2nd City Resourcing

In the nicest possible terms, Kathryn Gallen, Managing Director of recruitment consultants 2nd City Resourcing, hopes never to talk to First Recovery again!

Arriving in the morning at their offices in Birmingham last August, employees of two companies, part of the same group who share the same offices, were to discover that a flood on one of the upper floors, although not physically damaging their offices in any way, had left the building without electricity and internet connectivity.

While one company was fortunate enough to be able to relocate their employees to their main London office for the duration of the clean up, the other was faced with the bigger challenge of working out how “business as usual” could be achieved without an office and, as their entire back office function is web based, without an internet connection.

In stepped their insurer and the invoking of the First Recovery element of their insurance policy. Within one hour of Ms Gallen registering the event with the insurer, First Recovery was on the phone discussing her requirements and the logistics of moving her offices to an alternative location. Within 24 hours, the client was relocated to an office within the same postcode, temporary PCs and printers were installed with complete broadband access to their back office function and post was re-directed. First Recovery were even able to redirect their 0870 number to phones in the new location.

"Being the least technical person I know” said Ms Gallen, “it was brilliant to have someone take charge and organise us to the extent that we were up and running so quickly. We have learnt first hand (twice now) how important it is to have contingency plans in place so it’s comforting to know that we are able to minimise the impact in situations such as this”.

The insurance broker reports “The Disaster Recovery element of the insurance policy provides cover in the event premises are unusable for any length of time and is designed at minimising any interruption to business and the loss of profit one might suffer as a consequence. “