Preparis Case Study: Alston + Bird LLP

A FORTUNE Magazine “100 Best Companies to Work For” law firm takes employee preparedness seriously.

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When a company is on the FORTUNE Magazine “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for 11 straight years, it’s obvious that they take the health and welfare of their lawyers and staff very seriously. So when leading law firm Alston + Bird decided to update their emergency preparedness strategy after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, everyone on the executive team joined the effort.

The Challenge

The Alston + Bird team are experts in law, not emergency preparedness. As they researched the many crisis situations that could possibly impact their nine offices nationally, it quickly became clear that they needed to implement a solution that would protect employees and their families. They also wanted a solution that could protect against different threats in different cities – earthquake preparedness in LA, and dirty bombs or anthrax in DC, for example.
“It was overwhelming,” said Cathy Benton, Chief Human Resources Officer, who oversaw the employee components of the preparedness process. “The number of possible threats and appropriate responses seemed endless, and the need to train across all of our offices throughout the United States further complicated the matter. The team was inundated.”

According to Ms. Benton, one of the company’s stated core values is a focus on employees. “When you’re planning for all the ’what ifs’, it’s one thing to establish redundant sites for technology purposes, and make sure there are alternate financial solutions. But more important – and more complicated – are the employees’ questions ‘what about me?’ and 'what about my family?’”

“There are so many external factors that impact emergency situations,” she continued. “Just think about the possibility of employee violence. With the economy so bad, more people are being forced into early retirement and some are even losing their homes. You add all these stressors and there’s a heightened potential for an incident.”

Solution

Alston + Bird chose Preparis for their workforce-centric emergency preparedness program.

“Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel?” asked Terry Stevens, Director of Benefits and Compensation. “Preparis already has the wheel. They know ‘in this situation, here’s what to do and not do.’ Why should we spend so much time trying to stay on top of issues that are not our core competency?”

Preparis offered a plethora of solutions, including:

• Analysis and Training – so each office was prepared to address the unique concerns of their region.
• The X-Force – a brain trust of experts on over 200 topics, posting alerts, offering insight, and responding to individual questions.
• SaaS – a hosted solution meant no software updates, and offered easy access to consistent information from offices anywhere.

The Alston + Bird team instantly understood the value. Before Preparis, they would see a crisis looming and have to do a lot of research to determine appropriate preparation and responses.

“Now when we see something on the horizon, like H1N1 for example, we don’t have to start from scratch,” continued Ms. Stevens. “We have someone to call or we can just go to our portal and quickly pull up information and responses in a moment’s notice.”

Alston + Bird has begun to train crisis team members with plans to complete a company-wide training shortly. They have already, however, learned to rely on Preparis training and access to expert data. “When you’re not an expert, you might think in certain emergencies that you should run to the top of a building for safety, but you should really be in basement. It’s not instinctive. You have to have access to the exact information on how to react and recover.”

The Benefits: Calm Partners and a Confident Workforce

The benefits of Preparis became crystal clear when clients and partners were attending a seminar in Atlanta in 2009. A tornado warning had been issued and Bill Top, Conference Services Attendant and Crisis Team Manager, heard that tornados had been spotted in the area. He sprung into action, his Preparis training ushering in the calm confidence to execute.

“It takes guts for a staff member to tell lawyers to do something,” offered Ms. Benton. “With the right training, an employee can go into a stressful situation and take charge. Bill took his Preparis Crisis Manager role seriously and ushered seminar attendees into a safe place. Our partners were thrilled, and the attending clients knew they had hired a forward-thinking firm.”

Ms. Benton highlights two reasons they’ve remained committed to Preparis: “Preparis helps Alston + Bird employees understand that they and their families are important to us; and Preparis makes our jobs easier, because even across nine different offices, we can rely on one resource to offer expert answers in each environment.”

Confidence and simplicity, delivered with one solution: Preparis.