Emergencies may happen at any hour of the day or night. The most efficient strategy to deal with a crisis scenario is to plan ahead of time by developing an Emergency Action Plan.
Many firms are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to have documented emergency action plans, and certain businesses are subject to additional laws due to their role in the country’s infrastructure or their handling of hazardous products.
Why should you have an emergency action plan?
The primary objective of having an emergency action plan is to do all necessary to keep your staff safe in the event of a calamity. The chaos of an emergency can exacerbate a bad situation and endanger life. More reasons why an emergency action plan is crucial from a purely commercial standpoint are provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Up to 40% of enterprises that are destroyed by a natural or man-made disaster never restart. Having disaster-response processes in place can help your company survive this trying time.
Customers may be unaware of the crisis and its implications for your company. They will still expect items or services to be delivered on schedule. They may take their business to a competitor if there is a considerable delay.
Even if a disaster forces your company to pause or shut down, a solid emergency response plan will have systems in place to rapidly engage consumers and stakeholders and keep them informed of what has happened.
News travels rapidly, and perceptions can differ from reality. Keeping up with the flow of knowledge reduces negative perspectives.
Insurance is frequently only a partial solution. It does not compensate for all losses and does not restore lost consumers.
Public authorities, on the other hand, cannot be expected to give complete relief. Many crises might overwhelm their resources, which means that even when relief is available, it may not be available right away.
How to get started
The ideal time to deal with an emergency is before it occurs. Before you can establish an emergency response plan, you must first assess your firm and identify any potential threats. These will differ based on the kind of your firm and your area.
Some emergency action plans will address issues related to hazardous materials on hand, while others will address issues related to older buildings built to a lower-standard safety code, and still others will need to have strategies in place to prepare for natural disasters that are more likely in certain areas, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes.
While many things will change depending on the type of disaster you are preparing for—for example, what you do during a tornado or earthquake will be very different from what you do during a fire or workplace violence incident—some basic preparations will be comparable for numerous problems.
Always have a strategy in place to bring people to safety, whether that means sheltering or evacuating them, and always have a clear and effective plan in place to communicate with everyone who could be affected.
Create your emergency action plan
Once you’ve recognized all of the potential dangers and their consequences, you should devise responses to the hazards. Here are some pointers to remember:
In the event of an emergency, designate someone to be in charge of following and convincing others to follow the steps you provide. Larger firms may require more than one, either in separate departments or as backups, but in this case, make sure the hierarchy is clearly defined. During an emergency, employees must understand who is in charge and who has power.
Ensure that the procedures for reporting fires and other crises are obvious, whether it’s contacting 911, dialing an internal emergency number, pulling a manual fire alarm, or any other technique that may differ based on the type of situation.
Create clear and easy-to-follow evacuation protocols and paths
Establish protocols for personnel who must remain at the start of an evacuation to deal with higher-risk situations. Included are employees who must utilize fire extinguishers, shut down gas lines and/or electrical systems, or secure dangerous materials to prevent a bad scenario from growing worse.
Prepare for the loss of computer hardware, software, and information as a result of technical interruptions and devise methods for backing up and recovering it.
Take note of who is capable of providing medical care, from first aid to CPR, and ensure they are in the appropriate positions.
Maintain clear communication during and immediately following any potentially dangerous situation.
Continue monitoring and improving
This training also puts the plan to the test. The person or committee in charge of emergency response should keep an eye on the training to see if any difficulties arise that were not apparent during the planning stages.
Fire alarms, for example, that were designed to alert everyone to danger may not be heard in some portions of the building where loud equipment is running. Your emergency response plan should be reviewed on a regular basis and updated as events change.