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Houston’s Elevate CHRO Forum – Responses to Hurricane Harvey Disaster

From the beginning of the Houston Elevate CHRO Forum, it has been our hope to provide an arena where the most senior HR leaders in Houston come together and work together to determine best practices for their companies, employees and community.  During the difficult days following Hurricane Harvey, Kari Durham, SVP-HR for Goodman Global, asked us to distribute 5 questions to the Elevate Forum.  The intent was to generate ideas on how to support employees during this time and afterwards.  It also generated further questions and dialogue.  

We are grateful to have been able to support this interaction and the inherent trust and respect the Houston HR community has in each other during this challenging time.  Please see below for all the amazing practices and ideas deployed for impacted employees and their families.

How are you working with your external partners? 

  • We put our hotel partners on notice that we would need help in finding hotel rooms.  Our travel vendor books the rooms for our employees.  We have a special number Houston employees can call so they don’t have any delay in getting through.    
  • We are working with our relocation provider to identify short term housing for those impacted.    We will support this financially for a timeframe.   In some cases, we are looking at relocating some critical employees (and their families) to other US offices as our Houston office is flooded.   
  • We marshalled our security provider to put together teams (contractors with boats) to go in and rescue our employees if they needed evacuation and were not having success with the local authorities.  We got approval for this operation from the local Houston authorities. 
  • We reached out to our respective contractor agencies to ensure our contractors were accounted for and supported. 
  • Our Texans’ partnership is a mode for us to further extend the bond with the community.  We select and provide game-day tickets to Harvey survivors or heroes and recognize them at the game.  As an extension of the partnership, we invite a Texans’ player to help deliver products to the home of another Harvey survivor/hero. 
  • We have put our EAP vendor on notice for employees needing additional support other than financial, housing.      

How are you setting up processes to collect and distribute donations, especially if you do not have a Foundation? 

  • We have activated our Disaster Relief Foundation to raise funds for employees impacted by the storm. We are giving employees across the company the opportunity to make donations to the Foundation and we will match those donations dollar for dollar. Customers and vendors are also welcomed to make donations. 
  • Implementing a company relief fund where employees (globally) can make donations that will go directly to colleagues and matched 100% by the company. 
  • All donations to the Charitable Foundation through the end of September will be donated to local charities. 
  • Funds have been set up so that employees and vendors/partners/affiliates can contribute to employee relief.  These funds will be matched 100% by the company.  The intent of this program is to provide larger grants (not bridge to FEMA) to impacted employees.  We are not intending to adjudicate claims; simply provide grants based on whether the impacted employee is a homeowner or a renter. 
  • We have an existing Employee Relief Fund.  We have done a campaign for Houston this week with a 100% match of all donations.   Donations are tax deductible.  We have an outside company that manages this for us.  We have communicated to Houston employees how to apply for funds.   
  • We have an internal group collecting supplies and money via a gofundme page.

Are you providing additional benefits to impacted employees? 

  • We have reserved several hotel rooms in the locations where our employees live.  This is for our employees and their families who need to leave their house and don’t have anywhere to go. 
  • We allow our employees who have been evacuated to hotels to charge the cost to their corporate card and we pay for it.   If they charge to their personal card it will be reimbursed.    
  • We have ordered bunker houses (mobile units) for our plant employees who are on site and who cannot leave.  If we don’t need them for these employees we will offer them to impacted employees and their families. 
  • For immediate needs, we are providing gift cards to associates who need clothing and necessities. 
  • Our Houston offices will be closed all week, and we will pay associates for scheduled time. 
  • We are putting in a few paid days over the next few weeks to enable our employees to volunteer. 
  • Exploring establishing a 4-day work week on a temporary basis to allow managers to help employees dedicate one day a week to personal/home/family recovery. 
  • Providing temporary housing for those displaced by water damage and total loss. 
  • Providing assistance through the claims process by fellow employees who have been through this before. 
  • The Board and Executive team have raised personal funds that will go directly to the employees in need.   
  • Volunteer group made up of employees who will assist their teammates in rebuilding their lives by helping clear debris, tearing up carpet or whatever else needs to be done.  
  • Providing financial assistance to impacted employees with immediate needs – our philosophy being to provide a bridge to FEMA/insurance payments coming through.  These payments are related to damage to housing, cars, belongings and housing offsets related to evacuations.
  • Setting up a benevolence fund.  In addition to the company funding this account, we are also matching contributions 100% from employees, customers, vendors.   
  • To connect our employees and customers across the company’s national footprint to its Houston home, we will activate an in-store children’s toy or book donation effort. 
  • To engage the company’s employees in the community outreach efforts, we call on associates to identify Houston citizens they know who faced considerable damage to their home or were in danger — neighbors, family, friends.  Upon identifying a set of survivors, we work with the organizations who came to the survivors’ rescue and coordinate a special reunion with the parties to celebrate their bond. We donate products to the heroes and the survivors at the reunion event. 
  • We conduct special “Heroes Among Us” event(s) in school assembly settings to recognize local heroes.  Our associates are tasked to help seek out citizen heroes/people they know who went above and beyond to help.  At the events, we donate products to the school and to the select heroes based on their needs. 
  • Providing tips for “returning home” and electrical safety along with clean-up instructions 
  • We have opened our corporate apartments for employee use.  We have also approved corporate credit card use for associates needing immediate assistance for lodging or food.  We will track the expenses and use our emergency fund to cover them. 

