Michigan businesses may not be prepared to protect employees or cope with production loss from bioterrorism scares, a recent study suggests.
A survey conducted by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at MSU found 73 percent of Michigan corporations have crisis management teams.
But only 12 percent of the corporations surveyed have teams that include the issue of bioterrorism.
The survey consisted of 70 responses from the more than 100 companies that were invited to participate in the study.
Brenda Wrigley, an MSU assistant professor of public relations, said the survey had been planned long before recent events of terrorist attacks and anthrax outbreaks.
She had been working with Charles Salmon, an MSU professor of public relations, on the study.
She said 47 percent of the respondents said if they did not have a plan, one would be in place in the next five years.
“It takes a while for companies to gather information,” she said. “Companies have lawyers and management that have to look over things.”
But those companies that don’t have a plan might be restricted from ever developing one. Wrigley said money, time and resources are reasons why these plans are not developed.
“The other reason is the belief is that those kinds of things happen to other people,” she said.
But there are methods to be prepared. Companies can hire outside consultants to train employees in what to do in case of emergencies, such as bomb threats or suspicious packages.
Wrigley said there are a number of components that have to be looked at when dealing with an emergency plan.
She said having one spokesperson, a resource team to deal with the different components of the corporation and communicating with the public and employees can effectively prepare a company.
“You can’t plan for every crisis, but there are crises you can plan for, like natural disasters,” she said.
But two major Michigan companies already have plans for crises.
Renee Rashid, a spokeswoman for General Motors Corp., said the company has a full crisis plan, which includes the containment and protection of the issue. But this still hasn’t made the company safe from anthrax scares.
“We have had some hoaxes and some pranks that have been staged, but we have addressed those and people have been handled,” she said.
Leslie Hatfield, spokeswoman for The Dow Chemical Company, said the company has always had a crisis management team.
“(Reaction to crises) is drilled periodically, so that is how we stay prepared,” she said. “It just makes things a lot smoother to have preparation.”
