subject: Emergency Preparedness For Businesses [print this page] Disasters are real and they can happen to anyone. What is more important is how we prepare our company and our most important assets, our people, in times of disasters or emergencies. As a rule of thumb, your company and its people should be able to survive within the immediate 72 hours after the event. It may be an earthquake, flash floods or hurricane; but regardless of the hazard, it is important that businesses should have a plan to: 1) ensure the safety and well being of its employee; 2) protect the assets of the property; and 3) find ways to continue operations.
This article will focus on protecting your employees. This is the paramount objective of every company in any disaster event. Here are a few guidelines to achieve this end.
1. Awareness is Key
Inform your employees about the hazards that may affect them and their families. Hazard maps are available in your community or by the State. Use these to make your employees aware of the risks that they may face. Below are several ways to impart this knowledge to your employees:
Internal websites
Townhall meetings
Hazard Awareness Week
Brochures and print flyers
New staff briefing
2. Develop Your Plan
Who will do what? This is essentially the most basic question that one has to answer in developing the emergency plan. Your emergency plan is essentially a document that assigns responsibilities to your employees. There should be a Crisis Management Team, a group which has the ultimate decision-making responsibility. This should be comprised of senior management or those who have authority to make decisions. The other group is your Emergency Response Team. This team will be the eyes and ears of the business and they are essentially the response team of the CMT. This should be composed of your building engineers, security, logistics, external relations, safety officers, etc. They should be able to manage the consequences of any event for at least three days.
These two basic things are how you can prepare for the threats posed by hazards. Of course, there are the details in each of them but whoever said that emergency preparedness is going to be easy? More importantly, your plans should be tested on a regular basis. Your plan should not just be a flyer printing in your drawer or shelf; they should be living documents that need to be tested and revised accordingly and regularly.
