Your organization is vulnerable to emergencies. How do you protect your employees and assets?

It has been my experience that even though many organizations will use a validated assessment tool, the person or team conducting the assessment is not critical enough (positively and negatively) when performing the assessment. The quality of this first step impacts all the efforts down stream. As an example, I just came off an assessment where one of the primary vulnerabilities was well known and apparently had been an issue “forever”. I was also quickly told, that the issue had been deemed “off limits” in previous assessments both internal and external. No surprise at all that the issue still existed.

Conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify potential emergencies, Develop and implement an emergency response plan that outlines clear procedures for different types of emergencies, Establish redundant communication systems to ensure that employees can receive timely updates and instructions during emergencies, Provide regular training to employees on emergency procedures and conduct drills to ensure they are familiar with the actions to take in various scenarios, Maintain emergency supplies and equipment, Establish partnerships with local emergency response agencies.

Proactive Emergency Evaluation & Management The basic requirements of emergency management systems are: 1. Identification of potential hazards and associated risks considering internal & external factors but limited to this but consider natural calamities too. 2. Develop a consolidated risk register but mark severe events. 3. Analyse an emergency response plan considering available & required resources. 4. Periodic assessment of resources for proactive actions. 5. Coleboration with external agencies for support in needs. 6. Emergency mock drills in co-ordination with external agencies. 7. Periodical review of ERP considering emergency incident(s). 8. As a good practice, review ERP annually to identify any lapse.

Develop an emergency response plan based on your business/operations outlines the procedures to be followed in case of different types of emergencies such as fire, natural disasters, specific scenarios based on activities & medical emergencies. Regularly conduct emergency drills to practice the response plan and ensure that employees are familiar with the procedures. Provide training to employees on basic first aid, CPR, and other emergency response techniques. Equip the workplace with necessary emergency equipment and ensure that all equipment is regularly inspected and maintained. Establish communication protocols and display on site noyice boards to alert employees about potential emergencies.

The most dangerous thing anyone in any organization can say is “It will never happen here”. Unfortunately this is all too common 69% if all companies do little to secure their workplace. Get a quality TVRA, train your staff to respond to danger, run drills of value.

Implement a robust Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan, conduct regular risk assessments, provide extensive employee training, establish effective communication protocols, invest in physical security measures, and collaborate with relevant authorities to safeguard both employees and assets in the event of emergencies.

Over the years of developing and revising emergency management plans, I have noticed that some crucial steps contribute to a good plan: - A thorough risk analysis conducted beforehand. - Clearly and detailedly described response tactics for a comprehensive understanding by the team. - Regular and, if possible, exhaustive drills and training. The more aware the team is of the plan and response strategies, the more effective the plan. - A well-established routine for assessing and revising the plan, especially after emergency responses, evaluating strengths and weaknesses in the executed response.

In addition to continuity of operations plan that fully consider you technology needs but focuses on your core functions, promoting individual preparedness is critical. Lessons learned through the pandemic or other events shows he better prepared staff are for their own situations helps ensure full commitment to the organization’s plans.

Preparedness is what we are talking about here. If there are identified threats and related risks, then how prepared is the organization to deal with those; respond and recover. IMO and based on experience of reviewing current and building new emergency response plans across multiple market sectors, a common weakness is many view this as a one time activity, with a modest amount of time spent annually to review. Preparedness and its bedfellow Resilience, need to be part of the organizational culture and embedded in all process and decision making, not something to treat like an annual audit paper exercise tick in the box. Awareness, training, exercises, a cycle of monitoring & review, are a few of the essential pillars required.

2. Develop and Emergency Plan: Once a THIRA is established, shore up the choke points with the resources you have on hand and establish a priority list of needs to further make your community resilient. Have an emergency plan for each as well as an All Hazard Approach plan….write it down and make it readily available.

A well-organized training matrix, aligned with the risks and emergencies that may occur, is essential. Trainings should focus on empowering teams to identify and act appropriately during an emergency situation. And, always associated with training, conducting simulated exercises! This helps reinforce the routines and correct practices that should occur during a real situation. For example, the best way to present an escape route is to have the team use it. The same when we talk about emergency equipment. The same applies whes discussing emergency equipment and response tatics - hands-on practice is key!

Training and educating staff does assist with the mitigating damage during emergencies. Often emergency management organization practitioners are well-versed in sometimes you’ve been subject matter experts in some areas. In addition to training. For the staff also with the time to prepare their homes, families, an individual resources, while simultaneously preparing for an emergency, especially when it can be planned. Example is a planned disaster like a hurricane, but if not, it is an immediate threat as a tornado and preparations as often as possible Limiting the employees movements towards protection.

