Center for Human Resources Management
Center Events - Proceedings

November 14, 2001

NAPA Hosted its 1^st Quarter HR Directors Series Luncheon on November 14, 2001 to discuss HR Leadership in a Time of Crisis.  During the luncheon, attendees heard from the EEOC, a small agency who lost its facility housing approximately 95 employees at the World Trade Center Building No. 7.  The Agency's Chief Operating Officer Leonora Guarraia described how she assembled a critical incident response team to assist in recovering operations in the New York District Office.  The New York District Office Director Spencer H. Lewis described the type of data he initially needed from Human Resources in order to be able to locate each of his employees (ie - home and cellular telephone numbers), the type of counseling services he needed to make available to employees traumatized by the terrorist attacks and the support he needed from HR to immediately assure continuation of pay for each employee, as well as the subsequent re-creation of official employee records which were destroyed in the building collapse.  EEOC's Acting HR Director Arlethia Monroe discussed her efforts to mobilize the Headquarters HR staff to support the employees of the New York District Office while simultaneously managing the effort to convert to a new automated personnel information system.  The HR Director shared her thoughts about the type of  data HR needs to maintain on individual employees as well as the manner in which such data should be maintained, updated and stored.Attendees also heard from Joan Hunter, a registered psychiatric nurse who has managed occupational health programs for the US Public Health Service for over 10 years.  Ms. Hunter described how she worked in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide employee assistance to a consortium of over 430 federal agencies and operating divisions.

Click on: Slide Show to review Ms. Hunter's presentation on Managing Critical Incidents in Uncertain Times Ms. Hunter also shared handouts entitled: "Tips for Dealing with People's Reactions and the Threat of Anthrax"; "Dealing with Stress in Challenging Times";  and "Talking to Your Children About Anthrax", which are available by clicking on the titles of the handouts . Attendees also heard from Randi Mendelsohn a personnel professional with FEMA who described how FEMA had to shift its focus from managing natural disasters to creating a national security team which must now operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and the new employee issues which have emerged since the terrorist attacks occurred.  The attendees then engaged in an open dialogue about HR's responsibility for managing employee fears about coming to work, about traveling, and about handling the mail by sharing information and hosting employee briefings.  They discussed HR efforts to ensure agencies have readily accessible and accurate employee data and the concomitant need for employee-friendly portals to keep such information updated.  The discussion moved on to whether HR is or should be responsible for maintaining accurate personal data for contract employees.  Participants also discussed how they changed their approaches to processing death claims in the aftermath of September 11 and their recent efforts to get employees to update beneficiary information.  In fact, the Department of the Army has shared a copy of a memorandum it has issued to employees to encourage them to update their critical personal data. 

Click here: Memo Requesting Employees Update Critical Data to review the memo.  Luncheon attendees also discussed how they might solicit information from individuals with disabilities which may be helpful in the event of emergency evacuations; and HR's responsibility to remind employees of those policies which prohibit discrimination based on religion or national origin as well as other impermissible bases.

NAPA has scheduled its next quarterly HR Directors Series Luncheons at its offices at 1100 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 1090 East, Washington, D.C. 20005 on Thursday, January 24, 2002; Wednesday,, April 24, 2002; and Wednesday, July 24, 2002.  Please mark your calendars and plan to join us.