In response to the recent landfall of Hurricane Matthew, we would like to share the Top 5 Tips to Prepare your Company and Employees for a Hurricane that we have learned from personal experience:
1) Make sure you have insurance. First things first – make sure you’re covered! At Paragon Events, we are enrolled in an Event Insurance plan, which offers coverage that will reimburse a meeting or event in the case of a cancellation due to a named hurricane. Coverage includes room rate differentials and any extra expense of rescheduling the meeting or event.
2) Back up your computer and company server. Days before Hurricane Matthew hit, our Information Technology specialists were focused on backing up our company computers and server. Though we do back ups on a regular basis, it is especially important to before a storm to prevent data loss or software damage.
3) Protect essential business records and confidential documents. Our entire office worked together to ensure all important records and documents were locked up in a secure area that would protect against any possible flooding or in the scenario of our building loosing power and being unarmed. Top level employees were responsible for taking home crucial files such as password lists and accounting information.
4) Establish a communications policy between yourself and employees. Prior to closing the office, we set a plan in place of when we would expect to reopen and if there was significant damage, to arrange to work remote. In addition, our office maintain a company-wide group chat that included consistent updates and reassurance of everyone’s safety.
5) Assign key employees to contact clients, suppliers and/or creditors before and after your recovery. Automatic email messages were crafted and set before closing the office to alert clients in other areas of the country of our current situation and assure them of status updates. In addition, our company phone number was linked to specific employees’ cell phones to further maintain communication. Finally, those working on projects affected by Hurricane Matthew were responsible for contacting venues and vendors for proper credit and transfer of materials.
Thankfully, our headquarters in Delray Beach, FL remained safe and sound as we were fortunate enough to avoid the path of Hurricane Matthew. As a company, we are proud of everyone’s efforts to prepare for the storm and show our clients how much we really care – rain or shine! To our neighboring cities in northeast Florida and other areas affected by Hurricane Matthew, we wish you a smooth and speedy recovery!
