Company: Comcast South Florida
Timeframe: October 2005
When a crisis doesn't pose a direct threat to the employees of a company, it's easy to cut to the chase and deal immediately with the issues in a reasonably straightforward
way. But when a corporation faces a challenge that comes packed with 130-mph winds and driving rain, the first concern has to be the physical safety and wellbeing of its staff.
Comcast South Florida saw Hurricane Wilma coming hundreds of miles away. As the storm left the Yucatan peninsula, where it wreaked havoc in the resort areas of Cancun, it
reached fearsome levels of power, registering as the highest possible level of Category 5 hurricane. All weather models predicted it would make landfall again in South Florida,
but when it hit the Gulf coast of that state, it was a weak category 2. "What no one expected was for the storm to gain strength over the Everglades and emerge on the east side of
the state as a strong Category 2 storm with gusts up to 130 miles per hour," says Spero Canton, regional director of public relations for Comcast South Florida.
When the hurricane hit, the Comcast team was dispersed, and much of the region lost power and communications. The first priority for Comcast South Florida was to get back in
touch with employees to establish how they were before reaching out to Comcast customers. Cell phones and Blackberries were deployed even before the team knew how they would
recharge them to ensure that everyone was all right.
The second priority was to make sure the team could function. "Employees were a key component," says Canton. "They were going through a difficult time, while responding to
customers. People have some patience after a storm, but it wears off. To keep the front end motivated despite their personal challenges, we provided free meals, roof tarps for
those with home damage and free laundry services so they could focus on their jobs."
The empathy Comcast showed for its staff was passed forward to its customers and the media as the region began to get back on its feet. "We had a very strong team," says
Canton. "PR was plugged into every department as part of the overall team. I interacted with government affairs, customer service and operations on an ongoing basis, so there were
ongoing ties among all department heads prior to going through a crisis."
Putting People First
Bruce T. Blythe, CEO, Crisis Management International, Inc., a global consulting firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, would agree. In an article Blythe wrote for GRC 360:
Perspectives on Governance, Risk, Compliance and Culture, a quarterly publication of The Open Compliance & Ethics Group, he noted: "Ultimately, crisis management is about
meeting people's needs. Adequately addressing the concerns and needs of affected stakeholders is the roadmap to crisis recovery. Yet, the people-side of crisis tends to be the
least adequately prepared. Organizations that chant the mantra 'our people are our most important asset,' far too many times overlook the needs of their employees following a
crisis.
"For responding crisis managers, pressing issues like 'putting out the fire' and meeting media demands often trump addressing the needs of emotionally impacted people. But,
those quiet attitudes, beliefs and emotional reactions of people can speak volumes about how well and how fast your organization recovers from a crisis."
The input from the Comcast team was invaluable. Some of their cell phones were still operating immediately after the storm, but the department heads had more difficulty getting
hold of people after the storm than during previous storms. One way the team stays in contact is a 1-800 hotline that's updated on a rolling basis to tell Comcast employees what
is happening and what they are expected to do. The standard operating procedure is for every supervisor to get in touch with their employees to find out whether everything is
okay.
"One of the most important things is making sure the employees are safe, and that their concerns are being met," says Canton. "In many ways, they are our customers. If they are
happy, they will operate at peak efficiency."
One executive set up a command center at his home, which still had power. The rest of the team functioned from a variety of locations, including, to begin with, a local
Starbucks that had power and wireless hot spots. The team also went to radio stations to cut spots because the office didn't have electricity.
The Comcast executives pulled a communications team together almost immediately, including representatives from public relations, marketing, customer service, production,
government relations and operations, to assemble an all-encompassing plan for customers. The goal was to educate customers about the damages and issues involved in repairing cable
systems and restoring operations and how that would affect customers. The company even distributed information on how a cable system works, to explain where the problems were
within each link.
Every piece of information that was sent out was created in both English and Spanish, with radio spots running once or twice an hour on 14 radio stations. The company bought
more air time to handle demand for information, and some radio stations contributed additional time to help Comcast get the word out. As soon as Comcast's data was updated at 3
p.m. every day, the status was e-mailed or faxed to the media -- initially from that laptop at Starbucks.
In addition to media packets that were distributed three times a week for print and broadcast outlets featuring fresh interviews with restoration leaders, graphics on the cable
system, and new information on how repairs were progressing, Comcast sent apology and thank-you cards to their customers with coupons for free ice cream. Three days after the
outage the company advised customers that they would get refunds for the time of outages, a fact it would use as a talking point for the next month. Other information distribution
vehicles included full-page ads that disseminated information about restoration efforts, and a Web site that was updated daily.
