Emergencies of all kinds can have a significant impact on the workplace and can harm the health of your employees and property. Specifically, things like fires, explosions, medical emergencies, earthquakes, power failures, and chemical spills can occur without warning, potentially costing organizations time and money.
To protect themselves, it's important for companies to create an emergency response plan. Emergency planning is an important part of a company's health and safety initiatives and can help protect your business and staff from disasters.
The following are six key steps to adhere to when creating an emergency plan:
- Create a planning team comprised of individuals from a variety of departments.
- Assess the unique risks and capabilities of your organization. Consider conducting safety inspections on a regular basis.
- Develop an emergency plan that accounts for any event that could have a major impact on your business. This plan should also identify key individuals and define their responsibilities.
- Implement the plan by purchasing equipment, creating a training program and communicating expectations.
- Test your plan by holding drills and other simulation exercises. If your business has multiple locations, it's a good idea to create site-specific plans for each building you occupy.
- Review your plan regularly.
By preparing for emergencies and creating a response plan, you are protecting employees and responders from harm as well as minimizing damage to equipment, tools, and the environment. Through your emergency response plan, your staff will be able to identify common emergencies and respond accordingly, helping you further establish a safe and productive workplace.