This is the easiest piece to value engineer out. Our teams never have enough time or money to invest in training during lean economic environments. During economic booms, we are too busy to train. Training needs to be catered to the audience and material to be effective. Exercises help to put it all together, and fun. There are many programs and contractors who can assist with this if you need, like iParametrics. Training programs must be intentional - they must be supported from the C-Suite down, they need to be tracked, accounted, and expected. Everyone should be able to speak to the plans, days, weeks, and months after training has been completed.

3. Train and Educate your staff: Once established train your team up and practice accordingly. Have redundant points of roles and understanding of plans, including your leadership roles as the emergency will not stop because someone is not there who normally should be.

These SME/ area of responsibility leaders develop their crisis training…why as who better to develop responses but the owner/user of the area-product. Once the individual functional areas are done with their plans then bundle them to find overlapping responsibilities and whom owns those processes that overlap. Once this is done then have an independent team review the processes and test them. After the test is done use their report to fix shortcomings and train folks on the new processes. Then wait a few months and test again.

4. Equip and Secure Facilities: This should be assessed in a THIRA and identify when facilities are the priority to equip and secure and funds are available to do so either in part or in whole.

This is where the local/state FEMA comes in to play as we all know that the government loves regulations and requirements. It’s up to the team to find and meet the requirements for safety, security, food-water stock piles, erc.

"The school superintendent and the Chief of Police should never exchange business cards for the first time on the day of an event." I work in a community where the city leaders take the initiative to involve the school district in the city's emergency management plans, training, and exercises. Over the past five years, they have used a severe weather event to test plans, training, and capabilities of both the city and the district. When the school district wanted to test their reunification plan, both law enforcement and fire participated in the Table Top Exercise. Working together before an event has strengthen the bond between the school and community with a joint goal of meeting the needs of all the stakeholders.

Private/Public Partnerships are great ways to increase information sharing, capability and build relationships. Many private organizations take advantage of these partnerships like InfraGard, DHS Physical Security Advisors and Cyber Security Advisors, OSAC and sector specific Information Sharing and Analysis Centers. On a site level it is always a great idea to invite local responders to tour your building and participate in drills and tabletops. They can offer their feedback and limit faulty assumptions that may be present if never asked. Do not wait until disaster strikes to build relationships.

Continuously assess and analyze your advancements, establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to gauge and enhance your performance. Regular monitoring and evaluation will contribute to the ongoing refinement and effectiveness of your strategies.

5. Coordinate with external partners: Emergencies do not happen in a vacuum. If you know you have shortfalls or would likely need assistance, reach out early and often to link and leverage resources and coordinate on how partnerships could integrate seamlessly. Additionally, this is not just for public or government partnerships. Many communities have private partners that want to help and have resources they can loan during trying time. Example: you don’t have enough forklifts to load trucks or water via pallets to distribute or prepare in the wake of an event. Perhaps a private company would be will to share their resources and potential operators of resources in an effort to help the community.

Help your employees develop emergency plans for their loved ones. While they are responding they will need to know that their loved ones are safe. There is enough stress on them responding to an incident, they do not need the added stress worrying about loved ones.

It’s obvious to solid leadership that plans and processes are fluid in nature due to changing business goals and objectives. Create a full time crisis management position in your organization responsible to monitor and nurturing the plans and if required update plans/processes to meet any new company changes, growth or significant changes in business continuity requirements.

Many organizations fall short in emergency planning because they perceive the creation of a plan as the end goal, rather than recognizing it as a cyclical process involving reassessment and updating to address ever-changing risks, and hazards. By neglecting to regularly review and adjust their emergency plans, businesses risk becoming outdated and ineffective in responding to emergencies. It's essential for organizations to understand that emergency preparedness is an ongoing endeavor, requiring continuous monitoring of internal and external factors that may impact safety and security.

Encourage employee feedback on the emergency plan. This allows for blindspots and critical concerns to be addressed before the plan needs to be activated.

If an event happens, do an honest and critical debrief. If a person failed in the crunch, REPLACE HIM. Move her to different position. Try not to promote him upwards Like the government does.

Build a solid estructure where your employees are the pillars and keep them aware of it. A well kept organization becomes the most passionate first responders unit when emergency arises. Keep your team engaged and motivated, be transparent and honest.

Mitigation is a great assessment tool to get an overview about needs to be done now and in the future. Overall awareness is just a necasity.