Communicating in a Crisis

September/October 2015

Swiftly respond to emergencies and help prevent future problems by having a solid crisis communication strategy.

By Megan Quinn

When workers at E.L. Harvey & Sons realized a fellow employee was having a heart attack, they sprang into action. After calling 911, they waited just a few minutes for help to arrive, even though they work at a labyrinthine, 100-acre recycling campus in Westborough, Mass., where an ambulance or fire truck could easily get lost.

How did the employees quickly direct emergency personnel to their colleague’s location? By using effective, efficient crisis communication strategies, says Safety Director Jerry Sjogren. The company had an employee meet the ambulance at the front gate and lead it directly to the man who was ill. Other employees stationed themselves throughout the facility and pointed the way. “There are a lot of twists and turns in our facility, so they would never know where to go otherwise,” he said.

Once employees realized their co-worker was having a potentially life-threatening medical problem, they set the plan in motion, “and we had [emergency personnel] to him in a matter of minutes.”

Whether a facility faces the wrath of Mother Nature—like a flood or tornado—or an unexpected injury that stops operations, you can plan ahead for an emergency evacuation or response by clearly assigning communications roles that keep employees and customers in the loop and swiftly relay information to those who need it most, experts say.

Planning for the Worst
It’s the stuff that keeps business owners awake at night: What if there’s a fire in the yard? What if a tornado sweeps through town and threatens employees and customers? What if someone is injured on the job and needs medical attention?

Recyclers typically have emergency plans that dictate how best to handle safety crises. Yet even the best-laid plans have a way of falling apart without proper communication strategies, says Andy Knudsen, general manager at Zero Accident Consulting (Libertyville, Ill.). Just as businesses train employees to safely and efficiently carry out their day-to-day jobs, they can train employees to effectively and accurately communicate during high-stress situations, such as when they might need to call 911 or report a fire in the yard. That means designating specific communication roles to specific employees and practicing those roles before an accident or natural disaster ever happens, he says. “Our goal is to encourage everyone to have a plan ahead of time,” he says.

With practice, employees likely will feel more confident about telling fellow employees where to go when there’s a flood, whom to call when that tornado is coming too close to the scrapyard, and what to say to a manager or dispatcher when reporting an injury. He likens the process to saving someone from drowning. A spur-of-the-moment impulse is to jump into the water, but training helps people combat the impulse and choose a safer, more effective strategy: throwing out a flotation device or reaching out to the drowning person from dry land. “Try to anticipate the scenarios,” and train with those scenarios in mind, he says.

Ben Johnson, director of operations at Texas Recycling/Surplus (Dallas), says training helped save the day when his facility had a small fire in a baler in March. The lead supervisor pulled the fire alarm and immediately told Johnson about the situation. Employees evacuated once they heard the fire alarm and assembled at their designated meeting place across the street. The human resources director called the fire department, then she did a head count to make sure everyone was accounted for.

Johnson says the employees knew what to do because they had discussed the procedure during their regular safety meetings. Everyone understood his or her role and knew how to communicate the problem. When it comes to talking to the employees, the public, customers, vendors, or anyone else involved in an emergency situation, “in your disaster plan, you have to have a list of who is assigned to do what,” he says.

It’s also important to update the plan as often as needed. Texas Recycling has a safety committee that meets once a month and includes the HR director, a maintenance supervisor, the lead plant supervisor, and others. The group discusses possible safety improvements and also periodically looks at the emergency plan to make sure the people assigned to specific communications roles are current. When someone retires, moves to a new job, or is promoted to a new position, the plan must reflect those changes, he says. The same is true when your business expands, merges with another company, or moves to a new location. “You really have to keep the list up to date,” he says.

Whom Do You Call?
When crafting or revising a crisis communication plan, some businesses start by making a list of their main stakeholders who might need to be kept in the loop: employees, customers, vendors, emergency personnel, family members, authorities, the media, or others.

Then, those creating the plan ask themselves some questions. Who is in charge of calling 911? Does that person need to meet first responders at a specific location after making the call? What if an employee must go to the hospital? Who tells that person’s family or emergency contact about the injury? Does someone need to contact OSHA, poison control, or a state agency? What is the best way to tell employees and others on site what happened or tell them to evacuate? How do you inform employees about an imminent weather threat when they are out on a large lot without their phones?

