Getting back to business after the big one

As Christchurch continues to experience aftershocks of significant magnitude, Gen-i South Island sales manager Paul Deavoll is tasked with keeping the city online. He tells business editor Dene Mackenzie that keeping his staff safe and secure is the key part of that job.

Looking out of his Christchurch office window and watching the cathedral spire collapse during the February 22 earthquake left a lasting impression on Gen-i South Island sales manager Paul Deavoll.

Seconds later, he had organised the evacuation of the building in which he and about 100 of his team had been working.

As he was leaving, he grabbed his briefcase and laptop, which proved to be a good move given what was to come.

Since the quake, Mr Deavoll has worked out of his car, his damaged home, from a boardroom of a client and various parks around Christchurch.

Despite his own personal circumstances, which included the damage sustained to his own home, Mr Deavoll quickly realised a massive task lay ahead ensuring, first, his own team was safe, and, second, the city could communicate with the outside world, something that would require an almost super-human effort.

"The enormity of the shake suddenly hit home and you thought 'holy hell, this is going to be bad; this is going to be real bad'," he said.

The communications network held up well immediately after the shake, with people able to text from Cathedral Square.

"The one thing we do with the mobile network profile is to give priority to text over voice. A voice call takes a lot more out of the network than a text."

Having lived in Christchurch all of his life, for a few moments Mr Deavoll found it hard to leave the square with its statues collapsed, the spire in ruins and buildings falling down.

The priority for Gen-i and other Telecom staff was to make their way to a gathering point in Linwood.

From then on, Mr Deavoll's priority was to ensure the safety and security of his team.

"My focus in those first few days was just making sure that the team came together and that we had a common approach so we'd be able to prioritise and deal with the things that were important."

He set up a system where he would phone his executive team and they in turn would phone their team members.

A twice-daily audio call was set up so updates could be given to all Gen-i staff and problems - personal or work - could be identified.

A list was drawn up and reviewed each day. At one end of the list were people largely unaffected by the quake, who were personally rested, whose homes were habitable and who were ready for work.

At the other end were people who were physically or mentally affected by the quake, and in some cases had nowhere to live.

"Every day that changed and sometimes it is as simple as people getting a good night's sleep.

"There is no point putting stressed people into stressful situations, dealing with clients who have the same sorts of issues."

In some cases, staff wanted to move out of Christchurch and Mr Deavoll found jobs for them in other centres while they recovered from the shock of the quake.

Clients started calling, wanting to get back to business, he said.

Some wanted 25 new phone lines put into a building they had moved to after the quake; others wanted 50 new cellphones and SIM cards delivered to staff to get them back in contact with the business.

Collections were made throughout New Zealand, with Gen-i Otago-Southland manager Peter Thomas rounding up water, phones, routers and supplies to send north.

Some items from the North Island were flown to Christchurch, while others were sent by road as demand eased, Mr Deavoll said.

A buddy system was established lining up every client manager in the Christchurch Gen-i team with a buddy in the North Island. The northern buddy network met daily to focus on supporting Canterbury clients and maintaining essential emergency services. That gave the Canterbury team the time and space to deal with the aftermath of the quake.

Gen-i staff also worked closely with Chorus staff in identifying the most urgent needs and prioritising them, he said.

The major issue now was for Telecom to decide on how to house its staff in Christchurch.

Before the February quake, there were 1100 staff in four central business district buildings.

There would be more distribution of staff and offices in future, Mr Deavoll said.

That would help in providing more venues in which to meet clients and give the company a greater presence in the city.

In the meantime, staff were meeting in all sorts of places.

"I had never opened my laptop in the Speight's Ale House until the quake. I have done that quite a bit since."