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Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/123770
COVER STORY power and all state roads were closed. NJ was under a state of emergency. Cell phone service was severely compromised and texting was sporatic. On Wednesday morning, I started a texting chain to the Partners in Charge of ofces that were down. I informed them that our IT group had taken over the firm's internal website and posted a status update for each location, informing our staf of the physical condition of their ofce and the resources that were and were not available. In addition, point people in each office, used texting to notify staf to consult with our home page as soon as they had access to power and the internet. and around our clients. Our staf are encouraged to take active roles in their communities and volunteer their time to help non-profit and similar community-based organizations. spending days doing nothing but helping in our communities any way that they could. When the office received a call for help to clean out a f looded school or hand out hot meals to those who were suddenly Supporting Staff & the Community WHILE THERE WAS NO PHYSICAL DAMAGE TO YOUR OFFICES, HOW MANY STAFF MEMBERS HAD SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO THEIR HOMES? BOURKE: Many of our staf sustained some form of physical damage to their homes and three people's homes were totally destroyed. A majority of our staf were without power for about four days, while others in the hardest hit areas, including myself and our managing partner, were without power for over two weeks. DID THE FIRM OFFER ASSISTANCE TO STAFF/BUSINESSES/GENERAL COMMUNITY? BOURK E: WS+B subsequent ly established an Employee Assistance Fund. Te fund solicited donations from our staf for our staf. In addition, the firm also put in place a matching program to match the frst $50,000 of contributions made by our staff. To date, the firm has already made distributions to a few of ou r sta f f to help w it h t hei r rebuilding process. In addition, as mentioned earlier, so many of our staf gave back to the communities where our ofces are located. Unlike other frms that have gone through a consolidation process, WS+B believes in being physically located in the communities in 10 WHAT WERE THE FIRM'S EXPECTATIONS REGARDING HOW STAFF MEMBERS WERE TO COMMUNICATE/ WORK/TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS/ETC? BOURKE: Since nothing like this has ever happened in my 26 years at the frm, the initial expectations were the same as any other storm: Take work home, try to be as productive as possible, communicate with your associates and clients and make up for lost time when the storm passed. In reality, staf ran out of work to do at home, with the prolonged period of bad weather, many were siting in the dark unable to communicate with family members, let alone business associates and clients. When my ofce opened with power and internet on Thursday, November 1, it was a "different" place. It was almost as though everyone had changed and life's priorities were turned upside down. We had a fuel shortage with gas stations unable to receive fuel, nor pump gas, leaving many gas stations with lines well over an hour long. Traveling to clients was not even in the picture, with many staff carpooling with other. Foremost on ever yone's m i nd wa s tea m i ng together to help those in our commu n it ie s t h at we re s udde n l y homeless. Ou r sta f f ended up May 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com homeless, they jumped. From a management perspective, we supported our staf during this period, as we saw how passionate they were about helping others. For client and staf communication, since cell service was compromised, we learned quickly the only way to communicate was texting, when it worked. Texting allowed us to keep in touch with our clients and staf. The View from the Managing Partner: WHAT WERE THE GREATEST CHALLENGES THAT SANDY CAUSED FROM A MANAGING PARTNER PERSPECTIVE? BIL L H AG A M A N, CPA – CEO, MANAGING PARTNER: Te greatest challenge was rising above the tremendous emotional reaction our partners and staff were facing in light of the devastation they were experiencing, either personally or through their friends and family. Once we had a sense that our people were safe, we had to immediately think about geting back to being operational as a business, establishing some sort of communication with ever yone via their mobile devices or word of mouth. Then fnally, as electrical power began to be reconnected and roads were clearing for safe travel, we worked on geting our ofces and IT infrastructure back up and running. THE OVERALL PRODUCTIVITY OF THE FIRM IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, HOW DID YOU BALANCE THIS BUSINESSFOCUS WITH THE UNIQUE HARDSHIPS SUDDENLY FACED BY MANY OF YOUR STAFF AND CLIENTS? HAGAMAN: Tere are certain times when dollars and cents need to take a back seat. We have a group of partners and staf who are motivated to make our frm successful, and we trust them. Our message was simple: take care of what you have to at home and with your families, and then worry about work. We were generous with time of and didn't make anyone take vacation or sick time to deal with storm related issues. We just requested that they communicate their availability so we cou ld ma ke prov isions for meeting client deadlines. www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/10915203 Tere is much more to the story of how WithumSmith+Brown survived and learned fom Superstorm Sandy. Read the full online article to learn how they dealt with clients, the technologies that helped them get by, what they have learned needs to be done beter, and the advice Jim Bourke gives to other frms, whether they have a disaster plan or not. Isaac is the Editor for CPA Practice Advisor, having joined the publication in September 2002. Trough his experience in the areas of consumer and professional-level sofware and peripherals, as well as knowledge of the public accounting feld, he provides reviews of technologies used by accountants and their business clients as well as contributing a regular column that provides helpful information that ranges fom improving search techniques to when to upgrade a computer to computing security issues. He can be reached at isaac.obannon@CPAPracticeAdvisor.com.