Emergency preparedness is a vital skill for any organization, especially in times of uncertainty and disruption. However, it is not enough to have a plan in place, you also need to train and engage your staff in the process. Here are some of the best practices for doing so.
Before you design your training and engagement strategy, you need to identify the potential hazards and threats that your organization faces, as well as the skills and resources that you have or need. Conduct a risk assessment and a needs analysis to determine the gaps and priorities for your emergency preparedness. This will help you tailor your training and engagement activities to your specific context and goals.
Through the multiple disaster responses as a command and general staff position assignment; has been paramount in applying and if necessary adjusting policy. From a minor multi-unit response to a major incident; employing ICS/NIMS guidelines (emphasizing utilization of ICS forms) will help policy implementation when the disaster occurs. Understanding reimbursement packages at the state/federal level will open your eyes on just what is needed for the maximum reimbursement of legitimate cost. Outside of a disaster, utilizing ICS/NIMS IAP’s for dignitary protection (POTUS or political visits) will benefit your department immensely. Food for thought.
Best practices for training and engaging staff in emergency preparedness include conducting regular, hands-on drills to practice procedures. Ensure clear, accessible communication about emergency plans and roles, and tailor training to specific job functions. Involve leadership to emphasize the importance of preparedness and gather feedback after drills to identify areas for improvement. Offer continuous education and refresher courses to keep staff updated on new procedures and regulations. Engaging staff through interactive and relevant training helps maintain high levels of readiness and responsiveness.
'Mapping' out the particular hazards and threats your organization faces is always a good place to start when assessing risks/needs.
There are many templates or guidelines for the creation of your plan. Identifying the actual potential threats and hazards will be important for the relevancy of the plan. Compiling the plan should include input from all of the stakeholders in your organization. Educating the organization is an important and ongoing process. Education can be augmented when you include stakeholders in the creation and on-going training. There will be training opportunities that arise due to circumstances, these can be seized to emphasize various points of the emergency plan and can have a greater impact than formal training sessions.
Small-scale exercises are very effective. A 5-10 minute dialogue on "What what you do if?" gets more engagement than a big drill.
One of the best ways to engage your staff in emergency preparedness is to involve them in the planning process. This will help them understand the rationale and objectives of your plan, as well as their roles and responsibilities. It will also foster a sense of ownership and commitment among your staff, as they will feel valued and empowered. You can involve your staff in the planning by forming a cross-functional emergency planning team, soliciting feedback and suggestions, and conducting regular reviews and updates.
Identify individuals who have strong skills from prior jobs; this can help you set in place internal training to improve cross-functional efficiency.
Forming a cross-functional planning team may be one of the most important parts of this process. It will allow the organization to understand better the needs and challenges of various segments of the organization. This can additionally be an excellent bonding experience for different disciplines in the organization. Creating the team is just the beginning, there should be scheduled reviews and updates that are sent out and training completed as part of the plan. Organizations can learn a great deal from these cross-functional teams, and may also learn by gathering emergency plans from similar organizations. This sharing of planning can allow for a framework or structure saving valuable staff time.
One way to get more staff from different organizational departments involved in emergency preparedness training is to provide cross-training opportunities to staff members, allowing them to learn about and understand the roles and responsibilities of other departments during emergencies. From past experience, we staffed our Incident Command Team with representatives from each department within the organization, not just our emergency preparedness staff. This gave us greater breadth and depth of knowledge and skill sets, and made our team more resilient to staffing shortages during the COVID pandemic. We actively promoted a culture of collaboration, openness, and shared responsibility for emergency preparedness throughout the organization.
Training and engagement are not one-time events, but ongoing processes that require constant reinforcement and adaptation. To keep your staff interested and motivated, you need to use a variety of methods and formats for your training and engagement activities. These can include online courses, webinars, workshops, simulations, drills, games, quizzes, newsletters, posters, videos, podcasts, and more. You can also use different levels of difficulty and complexity, depending on the learning objectives and the audience.
