Rio Tinto’s Emergency Responding Mechanism
By Rio Tinto
In December 2019，COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan，Hubei Province of China，quickly turning to a major threat to the lives of millions of people. Under the strong leadership of the Chinese government along with the unity of Chinese people，and generous support from international society，China has been taking unprecedented public health measures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak，which，according to the China-WHO Joint Commission，“have yielded notable results in blocking human-to-human transmission of the virus，and have also played a critical role in protecting the international community，buying precious time for countries to adopt active prevention and control measures and providing them with valuable experience.”
After the outbreak，Rio Tinto immediately reached out to its Chinese partners to offer support and donated US$ 1 million to China Red Cross Foundation in support of China’s fighting against COVID-19. The funds will be used for purchasing negative pressure ambulances，face masks，protective suits and other medical supplies in urgent needs. Besides，Rio Tinto has been in close contact with its Chinese partners，identifying other practical ways to offer support by leveraging its strength in global resource networking.
Rio Tinto，as pioneers in mining and metals，is a global leading mining company with 46，000 employees in more than 35 countries across six continents. Its unique emergency responding mechanism and experience of fighting against pandemic outbreak could provide best practices for Chinese companies，which are making great efforts to prevent and control the COVID-19 while actively promoting production resumption.
1 Rio Tinto’s emergency responding mechanism
Every day our offices and operations around the world face a range of potential situations that may threaten our business. The foundation of Rio Tinto’s preparedness is the Group-wide governance framework known as the Business Resilience and Recovery Programme（BRRP）. It is an essential part of our Health，Safety and Environment Management System and each site and office across every part of Rio Tinto must be covered by a BRRP.
There are a number of key components involved in the implementation of the BRRP. Firstly，locations must understand their risk profile and develop simple，fit-for-purpose plans. The Business Resilience Management Plan（BRMP）comprises emergency response，business resilience（or crisis）response，and business continuity and recovery arrangements. The scale of planning controls and implementation is contingent upon the characteristics of the site and its risk profile.
The structure of the BRMP covers：
·Statement of Purpose or context（to manage incidents that may impact R`io Tinto operations in a specific location）
·Scope of the BRRP（which locations are covered under the programme）
·Definitions and acronyms used within the plan
·Business Resilience Team（BRT）Activation and ongoing management（how the team will be notified of an activation，and where the team will activate including the location of the business resilience centre）
·Reporting（notifications within the business when the BRT is activated）
·Incident triage（escalation of major or catastrophic incidents；or handover to another BRT to manage）
·Incident scenarios（types of incidents with the potential to impact the location），mainly including misconduct，deteriorating relationship with a key stakeholder，legal detention of personnel，missing persons，threat of violence/hostage taking，terrorism/bomb threat，fire/explosion，building evacuation，loss of building access，business travel，medical emergency/fatality，pandemic，natural disaster，severe weather/typhoon/flood，and failure of critical IT.
·Roles and Responsibilities of the Business Resilience Team
·Business Impact Assessment and business continuity arrangements
·Useful documents（e.g. incident log，situation report，stakeholder map）
·Version Control
Figure 1 Components of a Business Resilience and Recovery Programme（Source：Rio Tinto Group BRT）
Figure 2 Typical Timeline of the Response（Source：Rio Tinto Group BRT）
Typically，office based BRT comprise the following primary and alternate roles：
·BRT Leader：Overall responsibility for BRT；provide and receive briefings；provide strategic direction；manage relationships with stakeholders；authorise internal and external communications.
·BRRP Coordinator：Mobilises the BRT as required by the BRT Leader and manages process，resourcing and coordination；equip the business resilience centre；schedule training and exercises，support assurance activities，report BRT activations，and update the BRMP.
·Finance Coordinator：Managing financial and insurance issues，liaison with customers and suppliers as appropriate.
·External Affairs and Communications Coordinator：Identify communications channels needed to support the incident response；provide clear consistent and timely messages；liaise with BRT leader regarding internal and external messaging. Ensure personnel are kept well informed.
·Human Resources Coordinator：Support efforts to locate and account for personnel via HR and emergency contact information；monitor casualties，fatalities and missing person details；liaise with External Affairs and Legal；support family members/next of kin，including travel arrangements；coordinate EAP for employees and next of kin.
·Legal Coordinator：Identify and advise the business on legal issues：（i）establish legal privilege over an investigation，（ii）engagement of external counsel，（iii）secure and collect evidence，including witness statements，（iv）advise on civil and criminal exposure，（v）manage regulators seeking documents and to interview our personnel.
