Full accountability required in emergencies

Employees are valuable assets to any organization.

And as such the Aviation and Missile Command, just as other commands on Redstone Arsenal, wants to ensure that all of its employees are safe and accounted for in times of natural and man-made emergencies and disasters.

But to do that, the command needs its employees to voluntarily provide personal contact information through three confidential personnel systems -- a DD Form 93, Record of Emergency Data, placed in their personnel file, and the online Army Disaster Personnel Accountability and Assessment System and Redstone Employee Locator Database.

"One of the biggest things in the last probably 10 years -- since 9/11 -- has been accounting for people," Karen Bandera, director of AMCOM's Human Resources Management (G-1), said. "We don't always know where our people are, and that makes it difficult for us to take care of our people and their families in times of emergencies. We not only don't know where they are at, but many times we also don't know how to contact them. Employee accountability is definitely one of our challenges."

Servicemembers are required to provide contact information for themselves and their families. But Department of Defense civilians cannot be forced to provide personal information. The consequences of not providing such information became a reality during the days following the April 27, 2011, devastating series of tornadoes that left destruction throughout North Alabama.

"Locally, those tornadoes devastated all of us. We were all affected," Bandera said. "And a lot of our employees didn't even know there was an expectation within our command to account for ourselves. I spent the week after the tornadoes in the AMCOM Operations Center trying to account for every employee. We even sent supervisors and Soldiers to people's houses to get accountability."

Now, a new policy from the Army Materiel Command requiring 100 percent employee accountability within 24 hours of a disaster or emergency has renewed efforts to encourage employees to provide their personal contact information. In accordance with that requirement, AMCOM commander Maj. Gen. Jim Rogers signed a personnel accountability guidance report on May 1. AMCOM G-1 will hold employee sessions on June 7 at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. in Bob Jones Auditorium to discuss personnel accountability with its employees.

In the case of an emergency or disaster, employees who are in an affected geographic area should contact their supervisor to report their status as soon as possible.

"We have to be able to quickly account for personnel whenever a disaster occurs. We have an accountability policy, and now we need to educate the work force that these are the things you need to do to help us account for them if a disaster or crisis occurs," said Nicole Massey, deployment and reintegration specialist for AMCOM Human Resources.

As a proactive measure, employees are asked to complete the DD Form 93, Record of Emergency Data form, which provides the names of those who should be notified if an employee is involved in an emergency. This information, which is provided to their immediate supervisor, should be updated as needed.

They are also asked to provide personal information about themselves and their families through the Army Disaster Personnel Accountability and Assessment System and the Redstone Employee Locator Database.

ADPAAS provides a way for Army personnel and their families in a disaster-affected area to report their status and how they were affected by the disaster. It provides a way for commanders to assess the impact of a disaster on their employees and to provide assistance if needed. Employees can enter and update their information in the system online at https://adpaas.army.mil/.

The Redstone Employee Locator Database, accessed online at https://rpl.redstone.army.mil/, is an AMCOM system that provides immediate supervisors a way to report daily on the status of employees when there is a disaster. It allows AMCOM to assess the location of all its employees.

"These two online systems are critical for us if we are to gain 100 percent employee accountability," Bandera said. "If we have employee information and information about their family in the system, then we can more quickly assess if the employee and/or their family members have been affected by a disaster and how we can help them."

In the event of a disaster or emergency, employees should first contact their supervisor or the AMCOM toll free accountability line at 1-888-275-8081 or ADPAAS at 1-800-833-6622. If they have access to a computer, they should also log into the system and update their status.

After the tornadoes of April 27, 2011, Bandera pulled the Employee Locator Database records of employees who hadn't called their supervisor. If those employees couldn't be reached by phone, then AMCOM employees were sent to their homes to check on them. It took four days for AMCOM to reach 100 percent accountability of its 4,400 local employees.

"It was impossible for us to know the exact status on those employees who hadn't given us their contact information," Bandera said. "We didn't have a way of finding out if they were hurt or if their family was hurt. We had to wait for them to contact us.

"Employees are innately private. They want to keep their personal information to themselves. But when it comes to issues of personnel accountability, we don't care where they live or who they live with. We just want to make sure they are OK. "

All personal contact information is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974. It is kept strictly confidential by AMCOM Human Resources.

In a disaster situation, if AMCOM supervisors do locate employees who have experienced loss, AMCOM's Human Resources personnel do have the resources to make sure those employees have the assistance they need to recover.

"ADPAAS allows employees to provide information for a needs assessment," Bandera said. "If there is a need, a case worker will be assigned to assist them and to monitor them to make sure they are getting the help they need."

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Department of Defense issued instructions to all service branches to develop disaster personnel accountability plans that would quickly account for personnel. Army determined that a system was needed that would report the whereabouts and status of Army personnel and their families. ADPAAS was soon introduced as the personnel accountability tool to meet the DoD instructions, although it went a step further by being designed to account, assess needs and assist the Army to a rapid return to recovery and stability.

ADPAAS was first used in 2008 during Hurricane Ike. The disaster proved to Army leaders that the tool can quickly collect and consolidate the status and needs for active duty, Reserve and Guard military personnel and Army civilian employees as well as their families in the disaster area. Because of ADPAAS the Army was able to assess such disaster-related needs as housing, medical, financial assistance, employment, pay and benefits, transportation, child care, counseling and general legal matters for Soldiers and federal employees in the Hurricane Ike area.

But for the system to accurately work, Massey said employees need to include all current contact information for their family and update it regularly.

"It's important to put all your family information in the system, including a spouse, family members or others who may live with you and even pets," Massey said. "If an employee with a family has only put their own information in the system, then if a rescue helicopter comes in to pick them up, they may have only one seat allocated for them on the helicopter and then they have to make the hard decision of who in their family is going to get that seat.

"If the Department of the Army completely understands who we need to provide assistance to, then we can better help the employee and their family. It's a very useful system if we utilize it as the Army and the Department of Defense intended for us to use it."

Besides disaster situations, the Redstone Employee Locator Database is also used in emergency situations where an employee has been hurt.

"If you pass out at work and are rushed to the hospital, you want your family to know right away so they can come to you," Bandera said. "If we have your contact information, your supervisor can quickly reach out to your family members and let them know what is going on.

"If something happened to me, I would like to know someone's going to call my family. This is really about taking care of your family. We want to do what's necessary to take care of employees and their families in times of disaster."

A similar situation can also arise during a disaster if the family is geographically separated. Supervisors can use an employee's contact information to notify family members in other parts of the country or world.

Some employees don't take the time to provide their contact information because they don't think they will be involved in a disaster.

"April 27th convinced me that it could happen to me," Massey said. "Hopefully, it has convinced all of our employees that disaster can happen to any of us."

Editor's note: Questions on personnel accountability can be directed to Massey at 313-0365 or nicole.massey2@us.army.mil or Cindy Gordon at 313-0369 or cindy.gordon@us.army.mil.