May 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 39

to create a policy that covers every
unpredictable variable in that situation, work with other managers to
come up with a preparedness checklist that will guide you through certain steps that you should take and
prompt a dialogue to help you make
decisions about how your organization wants to respond to certain situations ahead of time. The following
lists are not all-inclusive but should
give you a starting place to begin
building your workplace-death preparedness checklist.
Initial Communication
and Response
Know your organization's policy
on bereavement and personal time
and be ready to explain the policy
to the employee. Have the contact/
policy information for your company's employee assistance plan
(EAP) on hand (attach handouts
or summaries of each to this preparedness checklist).
As soon as possible after you learn
of the loss, notify Human Resources and inform those with the most
critical need to know first and then
communicate to employees.
Expect sadness and tears. Extend
the offer for counseling to employees through the EAP.
Respect the confidentiality of the deceased's personal or medical information, unless permission has been given by the family to share it. Be sure to
ask the family explicitly what can be
shared and what is confidential.
Keeping Business Moving
Expect the best from grieving employees, but be prepared to accept
less for a short time.
As work shifts to other employees,
remember to thank those employees
for taking on the additional work.

According to a study conducted by the Grief
Recovery Institute Educational Foundation,
Inc., the annual ﬁnancial impact of grief in the
workplace to employers is estimated to be close
to $95 billion.
Ask what you can do to help: Time
off ? Schedule adjustment? Help
with the extra work?
Ensure that phone calls, voicemails, email messages and other
communications are intercepted
and redirected appropriately.
Reach out to critical outside business associates of the deceased,
such as clients, contractors and
vendors, and reassign them to other employees.
Making Arrangements
and Preparing for Services
As sensitively as possible, ask the
family for a single contact person
who can provide funeral details,
answer questions about the arrangements and be the designee
regarding benefits procedures
when it's time for paperwork to be
completed.
Designate a single internal contact
person (likely HR) for employees
to go to with questions or concerns
about arrangements to prevent employees from trying to contact the
family directly.
Help organize a group acknowledgment for the family (e.g., a
group card, flowers, group attendance at the funeral).
Determine where flowers or other
preferred offerings are to be sent as
consistent with the family's wishes
and communicate to employees as
appropriate.

Considering the impact on operations, recognize that many employees may feel a need to attend the services, and be as flexible as possible.
Following the Funeral
Check with Human Resources on
your state law regarding final pay
for deceased employees and provide HR with whatever is necessary to calculate final pay and close
out benefits for the family.
Follow the normal termination
checklist to ensure equipment,
keys, credit cards, etc., are accounted for and security issues are
addressed.
Ask the family how they want to
retrieve/receive the personal belongings of their loved one, and
offer to do it for them. The family
may not want to be involved.
Keep in touch with the family as
appropriate.
Just thinking about each of those
questions can be overwhelming
enough in the hypothetical. When
the situation becomes real, being prepared will give you a sense of control
when you'll need it most.
Be sure to visit www.parksandrecre
ation.org/2013/May/Death-in-theWorkplace for bonus web-only content on
finding just the right words to extend to
the family.
Lauren Yost is NRPA's Vice President of
Operations (lyost@nrpa.org).

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