Natural disasters are unpredictable occurrences that leave profound impacts on individuals and businesses.

For employers, such events bring about challenges that go beyond safeguarding their physical assets. In fact, their most critical concern is ensuring the safety and well-being of their organization’s backbone: employees.

Thorough preparation, however, significantly defines how your company weathers such occurrences and ultimately secures its workforce’s welfare, dedication, and productivity.

To give you a better understanding of how you can support employees during a natural disaster, we’ll delve into how one affects them and your business, then outline strategies that let you address its ill effects.

Why support employees during natural disasters?

First and foremost, supporting employees during calamities should be your immediate response, as they drive your organization’s success. It’s not only a compassionate course of action, but also a strategic one.

Your workers are the company’s lifeblood and their welfare directly impacts its ability to function, recover, and flourish post-disaster. By prioritizing their health and safety, you demonstrate your commitment to them, build trust, and nurture a more resilient organization.

Furthermore, proactive support minimizes absences brought about by a calamity, enhances recovery times, and maintains your organization’s operational continuity. In the end, it even lets your company and its employees emerge stronger from the crisis.

The impact of natural disasters on employees

Catastrophes have consequences that extend beyond the immediate physical damages your workforce and business face. Here are the most important ones.

Physical, mental, and emotional tolls

We mentioned earlier how personnel may face the physical repercussions brought about by calamities, whether they be injuries or damages to their houses.

Severe consequences such as the loss of loved ones or displacement, however, leave lasting mental and emotional effects.

Employees’ homes, families, and friends provide safety, security, and love. However, disasters and their impacts, being unpredictable in nature, leave their victims in a state of shock.

Initially, they tend to deny reality, leaving them more susceptive to stress, anxiety, and other counterproductive responses. Your workers may even suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression afterwards.

Considering these variables, it should come as no surprise if they’re unable to carry out their duties as a result.

Disruptions to business operations

Natural catastrophes can also shake up your organization’s day-to-day in multiple ways:

  1. Structural damages: Your workplaces can face significant destruction, whether they be situated in commercial buildings or small rented spaces. Such cases obstruct operations and require costly repairs.
  2. Destruction of equipment: In addition to your office renovations, you may incur extra losses due to damaged equipment that also necessitate repair or replacement. This extra financial burden can cripple your efforts to continue operations.
  3. Supply chain interruptions: Reliable and efficient supply chains are vital to your business’s success, but calamities can impact key infrastructures like roads, bridges, and ports. This makes the delivery of goods and services a challenge.
  4. Loss of customers: Natural disasters affect many. Besides forcing victims to relocate from affected areas, your clients will need to prioritize their own recovery as well.

However, your most pressing concern, as it can truly dictate operations, is how a calamity impacts your personnel:

  • For example, they may find themselves unable to report to work or maintain productivity due to more urgent personal and familial matters.
  • In harsher situations, you may face the loss of employees, as any resulting injuries, displacements, or even deaths can cut into your workforce.

An understanding of these facets is crucial to providing successful disaster support. To help you do this, we’ll tackle some strategies next.

Strategy 1: Create effective communication protocols

Communication can make or break your efforts, as it dictates how you handle a catastrophic occurrence.

Why clear and frequent communication is important

Effective communication minimizes the risk everyone faces and ensures their safety. It’s extremely useful in multiple stages of a disaster as well:

Before

More predictable calamities, like typhoons or hurricanes, are monitored and reported before they hit landfall.

Once given fair warning by government agencies or news outlets, disseminate the information ahead of time to prevent employees from leaving their homes and risking getting caught in the middle of a storm during their commutes or while at work.

During

Clear and consistent communication while a disaster takes place helps alleviate your employees’ uncertainties.

By regularly providing critical updates, as well as issuing safety protocols and available resources, you ensure everyone stays safe and knows what to do in case the situation worsens.

This also reduces misinformation and reassures employees that you’re actively managing the crisis.

After

As employees deal with the aftermath of a natural calamity, it’s essential that both they and the organization receive timely and accurate updates.

Maintain a regular back and forth to stay on top of your workers’ statuses—whether they’re safe or need additional support. It also informs them of what aid you can offer, such as time off from work, emergency supplies, or medical care.

By doing so, you not only assist in their recovery, but also learn what steps you can take post-disaster. For instance, do you halt operations while you help personnel gather themselves or do you resume operations at a limited capacity?

Establish multiple communication channels

Natural disasters can cripple communication lines in affected areas. To minimize the challenges one may cause, establish multiple channels where employees can receive critical information. Utilize ones such as:

  • Emails
  • SMS alerts
  • Intranet updates
  • Social media

Establishing a designated crisis communication team can streamline this process as well.