Craig Everson, regional safety manager of Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis), says each facility must decide the answers based on the size of its operations and the ways that make the most sense for staff. Answers to many of those questions might already be in your emergency plan. “I’d say 90 percent of this is preparation,” he says.

Regardless of the plan, the information must be in writing and easily accessible for employees, either as a paper copy, he says, or online for employees who might not be at work on a day when a safety-related crisis occurs. Businesses also should post communication information in common locations such as breakrooms and remind employees of the procedures during regular safety meetings or staff training, Johnson says.

Calling for Help
In the age of smartphones, tablets, and other easily accessible communications technology, a 911 call might seem as straightforward as dialing the number. Although the National Emergency Number Association (Alexandria, Va.) reports an average of 240 million 911 calls are made in the United States each year, many adults might only call 911 once or twice in their life, meaning employees might not have a lot of experience with making the call, especially when a crisis is unfolding around them.

Many businesses ask any employee to call 911 in the event of an emergency if they are in a position to do so. Others require that the employee notify a specific co-worker, such as an on-site safety manager or dispatcher, who will make the emergency call on the company’s behalf.

When making the call, “the best thing to do is speak slowly and clearly, and enunciate,” Everson says. “Don’t be afraid to repeat yourself. We’ve all played [the game] ‘telephone’ as kids, and we know that you start with one phrase and sometimes end up with something totally different.”

Sjogren says E.L. Harvey & Sons’ emergency plan includes tips for alerting the company’s dispatchers, including a template for what information to include during a phone call—for example, “Dispatch, we have a fire in building No. 2.”

 The company has several locations in Massachusetts, and communication protocols vary from facility to facility because of building layouts and unique phone systems. At several of its locations, for example, employees also are trained to dial 9 before dialing 911—a detail that can save precious seconds in an emergency. “We empower everyone to make the call,” he says.

Not all businesses find that method efficient, however. At Texas Recycling, Johnson says HR is responsible for calling 911 after hearing about an emergency, and Johnson himself calls poison control if necessary. Other facilities have other types of protocols, such as assigning managers or other employees to call 911, then having those workers assume the temporary position as the business’s incident commander in charge of meeting with emergency personnel and providing follow-up information once firefighters or ambulances arrive, Everson says.

Alter Trading Corp. uses incident management techniques from the National Incident Management System, a framework that helps governmental and nongovernmental organizations work together with the private sector to manage emergencies and reduce property damage, deaths, and environmental impacts. Part of NIMS outlines specific roles for company employees, such as an incident commander, who serves as a point of contact for outside resources such as emergency responders; a safety officer, who manages first responders and isolates the area; and a security officer, who controls access to the yard and provides direction to inbound units such as fire trucks.

At Alter, for example, managers take turns being on call after hours. If an accident or emergency happens outside of regular business hours, the manager on call arrives on the scene and becomes the incident commander. That person is in charge of coordinating with emergency responders, providing specifics about shut-off valves, dangerous chemicals, or other information emergency personnel need to do their jobs, he says. Managers also know how to find the facility’s resource manual, which has all needed safety information and details an emergency responder might need to know, he says.

Notifying Your Employees
Procedures for alerting employees or other personnel when there’s a problem also vary from location to location. During training or staff meetings, make sure employees understand different alarm sounds or announcements that might come over loudspeakers. Doubling up on notification efforts is another strategy. If you’re not sure all of your employees regularly check company e-mails, or if you’re not sure employees will see or hear their phone because they are driving or working with heavy equipment, have a plan to communicate emergencies in more than one way.

At TimkenSteel (Canton, Ohio), spokesman Joe Milicia says the company uses radios and alarm systems on site, but it also has a mass notification system to reach employees in multiple ways in the event of an emergency. Timken can reach employees via phone, e-mail, text, and desktop alert when there’s a problem, he says.

