How your company can maximise Disaster Relief - part 2

This is the concluding part in our Disaster Response blogs which discusses businesses’ response to disasters. You may recall from the previous blog that we convened 20 CSR experts from various industries to discuss businesses’ role in disaster relief response

But what did the research findings mean for our roundtable participants?

The research prompted a dynamic discussion. In particular participants recognised the disruptive nature of disasters and how they impact both communities and businesses. This includes the tangible impact, ie through supply chain interference and emotional impact that affects employees through the loss of lives, livelihoods and morale.

The top five insights are:

1. How important is it? – companies must consider where and how disasters can impact their business. There is a critical need to decide whether a strategic, operational, employee driven or philanthropic response is required. This includes how much time, resource, and donations you wish to give. Paramount is the need to develop a coordinated approach to disaster response, which factors in risk, communications and appropriate distribution of funds or support.
2. Global vs local – identifying and understanding what is material to your company and your employees at a local and international level allows you to decide what and how much is expected. An effective approach is a centralised strategy with in-built flexibility that remains true to your core tenets, but can be adaptive at a moments notice when disasters occur. One way to achieve this is to empower local employees to take action. Alternatively, support a charity partner which has a strong local-level footprint in areas that are business relevant.
3. Leverage your assets – business should consider its assets and how best to leverage them in relation to disaster response - assessing where they can make the biggest impact. This can be either a short-term immediate response or longer term engagement. For example, retailers can quickly galvanise fundraising efforts with employees and customers to support immediate relief efforts. Whereas legal firms may choose to offer more long-term support by re-establishing legal infrastructure in disaster hit areas, which often find themselves in a  state of emergency.
4. Immediate vs. investigative vs. responsive – should your company be flexible and responsive to disaster response, placing employee engagement at the core of your strategy? Or should your company decide on a set amount of annual donations for charities that actively develop preventative measures for disasters? Both of these strategies are valid, but accompany different operational requirements. When deciding between strategies, it is also crucial to consider the impact you want to make beyond the immediacy of giving.
5. Should employees respond by volunteering? – when considering the utilisation of employees as volunteers, it is important to understand the opportunities, limitations and potential risks. This may not be initially obvious without engaging a charity partner who will have the disaster response expertise to understand how best to deploy your staff. This can often be done remotely and include preventative, reactive and long term development requirements.