Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com January 4, 2016 • Worcester Business Journal 19 W hat is most valuable in your business? Is it your talent, your equipment or your physical plant? Chances are, it is your reputation, which can quickly be undone in the event of a crisis. Whatever crisis may occur – fire, flood, employee misconduct, product recall, data breach, alleged criminal activity, financial irregularities – the key is to be ready for it. The crisis will likely have less impact on your business than the way in which you respond to it. If you are prepared, you will be ready with a message and a response. Lines of communication will be open, transparency will prevail and the resources needed to weather the storm, such as a satellite site or mobile operations, will be ready and available. In my career, I have been at the table during many such crises. I have seen companies watch their building burn down to the ground; enter large settlements with the government to resolve alleged wrongdoing; manage cases of employee abuse; and recall hundreds of thousands of units of inventory. Those organizations that have a crisis plan have a tremendous head start. They are organized, ready and can quickly mobilize their people to respond. Here are the key steps in developing a crisis plan: • Determine who will serve on your crisis team and what their roles and responsibilities will be. Everybody on the team should know exactly what is expected of them in a crisis. • Document the method for immediately notifying and activating staff. A plan should have emergency contact information for every single employee; but even more important, it should have the protocol for contacting those people, which could be as simple as an old-fashioned phone tree or as advanced as an electronic group messaging capability. • Identify which external resources you will need and include the emergency contact information for reaching them. These resources should include a lawyer, public relations firm, banker, public insurance adjuster and an IT vendor. A credit line should always be in place as well, because you won't necessarily be able to establish one during a crisis. • Create media statements for different contingencies and include them in the plan. • Establish a social media protocol and policy and assign responsibility for updating social media as well as monitoring the online chatter about your company. You may need help developing the plan and seek to engage a firm that specializes in this work. The finished plan should be reviewed with the management team and regular drills should be conducted. A good crisis plan is only as good as the team that will implement it and the team members' readiness to do so. Crisis can befall any business, even the most successful and the best known, such as Johnson & Johnson, General Motors and BP. Often, those that survive are those that had a plan. You have spent years building your business. Protect that investment. Have a crisis plan in place to guide you in difficult times. Asking the hard questions now and thinking about how you will respond is far better than hoping a crisis never comes. n David A. Ball is the president of Ball Consulting Group, LLC, a Newton public relations and crisis management firm that works with several greater Worcester organizations. By Terry O'Leary Terry O'Leary is the executive vice president of Randstad Technologies, a $23-billion global provider of HR services. 10 Things I Know About... Be prepared by building a crisis plan KNOW HOW 10) Know job seeking habits. IT professionals rarely start a job search without some type of game plan. They begin by reassessing their strengths, career goals and interests. They'll also reconnect with their network. 9) Put yourself in their shoes. Find out where your target candidates spend the most time searching for jobs. Knowing the talent pool hot spots will help to position your employer's brand. 8) Sell your employer's brand. What is it about your company that makes you an employer of choice? Speak to your company's internal employees to figure out what makes working at your company so great, and communicate those highlights to candidates. 7) Provide consistent feedback. The IT market is loaded with opportunities for top-tier talent, which means candidates often receive multiple offers. Communicating positive feedback about a candidate's strengths and assets post-interview can increase the likelihood that they will choose your offer. 6) Be transparent. This is especially important when it comes to the job description. IT professionals want specifics, and they do not want to waste time trying to figure out what exactly a company wants. 5) Talk with hiring managers. Hold conversations with your hiring manager to find out what the top desired skills are for a position, and make sure you clearly indicate those skills in the job description as well as during the interview. 4) Understand no one is perfect. Sometimes the best candidate may have most of the desired skills you need -- but not all of them. You might wait weeks before finding another person who is even close to offering a similar skillset, so do not overlook current prospects while in search for the perfect candidate. 3) Look for learners. Candidates who have shown an eagerness to learn new technology and are able to apply their knowledge. 2) Prioritize soft and hard skills. These days, companies want new hires with strong communication skills and a proven ability to work well with others. 1) Pick knowledgeable people. Showing interest for the position is nice, but it is the candidates who have done their research and demonstrated what they can do will impact the bottom line. n M anaging virtual team members in different locales is becoming more and more common for companies which, thanks to the Internet, are no longer restricted in outsourcing to top talent. There are things to consider to lead a virtual team successfully (and it goes beyond just remembering time zones). Here are three ways to help your virtual team be as effective as possible: Encourage informal, social learning about teammates, even across the miles. A quick, three- question interview each week that you send to other members of the team is a great way to get this done. "We've worked with teams that created online team bios so that everyone knew their skill set, educational background, special interests, hobbies, etc.," said Jennell Evans in an article at PsychologyToday.com. Establish best practices for communication. These skills may differ due to work habits, cultural differences, age or other factors. Beth Knuppel, in an article at CEO.com, recommends setting up a guide to minimize misunderstandings. This guide should lay out hours employees are expected to be online or reachable; how frequently employees should check in with management; and best practices for email etiquette to reduce the number of irrelevant emails team members receive, Knuppel writes. Don't just jump right into work when a new team member comes aboard. An article by Keith Ferrazzi at Harvard Business Review suggests taking the advice of experts who ask new hires to give virtual tours of their workspaces to faraway colleagues. "This allows colleagues to form mental images of one another when they're later communicating," he writes. Another way to promote unity is to get personal first, take on business later. "Try taking five minutes at the beginning of conference calls for everyone to share a recent professional success or some personal news," Ferrazzi writes. n 101: VIRTUAL TEAMS >> BY SUSAN SHALHOUB Special to the Worcester Business Journal BY DAVID A. BALL Special to the Worcester Business Journal Successfully sourcing IT talent

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