·HSE Coordinator：Ensure the safety & security of personnel；identify and manage any HSE hazards or risks to facilities；provide a strategic overview of the HSE implications of the event and response；work with Legal and other involved departments to ensure a cohesive and comprehensive investigation is conducted.
·Facilities Coordinator：Responsible for sourcing external accommodation as required；liaison with building management during an event.
·Business Continuity Coordinator：Summarise PG/Functional Group business critical roles and dependencies in the event that a loss of building event occurs.
·Information Technology Coordinator：Responsible for minimising impact of an incident on information networks hardware，applications software and the information stored within the system data.
·IS&T Support：Provision of technical support within the BRC during an activation.
·Business Resilience Support Lead：Identify and train personnel capable of acting as assistants，messengers and runners in an incident；lead the support team during an activation of the BRT；assist in set-up of BRC；support BRRP Coordinator to activate the BRT.
·Business Resilience Support Team：Provide support during an activation of the BRT. Roles include：log keeper，assistant log keeper，3IA status boards，Situation Report，Timekeeper，casualty status，stakeholder mapping.
Teams should not under-estimate the number of support resources required. Whilst Business Resilience is largely seen as the domain of senior leaders and technical specialists；individuals with administrative，organisational or business improvement skills and who know the business well，are ideally positioned to take on vital coordination roles on business resilience teams-roles that add genuine value to the business.
Training of business resilience team members is delivered in a number for formats：class room style，individual sessions and online. Rio Tinto Business Resilience Teams are required to conduct a BRT exercise at least once per annum. The purpose of exercises is to rehearse the team’s response to a scenario with pre-determined objectives，for example：
·Rehearse the response of the BRT
·Validate the structure of the BRT
·Activate the support team in an exercise environment
·Test the functionality of the Business Resilience Centre
·Satisfy the business requirement for an annual exercise
Regularly rehearsing the team and systems under realistic stressed conditions is the best way to exercise and embed processes such as the standing agenda，cycle of briefings，incident log，action register，stakeholder mapper and communications strategy（internal and external）.
The decision to activate the BRT rests with the BRT Leader. A recommended appraisal process known as ‘3IA’ assists the BRT to make informed decisions. Available information at the time is identified，structured and qualified. Issues arising or deducted from the information received are identified and analysed. Using past experience，skill and judgement，ideas are brainstormed to overcome or resolve issues. Actions are based on what the team can realistically achieve. Actions must have an owner and a deadline.
Figure 3 Rio Tinto 3IA Flip Charts
Source：Rio Tinto Group BRT.
PEAR is an acronym to assist BRTs in their response prioritisation：
·People：the safety and wellbeing of people is the highest priority
·Environment：protection，preservation and restoration of the environment
·Assets：protection of all assets and property
·Reputation：protection，and where possible，enhancement of our reputation
2 Rio Tinto’s experience in responding to COVID-19
By mid-January 2020，it became evident that the number of people infected with COVID-19 was rapidly increasing and concerns were expressed in China and internationally. The Rio Tinto Group and China management team commenced monitoring the situation and members of the BRT were requested to remain on standby in the event the BRT was activated. Starting from January 20，Rio Tinto China started to prepare epidemic daily report. The team maintained close communication with the group’s HSE team and BRT team to access the pandemic situation and its impact，even during the Chinese Spring Festival break. The management team in China reached out to global procurement team for support to look for reliable sourcing channel for protection supplies. Benefiting from regular planning，training and exercising，the China BRT has clear understanding of accountability and responsibility，the contact details for key stakeholders are up-to-date and is ready to activate at any time.
With sharp increase in the number of people infected in China，the Chinese Government imposed control measures on the movement of people in Wuhan and Hubei province. Rio Tinto further realised the severity of the epidemic，the group and regional offices set up BRTs，and activated emergency responding mechanism. Rio Tinto China officially activated BRT on February 3，the first working day after the extended Spring Festival holiday. Rio Tinto always adheres to the core value of putting the safety and wellbeing of employee first. The BRT acted quickly，held regular BRT meetings，established effective internal and external communication strategy，including sending situation report to Group Executive Committee and other global BRTs，and implemented comprehensive prevention and control measures in offices. Our Beijing and Shanghai offices have imposed strict entry screening system，actively responded to the call of the Chinese government to encourage employee to work from home，activate flexible working arrangement；suspend all unnecessary international and domestic business travels；strengthen office disinfection，enhance employee’s healthy protection and social distancing practices；maintain regular communications with employees，understand and address employee’s key questions and concerns，regularly update latest epidemic situation，request employees to report health condition and location in time；demonstrate humanistic care by listening to real concerns of employees，providing online mental and health consultation，and retaining doctors to provide on-site medic services；and establish comprehensive prevention and control measures for returning to work. In addition，the BRT also actively coordinated with the local public health department and office property management department to make a response plan for the situation of possible confirmed or suspected cases.