Working With First Responders
Working smoothly with your community’s police and fire departments is a big part of responding to incidents. The more familiar authorities are with your operations, the faster the response will be and the stronger relationship you’ll have with emergency personnel, Sjogren says. He suggests reaching out to your local fire departments or emergency personnel and inviting them for a tour. If they know the general layout of your facility, it can speed up response times and keep them safe, he says. Further, when firefighters can identify your employees and have a standing relationship with them, both sides can more easily give and receive critical information—such as whether all of your employees are accounted for—and responders know they can walk up to specific employees and get the right information.

Everson says it’s also helpful to learn emergency personnel lingo and to teach them common lingo around the scrapyard. Both sides have specialized fields with plenty of words that make outsiders scratch their heads, he says. “When you can talk their talk, and they can talk your talk, you can meet each other in the middle,” he says. (Learn more about building relationships with fire departments from “Partners in Prevention,” an article in the May/June issue of Scrap.)

Responding to Employee Illness or Injury
If a worker is hurt or seriously ill, companies should designate a person, whether it is an HR director or another employee, to be in charge of notifying that worker’s family or emergency contact, Sjogren says. He acts as the designated contact for his business.

When calling family members or emergency contacts, stay calm and deliver the facts while being mindful of how the person on the other end of the phone is feeling as they learn what happened. “You don’t want to cause another accident by having someone jump in the car and run a red light trying to get to the hospital,” he says.

It’s helpful to have someone accompany an accident victim seeking medical care to help the victim communicate. If the victim needs to go to the hospital but is alert enough to take and respond to calls, there are small things a manager or HR director can do to make that go more smoothly.

At Alter, Everson will accompany the injured person to the hospital and stay with that person until the family arrives, he says. That way, he serves as a point person at the hospital who can assist the injured employee and relay information to family members or friends, if necessary.

In this case, the safety manager is also in charge of providing the injured worker with the best tools to communicate. “Sometimes, all [the injured person] needs is a phone charger so they can charge their phone and make a call,” Everson says. “So many aspects of their life get uprooted by an injury.”

Everson says he has made safety communication strategies a big part of his job. He started his career in construction, but he was injured at age 21 when he fell and broke his back. After a year of recovery, he went into the Army and became a combat medic. After that, he worked in a burn center, then in an emergency room. He also is a volunteer firefighter. Playing so many different roles over the years has helped him see the need for good communication strategies among all those involved in responding to an emergency, he says. “I’ve been the injured worker, and I’ve taken care of the injured worker.”

Legally Required Communications
After you’ve taken care of the immediate danger, some emergencies require follow-up communications with entities such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Washington, D.C.), the U.S. Environ­mental Protection Agency’s National Response Center, or your state or local authorities.

In January, OSHA implemented new rules for reporting injuries and illnesses. Under the new rules, employers are required to report all fatalities within eight hours of when they occur. You also must report all in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye within 24 hours of finding out about the incident. Previously, you were required to report all fatalities, but you did not have to report hospitalizations unless three or more workers were hospitalized in the same incident. Employers can report severe incidents to OSHA by calling the nearest OSHA office during normal business hours, calling the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 800/321-6742, or reporting online at www.osha.gov/report_online.

Companies also should be aware of other legally required communications, such as those under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act and Clean Water Act regulations. If a chemical spill or release occurs, know whether you must report it to the National Response Center, your local emergency planning committee, or state emergency response commission.

Which agency do you report to, when do you report it, and what information do you report? It depends on the timeframe of the release and whether the material goes beyond your facility’s boundaries, says David Wagger, ISRI’s director of environmental management. For example, if an oil-based material, such as hydraulic fluid, reaches surface water such as a nearby stream, that needs to be reported to the NRC under the Clean Water Act, he says.

The EPCRA lists of reportable hazardous substances are long, but it is not likely that recyclers will have many of those substances at their facilities, Wagger says. Members with questions about the reporting requirements or reporting process can contact him at 202/662-8533 or davidwagger@isri.org.

If your facility does release a reportable hazardous substance offsite over a 24-hour period that equals or exceeds the reportable quantity, you must immediately notify your LEPC and SERC, then follow up in writing, he says. You might also need to notify the NRC immediately at 800/424-8892.

Scrapyards sometimes come across potentially radioactive materials, too. If a load that possibly contains a radioactive source arrives in the yard, employees should know to contact your company’s radiation safety officer, who will then contact the appropriate authorities in your state.

