Loss of Key Staff

In this age of doing more with less, or with fewer employees, businesses tend to rely on key staff who, because of leadership, unique skills, and/or organizational memory holds a special position in the organization. However, loss of key staff due to unexpected death, illness or injury, can have a very negative impact on business operations and remaining staff. This loss can be mitigated by good internal communications, cross-training, sharing of information and records, and progress reports. However, it is key to ensure the mental health of surviving employees especially in a traumatic event.

Nowhere is this more obvious than the experiences of the September 11th tragedy and those businesses in the World Trade Center. While the loss experienced by the companies within the towers was traumatic, both for the organizations and individuals, the lessons learned involving compassion and recovery are appropriate for all businesses. Here there were two major concerns: (1) the mental health of the surviving employees and (2) the operational devastation. The people need to be functioning to get the operation back in gear. Without the operation, the company can no longer exist.

Support and validation go a long way in the initial phases of healing. A special part in Section III addresses Employee Support and Screening, a critical component when dealing with loss, especially an unexpected loss or one connected with violence or suicide.

Secondly, organizations must confront trauma and loss like individuals do. The first stage of recovery, safety and control, includes focusing on the job at hand. For businesses this means hiring new employees, finding temporary and then permanent quarters, re-establishing technical and client connections and getting back to work. Once control is established, the second stage is remembrance and mourning. People must mourn their colleagues and friends in order to be able to accept new employees and be ready to move forward. Leaders must help employees mourn by permitting it to occur.

The final stage of grief is reconnecting to normal life. It is during this stage here there is a potential challenge to become even stronger and better than before. Dr. Judith Herman, M.D., a noted trauma expert at Harvard University School of Medicine, suggests that as "individuals transform from victim to survivor, they may feel a new sense of pride and a healthy admiration of strengths and potential. Similarly, organizations can also find themselves transformed. A management that can build and sustain trust during a crisis will deepen employee connections."