"We ran radio spots on an ongoing basis," Canton notes. "We got so many comments on those radio spots, it was incredible. We knew early on that this would be an extended
effort, more than we were used to, and we used radio because so many people didn't have electricity or TV, but they had radios [with batteries]." In all, Comcast created 14,000
minutes of radio spots and Canton appeared 10 times on TV news programs.
Canton returns often to the point that "The key was the communications team, bringing people together. Our common goal was to communicate with customers, and the primary means
was through the media."
The "good thing" about living and working in a state that suffers hurricanes nearly every year is that the Comcast team has gone through the "fire drill" many times. "Our
people have experience, and there's a system in place," Canton says. "We make sure employees are okay and informed at all times. There's an extraordinary amount of empathy and
flexibility to make sure they have their houses in order before they come in. We don't want them to be worried while they are doing their jobs."
Contact:
Spero Canton, 954.534.7419, [email protected].
The Plan: People Are Key
In any crisis, employees are a company's most important asset -- and customer. Among the steps to creating a successful crisis plan, a few stand out for Spero Canton, regional
director of public relations for Comcast South Florida.
Number one: teamwork. "You need to have other entities within your company involved. That's probably the most important part," says Canton.
Number two: empathy -- for customers and for employees, as well as for any key customer group, such as local franchising authorities in the case of Comcast South Florida. "You
have to take those individuals into consideration with their needs and how they will impact what you need to do to make sure you address them," Canton notes.
Number three: keep talking. Make sure communications to the media remain open. Be proactive and let them know what you are doing at all times. For Comcast South Florida, the
spirit of cooperation with the media continued even after the hurricane season. The company made major changes in its crisis infrastructure as a result of the storm and let the
media know that.
But how do you communicate when the electricity is gone? "We have Blackberries, cell phones, computers ... all these things run on electricity," says Canton. "We were without
electricity here for about 10 days. Some people went to a hotel that had air conditioning and electricity to charge their laptops and cell phones; it sounds rudimentary, but it's
true. A lot of communications are electronically oriented. If you don't have access to an electric outlet, you will have problems." His advice is to find out where you can
recharge your cell phone, Blackberry and wireless computer as soon as possible after the crisis occurs.
In an extra twist of irony, although Comcast South Florida does have generators, they could not fuel them during Hurricane Wilma because there was no electricity to pump the
fuel to the site. And although the company considered bringing in fuel from the north of the state, the government had to confiscate that fuel for emergency services. The sheer
scope of the storm eradicated not only the team's power, but also its back-up power plans.
Get Your Ducks (Your People) In a Row
The supervisors of Comcast South Florida all got together as a company about two years ago and held two days of meetings on what types of emergency plans the team needed. The
meetings featured a wide range of people, including the leadership team, supervisors, and managers, all of whom sat down and brainstormed with the various departments and came up
with a voluminous, all-encompassing crisis plan that acted as the company's bible during Hurricane Wilma. "We had all our ducks in a row," says Canton. Each department devised
plans for what to do before, during and after a storm. The plan goes out at supervisory level as part of a communications chain that keeps front-line employees in operations and
customer service going.
Comcast South Florida also keeps supplies at the office. "We still have blue tarps here," jokes Canton, who notes that the kit also includes canned goods, water, medications,
and a new roof-patching system that works on a "peel-and-stick" principle.
Putting Together A Team
The Open Compliance & Ethics Group has guidelines to address preparation and responses for every kind of crisis. According to a story written by Bruce T. Blythe, CEO of
Crisis Management International, the best plan addresses the human side of a crisis with a Human Impact Program, as well as a human impact team that focuses exclusively on
anticipating and addressing the needs of employees and other people impacted by a crisis. The team's sole purpose is to ensure that needs from communications to palliative care
are addressed appropriately for as long as necessary. The ideal team -- assuming the company is big enough -- includes:
- A leader in charge of handling internal communications
- A leader who will account for all the company's people
- A leader to coordinate an employee hotline
- A health services leader
- A leader to notify next of kin, should the crisis prove deadly
- A family representative leader
- A leader to provide continuity between business and people
- A humanitarian finance leader
- A leader to handle claims and benefits
- A memorials and outreach leader
- A contractor liaison leader
- An international liaison leader (where appropriate) and
- A people security leader
The team leaders ensure that the organization executes each people-related crisis response activity as effectively as possible and complies with the people side of such
regulations as the NFPA 1600 standard (National Fire Protection Agency Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs) and. If you plan ahead to meet
your employee crisis needs, you will boost morale, facillitate crisis recovery and mitigate potential outrage among your external clients.
Contacts: For full story, visit http://www.cmiatl.com/news_article69.html. Open Compliance & Ethics Group, http://www.oceg.org/.