Planning ahead of tragedies

Businessman spreading multi layer umbrella to cover rain.

What would you do if a valued member of your team died suddenly and unexpectedly?

What is the worst that could happen to your business and leave it reeling? Perhaps if a key team member, partner or director unexpectedly passed away?

For a close-knit recruitment team, losing someone can be devastating, both for colleagues and for clients, particularly if the person has been their key contact for a long time.

We don’t like to think about this but it really is best to be prepared. This is why contingency planning/disaster recovery is so important.

My business suffered the sudden and tragic death of a much-valued colleague and friend so let me share some learnings.

Broad issues – contingency planning

However well-designed your procedures for the saving of documents etc, both people and systems are fallible. This means that training staff and reinforcing policies and procedures are of vital important.

Regular reminders of the importance of saving work, including contracts, to the correct place are required. Also ensuring that files are saved regularly, not only when a draft is completed. This becomes even more important if staff work remotely. And there should be a contingency if a remote worker cannot get onto a cloud-based server – such as arranging for a copy of what they have worked on to be emailed to a colleague. Also, all remote workers should have a back-up to cover for Wi-Fi issues – for example, using mobile data connected to their phone, even for just long enough to email documents to another team member.

What if the remote team members dies and you cannot get their laptop or other equipment back? If they’ve saved their work to the cloud, then the loss of equipment won’t be as big a deal as it would be if they had just saved a substantial amount of work to their work to their laptop hard drive.

Specific issues to consider if a key member of staff passes away

  • How are you going to contact all of the clients they dealt with and manage any outstanding work they may have left? This is potentially a huge issue where that person works remotely and you cannot immediately access their records. Ensuring that you have a shared calendar and contacts list so you can contact clients to let them know what is going on is a must if you are to reduce the impact of a sudden loss of a key member of staff.
  • Can you prove the equipment they use belongs to the company? If they are using company equipment, make sure you have receipts and the serial numbers for the equipment logged. You want to avoid company equipment being counted as part of the deceased’s estate. It could potentially be passed to their heirs with whom you have no relationship or contact.
  • What if they use their own laptop and mobile phone? If they use their own equipment, then make sure you have an agreement about how company data is stored. Ensure it is not held on local files. Include contingencies to cover loss of Wi-Fi and server issues. This will have to be enforced; this agreement needs to pass to the deceased’s estate and therefore to their heirs. It also needs to be considered from a data protection perspective. Ensuring you have remote access means that if something happens, you can delete all access, to all company files. I’d highly recommend looking into this, especially when staff are using their own equipment.
  • What will the arrangements be if your remote staff are actually based miles away, even abroad? How will you be informed? This is something you will need to discuss with your staff member and agree a process. Look at the logistics of where the person is working from: how far away they are, language barriers you may encounter with local officials, etc. And establish some local contacts to assist you.
  • Do you have the contact details of your staff’s next of kin or nominated representative? Do they have your contact details? As a recruiter I’m sure you’ll gather this information during the on-boarding process, but regular checks with staff to get them to confirm the details you hold remain current is essential.

Planning ahead in 5 steps

  1. A process for contacting clients and managing outstanding incomplete work
  2. A system to log ownership of equipment used by remote workers to avoid any possibility that it gets included in the deceased estate
  3. Remote access for all company materials so you can remove access/delete files to avoid data privacy issues (particularly if some is using non-company equipment)
  4. Keeping next of kin / nominated representative information current
  5. Agree a process with remote staff on how you will be informed if problems arise

We may never want to believe something so devastating could happen to us or our colleagues, but it is an unfortunate fact of life that it can. Putting plans in place to cover these worst-case scenarios won’t prevent the inevitable sense of loss, but they will at least alleviate some of the stress that such events can cause.

Jane Robson is CEO of the National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP), a non-profit membership body.

Image credit | Shutterstock

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