Strategy 2: Provide immediate resources and support

Prompt support is critical if you want to help employees cope with the effects of a natural disaster. To properly provide this, as well as essential resources, do the following:

Have emergency contacts available

Contacts such as local emergency services, healthcare providers, and your company’s internal support personnel give employees people to turn to for help.

Make sure that employees have them on-hand, before a calamity even strikes. Having these can influence how they fare through a trying event.

Facilitate access to necessities

A key component of this strategy is your ability to supply workers with the essentials.

Medical care

The necessary healthcare assistance will depend on your employees’ situations. For instance, if a natural disaster strikes while they’re at the workplace, you’ll need the ability to set up on-site support.

Affected workers who are away from the office, meanwhile, may benefit from coverage for any physical injuries or issues they sustained due to the calamity. Partnering with local healthcare providers can make these possible.

Shelter

Temporary shelter or accommodation will be an immediate need for displaced personnel. To secure their access to it, coordinate with local authorities. They typically make advanced preparations, especially in areas regularly stricken by natural disasters.

Food and water

It’s a given that food and water are essential to those affected by a calamity. So, keep some in stock in case of emergencies, particularly for employees who end up stranded on-site.

As for workers that need food and water in their areas, see if internal support personnel can supply them with some. If not, coordinate with your affected staff and the local authorities.

News and updates

Reliable and up-to-date information are key to navigating disasters as they occur, as well as the success of your response efforts.

Keeping employees informed, meanwhile, keeps them aware of their surroundings, lets them make informed decisions, and  helps them take the proper steps to stay safe and sound.

Offer flexible work arrangements

You can’t expect employees to properly work or return to the office before, during, or after a natural disaster, as they’ll have more pressing personal and family matters to attend to.

That being the case, allow them to take on flexible schedules or remote work options so that they can be productive whenever possible. Demonstrate further understanding and empathy by not pressuring them to perform as well. Their safety and well-being should be your top priority.

Provide transportation assistance

If you can’t operate without essential on-site personnel, offer them transportation assistance when needed.

Natural calamities can affect infrastructure and cripple transit routes, so provide shuttle services, ride-sharing arrangements, or financial support for commuting costs. Ensure that employees can easily reach their workplaces safely.

Strategy 3: Support for emotional and mental health

Immediate practical support may not be enough, given that catastrophes inflict more than just physical harm. To ensure the welfare of your employees, addressing emotional and mental issues is critical as well. Here’s how you can do that:

Provide psychological first aid

Psychological First Aid (PFA) addresses your employees’ immediate fears and anxieties, helping stabilize them mentally and emotionally. Trained professionals can provide such a service, allowing employees to cope with the stress and trauma they’re experiencing.

Emovation’s ElevateMinds programs, meanwhile, can bolster your PFA efforts, as they’re built on a thorough approach to mental well-being that aims to build a more resilient workforce. Our services include:

  • Mental health policy development assistance
  • Mental health consultation
  • Psychological testing
  • Comprehensive psychological evaluation
  • Psychoeducation and mental health training services
  • And more

Address survivor’s anxieties and frustrations

On the other hand, those facing the severe effects of a cataclysmic occurrence, such as the loss of their homes or loved ones, may be dealing with survivor’s guilt, frustration, or anxiety about the future.

Although PFA counteracts the initial psychological shock, some employees may have to contend with longer-lasting mental and emotional issues.

ElevateMinds can assist with these and guide employees towards mental wellness as well. We offer continued support and tailored follow-ups, for instance, that connect employees to broader resources and foster supportive environments.

If you want to learn more about how you can effectively support your personnel’s mental and emotional welfare throughout a catastrophic event, simply reach out!

Create an empathetic workplace

An understanding and encouraging culture is critical to maintaining your workforce’s mental and emotional stability, especially after experiencing a natural disaster.

Emotional intelligence (E.I.) training can help since it develops empathy, a key competency that allows people to place themselves in others’ shoes, share their feelings, and recognize their perspectives and needs.

In an emotionally intelligent workplace, employees can safely express their concerns, while leaders regularly check in to provide the necessary support. E.I. plays a central role in establishing mentally healthy environments as well!

Wrapping up—Prioritizing employee well-being during natural disasters is key

Calamities take a physical, mental, and emotional toll on employees. By securing their welfare first, however, organizations can mitigate their negative effects.

To do this, you must establish a robust support system that effectively communicates and responds to workers’ needs—one that provides them with the essentials, as well as the necessary medical and mental health support.

By helping them navigate such ordeals and demonstrating your commitment to their well-being, you foster an engaged, loyal, and resilient workforce. Ultimately, investing their welfare during a crisis is investing in your organization’s future and a foundation for long-term success.