Storms delivered more than severe damage to the One Indiana Square building (also known as the Region’s Bank tower) in downtown Indianapolis on April 2. It also brought a challenge to occupants as the recovery process would test the ability of each to work as a team.
Sommer Barnard PC, an honoree in the inaugural Best Places to Work in Indiana competition (see story in the May-June edition of BizVoice®) is among the building occupants that has risen to the challenge.
Chief Operating Officer Debi Marple arrived at the building one hour after the storm’s conclusion. The senior management team immediately responded to the crisis by telephoning staff members. Initial phone calls were the first of many steps to ensure timely, accurate communication with employees.
“I can’t imagine a better senior management team to go through a crisis with,” Marple declares.
In imparting advice to staff, Marple relates that the theme was “pretty much staying positive,” and “that as a team, there was nothing we couldn’t overcome. The most important thing was being up and running to serve our clients,” she adds.
Becky Peterson is the firm’s human resources director.
“I believe that the efforts we made to make people feel connected and informed was the best thing we did,” she asserts. “Our people stepped up to the plate in a big way. During those first few days, most of our staff was on standby at home, but without question, people (who needed to) come in (did). We had a lot of people do that who we didn’t even have jobs for, but they were willing.”
“In my opinion, it was such a team effort that it was difficult to divide the (job roles) lines,” Peterson states. “Whatever needed to be done, we did it. It was almost like a triage.”
Peterson praises the IT department for its quick and efficient response to the storm. The organization’s computer system was “up and running” the next day, for example, with employees working either from home or the firm’s Northside office. Within four days, many people had relocated to space in the nearby Chase Tower, which previously had housed the firm.
Along with positive outlooks, Marple notes that another common sentiment in the office is an eagerness to return to their space in the Region’s building as soon as possible.
She considers the storm, not officially categorized as a tornado, the “toughest single incident” in her 20 years of law firm administration, but emphasizes that teamwork helped alleviate challenges.
“Everybody still has such positive attitudes,” Marple notes. “That’s what made it much easier to get through all of this.”
At a staff meeting in late April, Peterson asked staff for input on the firm’s response to the crisis. Many pointed out the firm’s commitment to keeping them informed of developments.
“It was a very uplifting meeting of people really just applauding some of the people who were instrumental in restructuring, and that there were others who were just taking care of the basics so that not everybody had to worry about it,” Peterson says. “Everybody knew that they would be taken care of.”