When sorting out the key problems and challenges faced by the prevention and control work，the BRT realized a large amount of masks would be required to support the employees to return to work. Due to the shortage of mask inventory in China，the BRT，with assistance of the global procurement team，made full use of sourcing network advantage to purchase masks worldwide，and ensured that masks were sent to China from overseas in a timely manner，so as to effectively alleviate the shortage of masks. After receiving the masks，the BRT promptly expressed the masks to the employees’ home in batches to solve their urgent needs and ensure the health and safety of the employees，reduced the ideological pressure of the employees for returning to work，and helped the employees to return to work smoothly.
The solid foundation，which Rio Tinto has built through annual training and exercises，regularly reviewing and updating plans，and maintaining strong relationships with Rio Tinto Group Security and Business Resilience specialists，has contributed to the BRT’s timely and orderly response to effectively cope with the challenges posed by COVID-19 to employees and businesses. So far，Rio Tinto’s offices in Shanghai and Beijing have been reopened with no employee being infected. China BRT has been closely monitoring the situation. If the pandemic continuously deteriorates，additional prevention and control measures will be taken accordingly，including but not limited to adjusting working arrangement，increasing the frequency of disinfection in office，extending the policy of “avoiding unnecessary business trip”，and strengthening the humanistic care for employees.
3 Suggestions to Chinese companies
During the pandemic，Rio Tinto proactively offered help to our Chinese partners in a timely manner，such as donating masks to the company at the epicenter and sharing Rio Tinto’s oversea vendor contacts for supplying protective equipment. Based on past best practices，including our experiences in fighting against Ebola，Rio Tinto would like to share the following suggestions with Chinese companies for reference：
·Companies should，at group level，establish/update a comprehensive，operable，reportable，and measurable emergency responding mechanism，with pandemic plan and other risk scenarios included. In alignment with proportionate response，each regional branch should create an individual plan that includes local government requirements or risk-based features，and flexibility to embed local triggers and actions. Each regional branch should have an annual simulation exercise，with the support and guidance from the group level.
·The pandemic plan，as an important part of the emergency responding mechanism，should follow the principles of prevention，preparedness，response and recovery and is supported in two pillars：proportionate response，and communication and consultation.
·Companies should pre-establish business strategic objectives in the plan
○Minimise transmissibility，morbidity and mortality；
○Minimise the burden on the health teams/systems；and
○Inform，engage and empower the workforce.
·Once the plan is developed，and then exercise. Through continuous exercising，company could identify gaps in the plan，increase response readiness and ensure the team remains abreast of change. Do ensure the plan is always up-to-date and … exercise，exercise，exercise！
·Companies should consider implementing internal travel restrictions and quarantine policies，which are put in place in strict alignment with risk，taking into account scientific evidence，ethical/human principles，international right，recommendations from international bodies，and（only at local level）local government recommendations.
·During the pandemic outbreak，companies should timely update necessary actions based on the latest reliable information from official reliable sources，domestic and international，such as（in the present COVID-19 outbreak）：
·WHO official reports/John Hopkins for cases/China government（statistics）
○WHO，CDC and multiple governments（China，UK，Canada，Australia，Singapore，Korea，Japan，etc）public health and work authorities
○Company partners，such as International SOS and WorldAware
·The last and the most important principle is to be people-oriented. Respect life and put employee’s wellbeing and safety at the first place. Respecting and protecting every one of them，listening to their concerns and offering timely support. In the meantime，do not discriminate the employees who are from any specific country or region.
Strong measures taken by China to fight again COVID-19 is remarkable and impressive，and the determination of the Chinese people to combat the pandemic is inspirational. Under leadership of the Chinese government，we believe the brave，wise and resilient Chinese nation will win this battle. Rio Tinto is honored to have in-depth communication and discussion with Chinese companies to share our emergency responding mechanism and experiences in response to a pandemic，and learn from each other. On behalf of Rio Tinto’s global employees，we would like to say，“Stay strong，China！”