Contingency Planning Strategies for Businesses

With several years of high-profile industry strikes and spikes of illness, it’s important to prepare your company for any disruptions.

In an ideal world, a contingency plan would never need to be used. However, in today’s uncertain, turbulent labor market, no business can afford not to have a well-developed manufacturing staffing plan in place and ready to implement.

Follow these steps to create a contingency plan.

1. Review Your Resources

Before disaster strikes, it’s important to take stock of your current resources so you can make a plan.

First, identify what your business can’t do without, this includes things like:

  • Key employees/positions
  • Computer systems and/or software
  • Physical space
  • Tools (manufacturing, packaging, assembly, technology, etc.)

 

Take the time to make a list of everything that’s critical to the daily operation of your business. From here, you can create plans of what to do if any of these elements are suddenly removed.

Related Content: How to Create a Strike Staffing Plan

2. Have Plans in Place

We recommend partnering with a staffing agency to create comprehensive plans, so you’ll immediately have a resource for filling staffing positions as you need to.

Preparation is critical for mitigating disaster. Planning for crises such as pandemics, natural disasters, labor disruptions, or other emergencies out of your control is one of Strom’s unique capabilities, and our expertise in business continuity plan development and execution comes from our years of developing plans and playbooks for multiple organizations in nearly every industry.

3. Partner with a Staffing Agency 

Our extensive time in the industry provides clients with an unparalleled depth of experience. Strom’s overriding goal is to provide employers with powerful negotiating leverage at the bargaining table through proper labor continuity planning.

We help our clients create contingency plans in the following ways:

Business Continuity Planning and Playbooks

Preparation is key to maintaining your normal business operations in the face of the uncertainty that comes with a global pandemic. Planning for crises such as pandemics, natural disasters, labor disruptions, or other emergencies out of your control is one of Strom’s unique capabilities, and our expertise in business continuity plan development and execution comes from our years of developing plans and playbooks for multiple organizations in nearly every industry.

Strom is a leading developer of workforce BCPs designed to help train and prepare managers for possible labor disruptions. Playbooks provide a significant level of comfort as a tangible resource that answers questions, defines company policies, and offers reassurance that the company does indeed have a manufacturing staffing shift plan to keep operations running in the event of a labor disruption or crisis. Strom can develop a singular playbook for a client’s management team or varying levels of playbooks for each location or manager.

Business Continuity Planning and Process Documentation

Strom provides technical writers and consultants for:

  • Job safety analysis
  • Physical demand documentation
  • Review of existing documentation
  • Documentation of job steps
  • Updating existing documentation
  • Capturing tribal knowledge
  • Process analysis
  • Review and revision of training material
  • Documents for management system design and implementation
  • Drawing packages in physical and digital mediums.
  • Our processes also highlight opportunities for process improvement and support organizational development.

 

NLRA T.I.P.S. Training and Picket Line Safety Training

Strom offers customized training that provides your salaried staff with knowledge and guidance on how to lawfully and effectively communicate with union membership to deliver a message consistent with company policy, strategy, and culture. Strom labor disruption consulting and training can reduce valid unfair labor practice charges and help to build positive relationships between salaried and hourly personnel while staying within NLRA guidelines.

Strom’s proactive salaried training program guides your company’s employees through situations that help them recognize and address labor union tactics and properly react to workplace disruptions. This training is designed to provide managers with (1) a basic understanding of the rights guaranteed to employees, managers, and employers under Section 7 & 8(a)(1)) of the National Labor Relations Act; (2) information necessary to identify when a manager might risk interfering with an employee’s rights; and (3) the information and tools they’ll need to feel safe coming to work should there be a Strike or Lockout. Strom’s training programs are custom-tailored to meet each client’s needs, including responding to union tactics, minimizing Unfair Labor Practice charges during labor negotiations, preparing for the return of the union workforce, and union avoidance training for non-represented sites.

Start Ups, Shutdowns, and Relocations

Strom provides business continuity planning and project management associated with manpower services to meet your startup, shut down, or relocation needs. Strom can provide personnel to assist with:

  • Responding to workforce attrition after closure announcements
  • Equipment/machinery moving, including disconnect, rigging, packaging, crating, and shipping
  • Equipment/machinery connections, setup, and testing
  • Facilities preparation/setup and facilities maintenance, mock and initial production runs
  • Production and maintenance manpower, including supplemental or full workforce for production pre-shutdown or upon startup, bargaining unit mitigation in your new location

Interested in our contingency planning services?

Learn more about how we plan for the unexpected


Strom Engineering is a national staffing and recruitment agency, with a particular focus on manufacturing, engineering, assembly, and other trade positions. We match skilled candidates to temporary or project staffing positions. Learn more about how it works and check out our case studies for more information.