Chehalem Business Connection
November 2013
Page 14
impact the way your brain works. Dur-
ing extreme situations, your brain
moves away from abstract thinking,
making even simple tasks — eating,
sleeping, and solving basic math prob-
lems — difficult. If you’re already in
the habit of doing things to help you
cope with everyday stress, such as ex-
ercise, relaxation techniques, or a
hobby, that will put you at an advan-
tage for dealing with a sudden crisis.
It’s also important that you don’t turn
to unhealthy habits as a way to cope,
such as the use of nicotine, alcohol or
drugs.
Examine your relationships
Close relationships with family and
friends can be invaluable at times of
distress. Those with strong support net-
works tend to manage these challenges
better and recover quicker. By working
to strengthen these relationships now,
you’ll have a strong support system in
place to lean on in times of crisis.
For a business owner or manager,
Levine said it’s important to develop a
crisis response plan and make sure you
are familiar with its details so that in
times of need, you can respond quickly
and calmly.
“When developing your response
plan, consult with crisis experts or your
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
provider to help design a plan that fits
your workplace, including a strategy
for providing counseling services to
employees after a crisis in order to re-
duce the long-term effects of mental or
emotional trauma,” he said. “When
tragedy strikes in the workplace, the re-
sponse of leadership is critical to ensur-
ing that employees remain healthy and
productive.”
Levine said leaders should focus on
remembering the “A.C.T.” crisis com-
munication process — “Acknowledge,
Communicate and Transition.” He said
this process has been found to be help-
ful for individuals and organizations as
they recover from a stressful situation.
Acknowledge and name the incident
Be visible and available, and use
real language that specifically de-
scribes what occurred. Acknowledge
that the incident has impacted the team
and yourself. This action can align
leaders with their employees and re-
duce the likelihood of creating an at-
mosphere of blame and stagnation.
Communicate with compassion and
competence
Employees want to know that lead-
ership cares about their safety and
well-being, and is capable of leading
effectively in the wake of a crisis. Dur-
ing these difficult times, employers and
managers must “know their stuff”
when it comes to the logistics of re-
sponding to a crisis, but also be able to
communicate in a compassionate way.
Other colleagues or a crisis expert
could be helpful in providing guidance
as leaders prepare to talk to their staff
about what happened.
Begin to transition
Convey an expectation of recovery
to help those who are impacted make
the transition to viewing themselves as
a “survivor” rather than a “victim.”
Communicate flexible and reasonable
accommodations as people progress
back to “normal” life at work. Some
employees will be able to immediately
function at full productivity; for those
who take longer to get back to normal,
you can help hasten their recovery by
assigning tasks that are familiar and
short-term.
In business, the power of planning is
a well-documented key to success —
and Levine said it’s no different when
it comes to responding to a workplace
crisis.
“While operating through a crisis
will never be an easy task, taking these
steps now will help make the situation
— should it arise — more manageable
in the future,” he said. “Whether you’re
an employee, manager, or bystander to
a crisis, following these steps, along
with knowing about your employer’s
critical incident policies, EAP and
other support resources, will help you
manage the unexpected.”
For information on emotional health
and dealing with crisis, visit
www.live
andworkwell.com.
Crisis:
Attempt techniques to relax
Continued from page A12
A
job transfer usually is a good
thing. Hopefully the transfer
signals a promotion as you take
your career a step further up the ladder,
bringing about new and fun challenges in
the workplace. But the transition itself is
often not easy, especially if it involves
moving your home and family to a new
location.
Businesses often give transferred em-
ployees less than two weeks (11 days) to
accept a transfer offer and once accepted,
an average of 33 days to move and report
to the new job, according to Worldwide
ERC, a professional association for work-
force mobility. That isn’t much time to
find a new home, put the old home up for
sale or subleasing and plan a move that
could be across town, across state lines or
across the country.
Resources are available to help ease
the stress of your job transfer. They in-
clude:
Your company
Before you accept the job transfer
offer, check with your human resources
department on what services or financial
compensation your company offers.
Many companies outsource relocation
services or cover selected services like
providing rental moving trucks for em-
ployees. Be aware that the average cost of
shipping household goods for a domestic
transfer was around $12,459 in 2012, ac-
cording to Worldwide ERC.
Truck rental
Much of the moving process involves
the transfer of your household goods.
Truck rental companies like Penske help
to make this process much easier. For ex-
ample, Penske, which is a member of
Worldwide ERC, has a dedicated cus-
tomer service and sales team within its
existing call center to serve the special-
ized needs of employee relocations. The
company also added services like moving
labor to help customers load and unload
the rental trucks, new self-storage options
for movers and customized billing options
for each of these services to make the cor-
porate transfer much smoother.
“Time, cost and ease of use are of the
essence with an employee relocation
move,” said Don Mikes, senior vice pres-
ident of rental for Penske. “We have a
solid solution to make the process easy
ranging from rental trucks, towing equip-
ment and moving supplies to services be-
yond the truck such as self-storage and
moving labor.”
House hunting
Searching for a new home could be the
most stressful part of relocating. Many
employees will opt for temporary housing
like apartments or extended-stay hotels
for the first couple months of the transfer.
This allows them to get a feel for the
community and take the time to review
homes for sale. However, if you prefer to
purchase a home right way, contact the
human resources department at your new
location to ask for real estate agents refer-
rals. Also take your search online. Be-
tween MLS listings with photos and on-
line mapping tools, you can narrow your
search quickly to preferred homes, allow-
ing you to make an appointment once
with your real estate agent to tour the
homes and hopefully make an offer.
House selling
On the other end of the spectrum, you
also have a home to sell. Many home-
owners are opting to hire a management
company and rent out the home, with the
intent to sell in the future once they have
their life organized in the new location
and have the time to list the home with a
real estate agent. Management companies
handle the review of rental applicants, the
background checks, collect the rent and
take care of any emergency maintenance
concerns that might occur, allowing the
homeowner to concentrate his energies on
the new job.
The job transfer process may feel over-
whelming, but with these resources avail-
able to assist you with the transfer, you’ll
find yourself quickly settling into the new
office and digging into the challenges of
the new job.
Take the stress out of a
job transfer move
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