During the past three years, a close collaboration has developed between the American Red Cross in Greater New York and Tiffany & Co., the world-famous jewelry company headquartered on New York's Fifth Avenue. This preparedness partnership has culminated recently in a major purchase of Red Cross Pandemic Flu safety equipment for all Tiffany employees.

Tiffany is committed to making the workplace as safe as possible and demonstrating to employees that they are the organization's most valuable asset. As part of that focus, Tiffany management believes that emergency preparedness training will help employees feel more confident and competent in the event of a disaster.

To that end, Tiffany has partnered with the Chapter to bring a number of vital preparedness programs to their employees—almost 6,000 across the U.S. and another 2,500 around the world—who work in Tiffany stores, refineries, manufacturing facilities, warehouses and distribution centers.

Jim Parker, the Chapter’s Director, Account Management, said, "We are pleased to be making an ongoing contribution to the welfare of Tiffany’s global workforce.”

Together We Prepare

The first step was in 2005, when the Chapter delivered the one-hour Together We Prepare safety and preparedness program (now called Be Red Cross Ready) to Tiffany’s Executive Committee in New York. The committee was so impressed with the program, it signed Tiffany up as a Red Cross Authorized Provider, trained 35 employees to be instructors, and delivered Together We Prepare to Tiffany’s entire U.S. workforce.

To accompany the course, ARC/GNY’s Safety & Preparedness Department created a Leaders Guide that includes a presentation manual and PowerPoint presentation, and a Together We Prepare Participants Kit with a safety tube along with reference and resource materials.

Pandemic Flu Preparedness

With numerous facilities in the Far East and many employees traveling to and from that part of the world, Tiffany decided in 2006 to educate its employees about pandemics. Once again, the Chapter trained 35 Tiffany employees as instructors and created a custom-tailored Pandemic Flu Resource Kit to complement the program, which Tiffany has embraced, ordering 50 kits per employee—for a total of 400,000.

In early 2008, the Chapter will deliver a PowerPoint Pandemic Flu presentation over the Internet, via a Web-Ex conferencing system, to Tiffany’s workforce in all 94 U.S. retail stores. Employees will have three days to tap into the conference. ARC/GNY is also inviting Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies around the world to participate in the Web-Ex conference with Tiffany facilities in their jurisdictions. And Tiffany employees can visit their local Red Cross/Red Crescent chapter for language-specific materials.

Continued Training

The Red Cross and Tiffany both know that practice is the best way to reinforce learning. As a result, the Chapter has helped Tiffany assess the skills of its Volunteer Medical Emergency Response Teams (MERTs) in place at a number of the organization’s larger facilities. MERTs handle medical emergencies until help arrives. 

To help Tiffany measure MERT performance, the Chapter created a Critical Life Saving Skills Challenge Drill with real-world simulations of medical emergencies that require mastery of important skills. Three ARC/GNY Safety & Preparedness professionals conduct the drills at various Tiffany locations during the year and debrief and coach team members after each drill.

Table Top Exercises

During the first quarter of 2008, Tiffany plans to train their management team at each international location to deliver Table top refresher exercises for employees who have taken Red Cross Together We Prepare and Pandemic Flu training.  

“ARC/GNY is proud to be Tiffany’s solutions provider for Safety and Preparedness programs for employees,” said ACR/GNY’s Jim Parker. “They’ve made us better. They’re constantly raising the bar for us.”