What Preparedness Month taught me about climate, health and work
September’s National Preparedness Month is a useful reminder that preparedness is not a document, a test or a once-a-year checklist. Rather, it is the capability to protect workforce health and business resilience before, during and after a disaster or emergency.
Before the event: Understand what matters most
A practical starting point is to identify an organization’s critical processes and understand who is responsible for maintaining continuity plans. Employees and managers should know which activities must continue during a disruption and how long those activities can be unavailable before causing harm. In the context of climate-related threats, it’s important to consider that heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, hurricanes, winter storms and poor air quality can create different risks for different locations and workforces.
Preparedness is strongest when plans, tools and roles are not just documented, but practiced, so that teams are ready to respond effectively when real events occur. Exercises and drills can reveal gaps in communication and provide clarity about who makes decisions before those gaps impede the ability to provide support during a real event. Regular training also matters; it strengthens response readiness and builds confidence in roles and responsibilities. Many incidents are managed locally, but local response is stronger when it is backed by coordinated support across teams and geographies.
Before an event, employers should test alternate ways to communicate and plan for remote-work readiness: power, connectivity, backup internet and access to offline contacts and key documents. They should also plan for the human basics. Benefits are an important part of that support. Before an event, employees should understand available benefits and emergency resources and where to go for help. During an event, they may need timely access to healthcare, prescription refills, replacement eyewear, time off or other essential benefits. Afterward, recovery may require financial assistance, emotional support and practical resources. Communicating in advance can make these supports easier to access when employees are under stress.
Preparation can also reduce anxiety. When employees know where to find information, how to reach loved ones, what benefits are available and what steps to take, they are less likely to improvise under pressure. That clarity matters both when people are at work and when they are separated from colleagues or family during an emergency.
During the event: Protect people and make decisions
The first principle is simple: people come first. Protecting employee safety and well-being should guide decisions about work, communications and continuity. In a crisis, employees need timely, credible information more than perfect information. Aim for short, useful updates through trusted channels to communicate what is known, what is not known, what employees should do now and when the next update will come. Establishing clear escalation paths for where to go and what to do as situations worsen and having more than one communication channel can reduce confusion when systems fail.
The Extreme Weather + Work initiative makes an important connection: extreme weather creates workforce risks and business costs at the same time. Protecting employees is not separate from continuity; it is a prerequisite for it. That may mean pausing work, moving people out of harm’s way, changing schedules or providing additional protections for those working outdoors or in heat and smoke.
After the event: Recover and improve
Recovery is more than reopening a facility. Employers should account for employees, restore access to care and benefits, support mental health and recognize that recovery will not look the same for everyone. They should also ask: Which messages reached people? Which systems failed? Did our operations stay within the level of disruption we could tolerate? What did employees need that the plan did not anticipate?
Those questions turn experience into preparedness. Our work exploring climate and worker health continues to reinforce the importance of understanding how climate risks affect employees and taking steps to reduce those risks. The same principle applies to preparedness more broadly: resilience is not owned by one team, and it does not have a completion date. Preparedness must evolve as the business, workforce and risks change.
My call to employers is simple: make preparedness part of your people strategy, not just your emergency binder. Map your critical processes and top climate threats; build and test redundant communications; clarify support for employees and families; and practice before the next event. Employers that prepare well will be better positioned not only to keep operating, but to protect the health and resilience of their people and earn their trust.
I was inspired to write this blog after reading a series of internal Marsh communications for National Preparedness Month and attending several sessions during Climate Week NYC 2026. If you’d like to read more, check out my LinkedIn page for my reflections from Climate Week.
