Verizon Wireless Hurricane Sandy

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Verizon Wireless Case Study

Verizon spends over 300 million dollars annually on training employees. Verizon not only prepares for situations with regular “disaster recovery exercise” which allow employees to practice their decision making skills under ambiguous situations. Verizon has a “My Network” which allows for peer-to-peer collaboration on all kinds of issues where transfer of knowledge among employees is much quicker than traditional training can handle. Verizon also has a 30-member Major Emergency Response Incident team, also known as MERIT. MERIT consist of communication specialists, business engineers, and health and safety professionals. They are all considered experts and train constantly to keep up with their skills. These learning initiatives allow the company to deliver content and knowledge that is hard to convey through different methods. With virtually unlimited resources even employees that have not been formally trained can access information to help handle crisis situations. 

Handling crisis situations can be very difficult in a business. Decisions need to be made firmly, quickly, and confidently in order to control the situation. Thus, employees need to be well prepared and highly trained in order to make appropriate decisions. Verizon’s MERIT team is in charge of the proper proactivity needed in order to be relied upon during a crisis. Employees must know every step, from the immediate relief to the long term solution. In most normal decision making processes, it is important for input to come from every employee. However, during a crisis, input and communication comes mostly from the very skilled employees with the necessary training and knowledge. An emergency situation can be very stressful and hard for anyone, but with proper training and skills, employees can make decisions to restore peace and certainty to those involved.

Verizon’s Haberman states that his role is to make sure there is support to field technicians to...