A TimkenSteel mill inadvertently melted a radioactive source in its scrap charge in 2004 and had to temporarily close and undergo millions of dollars in repairs. In that case, the company called the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (both in Columbus) to report the incident.

Timken has since upgraded its detection process by adding new technology, and it retrained all of its employees to prevent a similar incident from happening again, Milicia says.

“TimkenSteel has a detailed crisis communications plan that outlines our procedures in the event of any of these scenarios. Our Canton, Ohio, facilities are staffed 24/7 by a full-time emergency services team dedicated to health, safety, and security matters. This team leads the notification process, and we drill on this plan once a year,” he noted in an e-mail.

Talking With the Media and Public
Even when a facility successfully carries out its emergency plan, your neighbors might still want to know what happened. What do you tell them?

One day in 2012, a dark plume of smoke rose up from a fire at Alter Trading Corp.’s Milwaukee facility, which was then called Miller Compressing. The dark cloud worried nearby residents, who repeatedly called the fire department, then took to the Internet to voice their concerns, and in some cases, their disgust. Though the fire was not serious, the smoke looked scary enough to attract media attention, too.

When the fire happened, the company had a “no-comment” policy, and the scrapyard gained a bad reputation for being unresponsive, Everson says. “That was a black eye for us,” he says. “We thought, how can we change this?”

Another fire in 2014 prompted Everson to address the negative image. Alter partnered with the Milwaukee fire department and invited it to become more familiar with Alter’s facility and build trust, he says. The next time a minor but visible fire broke out, the fire department was more knowledgeable about the company’s operations, and the fire department’s public information officer released statements about the specifics in a timely and professional way, he says.

Alter still has a no-comment policy about speaking with the local media, but it trusts the fire department’s role in speaking with the public. “For us, the fire department is always better at making a public statement,” he says. Having someone to talk with the media, or the general public, can help allay fears from the neighbors and maintain positive relationships with customers and the community where your yard is located, he says.

For some companies, it makes sense to have a dedicated spokesperson on staff for when an incident happens, says Sjogren, one of E.L. Harvey’s media contacts. Though a facility might be dealing with damage control from a fire, natural disaster, or injury, it won’t help your image to ignore the media’s questions, he says. Talking to the media quickly and efficiently helps keep the ball in your court and allows you to tell your side of the story—especially when the public worries about a very visible incident like a fire.
 
“Even if you can just give them a statement, it helps,” he says. “If you don’t, it doesn’t bode well for you. The media will talk to your neighbors and customers” regardless, he points out. If you speak to them first, “you can also put it into perspective, and say it is an unusual event, and that you do regular safety training.”

Reaching Out to Customers
Appropriately handling the media can help your public image, but you’ll likely want to help your customer base directly, too. When accidents or disasters affect day-to-day operations, it’s important to stay in touch with customers and let them know what is happening. Make sure you have someone in charge of updating your website, voicemail, or other means of communication, says Knudsen of Zero Accident Consulting.

It’s also ideal to help customers understand their options and let them know you value their business, even if you cannot meet their needs immediately after an incident, he adds.

If a fire temporarily hampers a yard’s ability to take scrap, for example, Knudsen suggests building partnerships with similar businesses who might be able to take your customers’ scrap in the meantime. While it might seem counterintuitive to send business to a rival, Knudsen says it can create a sense of reliability and trustworthiness, and it sends the message that you have your customers’ needs in mind. Plus, cultivating relationships from these friendly rivalries—before a crisis happens—might make it easier to get back on your feet and stay in the loop in the industry as a whole, he says.

“Customers who want to come and drop off scrap can’t do it if the place is closed. Say to them, ‘We’re temporarily suspending business because of a fire, but we value your business and want you to have options. Here are some places you can go until we’re back open,’” he says.

Looking Back to Look Forward
Once the emergency situation is contained, you have notified the appropriate people, and everyone is safe, it’s critical to follow up with employees to talk about what happened, answer questions, and learn from the situation. That follow-up will help prevent future accidents and create an environment where employees feel they are getting the right information. Knudsen says if businesses don’t look back and examine the crisis, they are missing an opportunity to make their operations better and safer. “You have to be willing to learn from it all,” he says.

Megan Quinn is reporter/writer for Scrap.