose zones closest to where items will be used. 

- Separate "active" items from those considered "archive". Similar to the real estate refrain of "location, location, location" for buying spaces, the location of items in your workspace matters for ensuring the most productive organizational structure. Prioritize the space within arm's reach from where you spend most of your working hours, assigning homes to what's in your office based on how frequently you use each of them. The prime real estate should be dedicated to active files that you are using most often while archive files can be stored further away. Move shared tools to common spaces for all team members to access easily.

- Choose solutions for containing what you retain based off your personality and workflow style. Whether files, bins, baskets, drawers, shelves, boxes or cabinets, keep in mind whether you lean towards "out of sight is out of mind" or "visual clutter paralyzes". Utilize the walls and backs of doors in your workspace. Then, train yourself to purge or divide contents once any storage solution gets full, particularly utilizing the organizational concept that it's easier to dig through less stuff to find what's needed.

- Use labels and color to enhance effectiveness. Labels allow you to quickly determine what is housed where in your space while different colors can visually group together similar items as well as drive desired behaviors. There is no "right" or "wrong" verbiage to use when labeling, although "miscellaneous" tends to create a black hole to contain just about anything, but balance carefully between generic and specific labels so you have enough folders for everything while not having so many that you potentially create duplicates or struggle to file anything away. If you struggle to determine where something should be kept, how will you ever be able to find it when you need to retrieve it later?

- Implement systems reflecting how "horizontal is hidden and vertical is visible". Use vertical file holders that will not bury one folder under another, hang an inbox as well as an outbox by your door to get those items off your desktop and avoid piles on any flat surface so contents does get lost under something added later. Whether you are receiving work, completing work and retaining finished work for later reference, it's imperative to have solutions that make it easy to quickly access what's needed as well as return everything when transitioning between functions so work moves along more efficiently and effectively.

With what do you struggle in organizing your workspace? Which of these steps can you use to ensure your workspace supports attaining your greatest successes?