What are the best strategies for building an Emergency Management team from scratch?

To build an emergency management team from scratch, assess needs and risks, recruit diverse team members with relevant skills, provide training and conduct exercises, establish clear communication protocols, develop comprehensive response plans, coordinate with external partners, implement technology and tools, establish a command structure, and regularly review and improve your plans and procedures.

Identificar e desenvolver futuros líderes de gest?o de emergências é fundamental para garantir respostas eficazes e sustentáveis a emergências e desastres. Ao implementar sistematicamente essas estratégias, você pode construir uma equipe de gerenciamento de emergências forte e resiliente, capaz de responder com eficácia a uma variedade de situa??es de emergência. Avaliar e ajustar frequentemente sua abordagem aumenta sua capacidade de fazer melhorias contínuas e de se adaptar aos novos desafios.

Building an emergency response team from scratch can be tasking but here are some ways to go about it: 1. Define the roles and responsibilities of the team members. 2. Recruiting the right people. 3. Provide training and development opportunities. 4. Establish clear communication channels between team members and external stakeholders. 5. Develop a comprehensive crisis management plan that outlines the roles and responsibilities of the team members in responding to emergencies. 6. Conduct regular drills and exercises to test the effectiveness of your crisis management plan and identify areas for improvement. 7. Establish partnerships with external organizations such as local emergency services, hospitals, and other relevant organizations.

Look for major Subject Matter Experts who know the local climate and landscape in terms of what is available. Fill in your obvious needs first (Section Chiefs, Assistant Chiefs, ESF leaders), then let those leaders assist in filling in the blanks you may not see immediately. Collaboration is your friend in the end.

If you find yourself in a position where you will need to recruit, networking should be a regular activity of yours. I've often counseled people looking to get into Emergency Management to attend trainings and conferences and any other opportunity to network. However, I know some of those people have found those that are established leaders within Emergency Management to be less receptive to networking. My advice is if you are a leader attending these events or spending time with students and those new to EM, be generous with your time and your business card. Speak to people, share your journey into the field, and give advice. Finally, make note of those that seemed bright and impressed you, they could be your next team mate!

En el ámbito de la gestión de emergencias es necesario encontrar un equilibrio entre la experiencia y la innovación. La resolución de emergencias requiere de un conjunto de personas con diferentes cualificaciones por lo que nos enfrentamos a un reto complejo, debemos: - Buscar integrantes con experiencia. - Personas con gran capacidad para resolver problemas. - Personas innovadoras y con enfoques diferentes. - Técnicos especializados y con los conocimientos adecuados. - Líderes capaces de manejar situaciónes de emergencia y sacar el máximo provecho de su equipo. - Personas comprometidas con la causa. Los perfiles para solucionar problemas complejos, como las emergencias, son complejos y altamente comprometidos y con conocimientos.

Recruiting talent is super important. However, there are usually little considerations for attitudes and other soft skills. You may have a pool or a team of talented actors in your Emergency Management team, but fail on having the right culture and right attitude amongst the members of the group/team. I am a clinician by practice and training , but I wonder how best hiring authorities can inculcate desired attitudes and culture among the team of talents because this can mean the difference between performing and non-performing pool of talents.

Reach out to you surrounding Emergency Management departments and agencies, in particular your State's Emergency Management Office and request guidance from them. Furthermore, encourage and enable your employees to pursue professional development courses through agencies like FEMA, TEEX, DHS ect. Encourage employees to pursue formal learning opportunities such as college courses. Offer individualized mentoring and coaching. Most importantly, foster an environment that encourages sharing information learned. At its core emergency management is essentially continuous process improvement. Sharing information learned in seminars or courses with the team, ensures all members are benefiting, and by extension our processes and community.

I consider myself lucky to have been given the opportunity to join a team that was expanding at the time. Although I had a degree in emergency management and volunteering experience with the American Red Cross, I was later told that while skills can be taught and developed, having the right personality to fit in with a dynamic team is a rare quality.

If your team is brand new, ensure you do the work to provide as robust a training budget as possible. Recruiting talent is a key priority, but growing that talent to fill gaps and offset any hiring challenges can make a big impact. Take advantage of grants, professional conferences and consider hosting events for your community or state to increase your team’s access to training.

Not only do you require collaboration in this section, you need to see it in practice. Run tabletop exercises to see how communication works with your team. Analyze and do a hot wash immediately following the tabletop so that you can address any glaring issues and assist others in some minor things observed.

Ensure that you are building a performance culture as opposed to a compliance culture. Most emergency programs that I have seen operated in a compliance fashion and did only what was minimally required to fulfill policy or legal requirements. The team that is assembled must sustain or build a culture that maintains high standards, solves problems, and subscribes to a service approach to its parent organization, supported community, or other stakeholders. A good emergency management program knows what its role is and trains to detect and mitigate threats and hazards. A dedicated emergency management culture can be more important than piles of emergency plans, binders, and half-hearted exercises. Focused leadership will be essential.

It is also crucial to consider selecting a team that is agile and easily adapts to a fast-paced environment. An emergency management team should be able to swiftly adapt to the changing conditions and also possess strong interpersonal skills to facilitate effective communication. An emergency management team should have members who comprehend the importance of team dynamics to be able to effectively manage the overall crisis response, determine priorities, direct and control emergency objectives.