Summer is here, and that means Hurricane Season is upon us…

It’s time to review your insurance coverage to ensure you are adequately covered in case of an emergency, it’s also recommended to go over your Business Recovery Plan (BRP) & Employee Handbook to rehearse what you will do when our lucky streak eventually comes to an end.

One of the first things we we recommend you do is download the 2015 Guide to Hurricane Readiness. This guide published by Miami Dade County has a lot of valuable information on what you can do pre, during, and after a storm to prepare yourself and your family in the eventuality of a storm. Business owners can link to the guide from their websites and/ or employee facing portals and communicate its availability to all staff members. In case you need a reminder of what this all means, watch this.

Your Human Resources employees play a key role in ensuring the continuity of your business. Take a moment to review this short list of what you should be doing now as a business owner to prepare:

1. Meet with your HR provider and review a plan of action in the event of a storm.

2. Set-up (or test) your emergency information line (a/k/a severe weather line) is working and that all HR staff know how to use it. Ensure that an employee is assigned to update it frequently in the event of inclement weather conditions.

3. Ensure your employee facing web site is working and that all staff know how to access it. An IT employee should be assigned to update the site frequently before, during and after a storm as a means of communicating with all employees.

4. Meet with you HR provider to review plans for payroll/ cash distributions following a storm event; benefits-related issues (i.e. health care provider plan for prescription drugs and waiving copay, 401(k) hardship/storm-related withdrawals, out-of-area medical networks availability and waiving of co-pays, etc.).

5. Update all employee addresses, phone and emergency contact lists and distribute a copy to all members of your HR team.

You may have noticed a common theme from our recommendations, the key to maintaining your business during and after a hurricane is communication- and lots of it. With your HR leaders, with your Sr. Leadership team, and most of all with your employees and customers. Have a plan for what to do in the eventuality of a storm, rehearse it, and if the time comes- execute it.