Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001?
It’s one of those questions that makes you stop in your tracks and remember. Or, if you’re too young to recall this infamous date personally, your parents and other older friends, family members, and colleagues can likely recall the details quite vividly.
The need for and importance of resilient infrastructure drives the magnitude of 9/11 – along with other natural and man-made disasters – home. How critical is it that our society, economy, population, and workforce be prepared to respond, recover, and emerge strong from such events?
The answer is: Very much so. And the workforce professionals who will make it possible are the engineers on our teams.
Why is Resilient Infrastructure Important?
It’s worth the investment.
As noted in the World Bank report entitled The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity, your company’s investment in this area contributes to your business, your community, your society, and your country to achieve better health, education, and livelihoods despite the impact of disasters that have been thrown in their path.
Resilient Infrastructure Defined
Critical infrastructure provides essential services that protect communities and help them recover from myriad hazards and disasters, ensuring the seamless provision of essential services such as energy and water. It also connects communities via transport and communications networks, so the flow of goods and information continues.
Engineers are at the heart of designing and maintaining such infrastructure, including:
- Identifying, understanding, and communicating the nature and importance of critical operations and functions,
- Anticipating the potential impacts of multi-hazard events,
- Developing the capacity for your organization to adapt to and manage crises or disruptions as they unfold,
- Enabling your business to tolerate and recover from any loss of capacity that occurs during an event and response effort, and
- Ensuring the communications, coordination, and collaboration needed to survive and resume business operations.
Resilience Management
Your engineers are at the forefront of ongoing resilience management- a concept that, in addition to assessing your organizational resilience, also involves:
- Acceptance: Is your assessed level of resilience realistic and acceptable? Who makes this decision – and how?
- Mitigation: How can you achieve needed resilience goals at a reasonable cost?
- Monitoring: This is the need to review your level of resilience regularly. It will decrease as such variables as wear and tear and climate and societal change come into play, and
- Communication: How do you effectively speak to each stakeholder in your business and keep them in the loop? Don’t overlook this step. It needs to be at the forefront to ensure that all your goals are met.
Find Top Engineering Employees
Do you need engineering talent to ensure your commitment to resilient infrastructure and grow your business and optimize your ROI? If so, consider partnering with Venteon Technical. Benefit from our proactive, specialized approach to an engineering talent search. You’ll work hand-in-hand with one of our team members who understand the engineering industry and will ensure you meet only candidates with the skills, experience, and character you’re looking for. Reach out to us today to learn more.