How are you coordinating your own relief efforts? 

  • We are supplying food / water donations to the Houston Food Bank, the GRB Convention Center, other evacuation centers and relief agencies. 
  • We are assessing our own impacted employees (with a priority on those in shelters) and to identify employees who wish to volunteer to help them. 
  • We have earmarked money to support the relief effort. A portion will go directly to our employees (with matching company funds) and a portion will go to American Red Cross and potentially other disaster relief agencies. 
  • We are working on a teaming with another local business to donate power for relief workers- powering to enable food prep or comfort. 
  • We are providing temporary power, drying, and dehumidification to many schools, hospitals and businesses. 
  • Daily calls with the leadership team and constructed an extensive crisis management structure (beyond initial disaster recovery) with focus areas lead by key top leaders.
  • Daily communications being distributed to all employees with regular updates and links to helpful information, resources, phone numbers. 
  • Established an employee helpline serviced by internal company call agents 24/7 to:  
    • Take employee requests for support/assistance 
    • Provide immediate financial assistance for employees needing groceries/supplies (money is wired) 
    • Locate temporary hotel accommodations and direct bill to company or reimburse employees for expenses 
    • Take employee offers for support/assistance – match-up to employee needs for support/assistance 
  • We have an automated system that sends a blast text out to every employee in a particular area so that they can respond to with their status (safe, needs help, etc.).  We then assign an HR case manager to each employee needing help and reach out to offer whatever assistance they need:  financial support, hotel or short-term lodging, etc.  Our case managers have authority to distribute cash if needed, arrange transportation (rental car if needed), hotels etc. 
  • We set up an emergency employee hotline that is manned 24/7.  Any issues that come in are handed over to our HR case manager system.    
  • We have created a dedicated electronic bulletin board for employees to exchange housing availability and needs as some folks whose houses have not been impacted want to open their homes to other employees that have been affected.   
  • We are working on plans for post flood – getting food, clothing, supplies to our folks and even setting up support in filling out FEMA/insurance paperwork, emergency loans, etc.   
  • We have a crisis management team in place. We have calls daily which encompasses all parts of our business.  We are 24/7 and have not stopped working since Harvey hit.  I’m working remote from another state and our Executives are at remote locations as well. 

Any additional advice you would be willing to share? 

  • We developed guidelines for managers to provide the following: 
    • Empower managers to provide maximum flexibility for employees impacted for next two weeks 
    • Provide 40 hours base pay for all employees regardless of hours worked through 9/15 (including how to handle time reporting) 
    • Establish a process for evaluating longer term leave needs after 9/18 
    • FAQs 
  • Prior to the storm, we got shipments of water, cleaning supplies, batteries, etc. into Texas for distribution to employees post flood.   
  • We have a mobile unit (trailer) that has electricity, computers, printers, wifi etc. that we staged in Texas prior to the storm so we can get it to our employees quickly to ensure they have connectivity and can recharge their phones, PCs, etc.