In speaking with college students, they talk about the variety of methods that allow them to better process the information and knowledge they have to absorb. Keeping staff engaged in training or learning should take a variety of methods. The latest versions of on-line training is an excellent method to reach a wide group, but may not have the impact that in person training for some staff. Drills can take away valuable staff time, but allowing for muscle memory events will provide important experiences should an emergency occur. Some organizations use a contest such as posters, picture, or videos to allow the creative members of your team to become more engaged. The idea would be to mix things up to gain more learning.
In order to ensure that the employees are fully prepared, conducting an annual drill of different emergency scenarios is essential. Lapses can then be identified and improvements can be made after a post review of the drill exercise. Alternatively, if physical drills cannot be conducted, a table top exercise can help to ensure emergency preparedness of the employees.
Another best practice for training and engaging your staff in emergency preparedness is to make it relevant and realistic to their work and environment. This will help them apply the knowledge and skills they learn to their actual situations and challenges. It will also increase their confidence and competence in handling emergencies. You can make your training and engagement relevant and realistic by using case studies, scenarios, examples, and stories that reflect your organization's context and culture.
The internet is good for somethings, one of those would be to gather some case studies or emergency situations that are relevant to your organization. These stories can help staff better apply the plan to their workplace and situation. Engaging the brain in the training helps to build a better response when the incident occurs. Building on the core group that created the plan and building confidence in your staff through training will benefit on the worst day for your organization. Rotating the responsibility of the training and the drills additionally builds confidence across staff creating a stronger team.
Tailor training to to address specific roles, potential threats, and operational contexts that are aligned to staff responsibilities and work environments. Conduct live emergency drills that simulate actual emergency conditions as closely as possible. Include elements like alarms, evacuations, and role-playing to enhance realism. This helps keep people engaged and less prone to panic during a real-world incident. Try implementing augmented reality tools to create immersive training experiences that mimic real-life emergencies. Implement a regular schedule of training sessions to keep skills sharp and knowledge up-to-date. Training should be a continuous practice, not just a one time event.
Feedback and recognition are essential for effective training and engagement, as they help your staff measure their progress and performance, as well as appreciate their efforts and achievements. You can provide feedback and recognition by setting clear expectations and criteria, giving constructive and timely comments, celebrating successes and milestones, rewarding good practices and behaviors, and addressing issues and concerns. You can also encourage peer feedback and recognition, as well as self-assessment and reflection.
You always have to find several things 1). that an individual did well and 2). that the team did well. Emphasize that there is room for improvement - but that everyone learned something new.
When providing feedback after emergency preparedness training, you want to reinforce positive behaviors, encourage continuous improvement, and keep people engaged and eager to keep learning. Provide feedback immediately after training sessions or drills while the experience is still fresh in everyone's mind via debriefing sessions or one-on-one discussions. Provide specific examples of what was done well and what could be improved. Offer specific, actionable suggestions for improvement rather than just general comments. Acknowledge participant contributions in public forums, such as company meetings, newsletters, or on the intranet. Highlighting their achievements can boost morale and encourage others to participate.
The final best practice for training and engaging your staff in emergency preparedness is to evaluate and improve your strategy and activities on a regular basis. This will help you assess the impact and outcomes of your training and engagement, as well as identify the strengths and weaknesses of your approach. You can evaluate and improve your training and engagement by collecting and analyzing data , such as surveys, tests, observations, interviews, and feedback forms. You can also use the results to make adjustments and improvements to your plan, content, methods, and formats.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when an organization puts a lot of work into a training and exercise program, but then never incorporates lessons learned into their emergency plans. They repeat the same mistakes and have the same issues year after year. Key points to remember in an Improvement Plan are: - Clearly document specific actions to be taken, assigning each to a responsible party, deadline, and measurable outcome - Maintain a centralized tracking system where all action items are easily accessible and monitored - Have senior leadership regularly review improvement plans to maintain accountability and provide support - Schedule regular follow-up meetings to review the status of action items, discuss challenges, and make adjustments