National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month (NPM). The goal of NPM is to increase public awareness about the importance of preparing for emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks, at home, work and school. It is “designed to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.” Events and activities across the nation encourage individuals and businesses to get an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan, and get involved in preparing their communities. National Preparedness Month is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Ready Campaign. This week’s articles focus on some of the things you should be considering during the month.

Gain access to resources to help you observe National Preparedness Month. (Item #1) How do you measure your readiness quotient? (Item #2) It’s almost flu season; what can you do to get ready? (Item #3)

Here’s some advice on what you need to include in your survival kit. (Item #4) Take action before the disaster strikes and things may go more smoothly if it happens. (Item #5) What can you do to protect your business, employees and customers? (Item #6)


Read all about National Preparedness Month in this issue of the NewsBriefs at http://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs

Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning has become a priority in many businesses, but there are many in which it has not. How does it rate in your organization? Do you have a plan? Do you test it, update it, and educate your employees about it? Whatever the status of your plan, you will find helpful information in this week’s articles.

Good business continuity plans will keep your company up and running through interruptions of any kind. (Item #1) Having a strong continuity plan in place means that a natural disaster doesn’t have to be a complete catastrophe for your business. (Item #2) FEMA’s ReadyBusiness pages offer much helpful information about what you need to do to stay in business after a disruption. (Item #3)

AT&T research finds business continuity planning more common, and takes into account more issues including supplier readiness. (Item #4) The next incident is always the one you have not thought of! (Item #5) The first step to determining where your disaster recovery center should be is to map the probable threats to your company. (Item #6)


The full issue is available at http://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs

Getting Buy-in

Buy-in. Without it, sometimes you just can’t get plans approved or implemented. You need management approval to get started, but you need everyone’s buy-in to make plans successful. The articles below discuss getting buy-in from everyone in order to bring your plans to reality and to actually put them into use.

Here are some common problems encountered when implementing a new project and practical steps to overcome these. (Item #1) Managers don’t often see the value in projects that don't immediately deliver ROI. (Item #2) Buy-in is achieved by continually including, in all aspects of the implementation process, the people who will use and be responsible for the solution. (Item #3)

Here are five steps toward management buy-in. (Item #4) These tips will help you get your proposals accepted. (Item #5) The cost of not getting buy-in is immense. (Item #6)


Read it all and subscribe at http://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs

Workplace Violence

Between 1992 and 2006 (the latest year for which figures are available) workplace homicides averaged 800 per year. Studies show that 1 million or more violent situations occur in the workplace every year! Workplace violence is very real and can explode anytime and anywhere. Threats, bullying, physical violence and even gossip can be classified as workplace violence, and any of these situations could lead to litigation, which could cost you plenty and even damage your reputation. Read this week’s articles to see how you can help prevent incidents of workplace violence.

While policies and raising awareness can't completely insulate any nonprofit from the risk of workplace violence, it will help. (Item #1) While you can't always predict and prevent workplace violence, you can plan to limit its impact. (Item #2) This article looks at the problem of employee violence and what employers can do to deal with the issue and prevent a potentially devastating event in their workplaces. (Item #3)

The initial step is to assess the potential threat of workplace violence based on the nature of your business and on the types of facilities and their locations. (Item #4) By being more aware of our people and our actions, we can often prevent violence long before it has a chance to touch us. (Item #5) Litigation can result from any incident of violence in the workplace. (Item #6)

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