The following is a note about essential positions from UNMC’s business continuity group.
In today’s ever-changing environment, it has become a top priority of many organizations to develop contingency plans for remaining operational in the case of a terrorist attack, a major disease outbreak or some type of natural disaster.
UNMC has formed a business continuity group that is leading the preparation effort for our campus. It is an interdisciplinary group with representatives from key functional areas such as security, procurement, infection control, student services, human resources and other campus groups.
One of the projects undertaken was to identify positions that would be essential to keep the campus operational during a catastrophe. In the summer of 2006, UNMC department management was asked to identify positions as essential or nonessential under the following eight types of catastrophic events:
- Biological, chemical or radiological;
- Fire;
- Ice and/or snow;
- Pandemic;
- Power outage;
- Severe weather;
- terror; and
- water damage by flood or other means.
All of the information that was collected at that time has been loaded into UNMC’s online position descriptions. This will allow departments to maintain the information as part of any position description update where duty changes may result in essential status changes.
The following are answers to some questions you may have regarding this new function.
What does it mean to be identified as essential?
If a position is deemed to be essential, it performs some type of duty that is required to keep the campus or department operational under a given catastrophe. A position can be identified as either “Campus Essential” or “Department Essential.”
Campus Essential means that a position has duties that affect the campus as a whole such as, security officer, utility operator, groundskeeper, etc.
Department Essential means that a position has duties that are specific to a particular department. A position’s essential classification may change depending on the type of catastrophe.
What does it mean if my position is considered nonessential?
If your particular position is not identified as essential, that means that depending on the type of catastrophe, and the availability of personnel to fill essential positions, you may be asked to stay home, backfill an essential position that has similar job duties as yours, or staff the labor pool that will be used to backfill essential positions on an as-needed basis.
Being identified as nonessential in no way reduces the value of a position’s contribution to the university. This designation is simply a function of the position’s responsibilities with regard to specific catastrophic events.
Why is it important to go through this identification exercise?
It is important that this information be accurately maintained so that effective business continuity planning in the case of a catastrophe can take place. Having the essential status of positions identified allows UNMC to identify where possible gaps could occur and potentially which positions could be used to backfill.
How do I find out if my position is essential?
If you have questions about whether your position is essential, please ask your supervisor.
What type of support will people working during a catastrophe receive?
UNMC Human Resources is currently working on developing policies to address items such as pay, vacation leave, attendance and volunteer labor pool. Other items such as food, personal protective equipment, maintaining open lines of communications and security also are being addressed by the business continuity group.
What is the primary focus of business continuity planning at this time?
Currently, the major focus is planning for a pandemic, since two of the three conditions for avian flu already exist with the H5N1 virus.