HR Responds to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

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HR Responds to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
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Responses to Katrina (and Rita)

• Company responses
• Employee reactions
• Long-term effects
• Lessons learned from local HR professionals
• Compilation of Best Practices

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Data Collection

• Entergy
• Survey of HRMA of New Orleans
• Stories in newspapers, magazines, etc.
• Personal contacts
• Limitations to this research

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Executive Summary of HRMA Survey

• 66 companies participated in the study with the
  following results
• Most are currently at least 75 or more of their
  pre-Katrina size in terms of number of employees.
• Larger companies (i.e., 500 or gt employees) are
  closer to their pre-Katrina employee size than
  are smaller companies.
• The majority.....
• expect to return to their pre-Katrina employee
  levels.
• provided some type of housing assistance to
  employees, but the type varied by industry and
  company size.
• intend to provide housing for as long as
  necessary.
• do not plan to permanently relocate jobs out of
  NOLA.
• have not instituted a retention program.
• implemented a number of unique informational,
  emotional, and financial HR practices to assist
  their employees.
• In addition, information from the news media on
  companies HR practices post Katrina provided
  additional support to the studys results.

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Company Demographics, cont.
Percentage of pre-Katrina employee base now
working

• The majority of companies are currently at least
  75 or more of their pre-Katrina size in terms of
  number of employees.
• 11 are operating with 50 or fewer of their
  pre-Katrina employees
• 83 expect to return to pre-Katrina staffing
  levels

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Housing Assistance
The majority of companies provided some type of
housing assistance to their employees.
Financial assistance generally came in the form
of stipends, but also included one time
grants. On-site housing assistance oftentimes
consisted of hotel rooms, dorm rooms, or FEMA
trailers on company property.
Type of housing assistance provided to
employees (numbers do not equal 66 because some
companies provided more than one type of
assistance)
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Relocation
Have you, or are you planning to,
permanently relocate any jobs out of the New
Orleans area?

• The vast majority of companies are not planning
  on permanently relocating jobs out of the New
  Orleans area.
• Of the 10 companies that have or plan to
  permanently relocate jobs out of the New Orleans
  area, 6 are providing relocation benefits and 3
  are providing severance benefits.

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Retention
Have you instituted a retention program?

• The vast majority of companies have not
  instituted a retention program.
• Of the 10 companies that have, 4 have increased
  wages for their non-exempt staff only, 2 have
  focused on critical positions only, 1 has
  increased wages for all employees regardless of
  FLSA status, 1 has offered sign on bonuses, 1 has
  countered job offers and 1 did not specify the
  details of their retention program.

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A Case Study Harrahs1

• More than 1200 workers were hired or rehired for
  the opening on 2/17/06.
• Harrahs did so without offering pay increases or
  bonuses.
• About half of Harrahs pre-storm workers
  returned.
• Every pre-Katrina employee who wanted to come
  back was offered a position, at the same rate of
  pay, even if it wasnt the same job they were
  doing before the storm.
• The company continued paying all employees their
  full pay for three months after Katrina and never
  stopped paying benefits. Employees who didnt
  return on 2/17 lost benefit coverage from that
  point forward
• Harrahs assigned two employees to act as housing
  agents for other workers. They locate available
  apartments, work with real estate agents, and act
  as go-betweens for the dislocated. In other
  cases the company has contacted apartment
  complexes and reserved apartments for workers.
• The housing shortage has not prompted the company
  to get into the trailer business as have other
  firms that have created trailer cities for
  their employees and families.
• The company has been able to hold onto its
  pre-Katrina workers because it offered
  pre-Katrina pay that was competitive and in some
  cases higher than the rest of the local market.

(i) Times Picayune, 2/17/06 Harrahs capitalizes
on loyalty to line up staffing to resume 24/7
operations today
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A Case Study Federal Agency

• HQ sent
• food, tents, water, vehicles, medical and other
  supplies
• gas tanks for affected employees to gas up when
  needed
• an RV to house affected employees
• replacement employees so affected employees could
  deal with aftermath of storm
• Field offices in Houston, Dallas, Little Rock and
  Memphis helped with locating employees,
  recovering trapped or lost family members, moving
  trees, removing vital files and objects from NO
  office
• Personal calls to all affected employees from
  agency director assistant director visited each
  affected employee weekly calls from HR to check
  on employees well-being, their families and
  homes
• Funds made available for employees to purchase
  chainsaws, generators, other needed equipment

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A Case Study Wal-Mart

• Financial assistance
• Provided cash assistance to more than 12,500
  associates impacted by the storm.
• Displaced associates eligible for up to 1,000
  from the Associate Disaster Relief Fund if their
  homes were flooded or destroyed.  Cash funding
  has helped associates with acquiring basic
  necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, etc.
  
• Provided associates with immediate pay for the
  first three days after the hurricane, whether or
  not they were scheduled to work.
• Additional assistance
• Initially, more than 34,000 Wal-Mart associates
  were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Using the
  Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and the set up
  of a Wal-Mart Emergency Information Line, the
  company has been in contact with 97.7 of those
  associates to verify that they are safe. 
• The Information Line was established to answer
  associates questions and concerns. The line has
  fielded more than 28,000 calls and assisted in
  helping Wal-Mart provide more than 9.2 million
  thus far in financial needs to impacted
  associates. 

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A Case Study Wal-Mart

• Additional assistance (continued)
• Offered employment to any associate displaced by
  the storm at a store, club or distribution
  convenient to their new location. Approximately
  2,400 displaced associates were able to relocate
  and work at stores.  Some relocated as far away
  as California and Nevada, but most are working in
  open stores in their home-state or states near
  the disaster area such as Tennessee, Georgia,
  Texas, and Florida.
• Wal-Marts online Emergency Contact Service has
  received 40,000 posts on its message board from
  associates alone.
• Waived medical and dental premiums during the
  initial pay period for hourly associates in
  affected areas.
• Many associates who were evacuated were found by
  other associates in the Houston Astrodome and at
  the George R. Brown Convention Center by
  management and associates walking around and
  holding signs at these locations to find them.