HR Responds to Boston Bombing and Manhunt 

 

 

 

Christine Lahey wasn’t sure at first what the cryptic text she received on her cell phone around 3 p.m. on April 15, 2013, meant. The message read: “I’m safe. Turn on the news.”
The text came from a co-worker who was watching the end of the Boston Marathon near the offices of Liberty Mutual Insurance, where Lahey is vice president of employee relations and human resource services.
“I was at home and received this text within 10 minutes of the blast,” Lahey recalled. “I didn’t know up until that point that there had been an attack.”
Both explosions that tore through the crowd gathered near the marathon’s finish line were just a few blocks from Liberty Mutual’s headquarters. As Lahey learned more about the extent of the bomb attacks, she began to focus on the safety of the nearly 4,000 employees who worked downtown and their family members.
Several Liberty Mutual employees were running the marathon, while others were volunteering along the race route, and Lahey had no idea how many could have been spectators near the finish line, where the bombs exploded. According to Lahey, corporate training and preparation for emergency situations paid off as the business-continuity plan kicked in.
“It actually ran fairly smoothly,” she said. “Everyone knew what they had to do, and the emergency response plan worked just like it was supposed to.”
Members of the management and HR teams began communicating with each other, and Lahey learned that one employee was injured in the blasts and taken to the hospital.
“But the injury wasn’t severe, and that person was treated and released pretty quickly,” she said.
Liberty Mutual’s offices were closed for the day, which may have been a stroke of good luck for the company. Lahey said she hates to think about what might have happened if dozens of Liberty Mutual employees had left the office to check out the finish line. The company normally closes its headquarters the day of the marathon because the building is adjacent to the finish line and the street is blocked off to set up aid and medical tents for the race.
“So our offices were really right next to the explosion sites, and we knew that could mean serious disruptions on Tuesday [the day after the bombing] and that we might even have to keep the office closed,” she said.
Liberty Mutual’s management team had several conference calls the evening of April 15 and early the next morning to as                               ANAMIKA SINGH           
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