Cultivating A Team That Helps.
There are people within your organization that have an innate passion, drive and desire to help others in emergency or bad situations.??I promise. And the development of an on-site Emergency Response Team would not only be in line with their capabilities, but it may also save lives. When you think of an Emergency Response Team, what comes to your brain? A tactical, well trained armed unit tasked with stopping a threat that may enter your facility. If so, you have the wrong vision and watch to many Rambo movies.
An Emergency Response Team is a group of your employees that want to do more.?They can be trained in CPR and 1st Aid and help fellow employees that may have lacerations or provide comfort measures and temporary care for a customer with chest pains. The E.R.T can and often is trained in the coordinating and taking control a mass evacuation or identifying a problem before one prevents itself.
Expectation of Team Members:
Who is on an E.R.T?
The most important part of developing an effective, on-site Emergency Response Team is to put the right people on it.?Let’s start by finding out who may be interested.?To be a member of an ERT takes a confident and a dedicated person willing to go the extra mile.?They can be any member of you workforce and come with no background or training in the emergency response field, to ex-military, law enforcement or emergency medical history.
Qualities your should look for in members:
(All of these qualities do not need to be met, but some should be present.)
The best way to find the right people for this team is to send out an email, explaining the exploration of an Emergency Response Team.?Include what type of person you are looking, what their expectations will be, and if you plan to offer any compensation.?Some employees will be happy just with the fact that you will pay for and provide training in emergency responses as well as 1st aid and cpr training.?These are skills that can be applied to save lives anywhere, even at home with our families.
Next, you’ll want to put the round pegs in the round holes.?Carefully go through those employees that have expressed an interest in getting involved to make your facility safer. From there, you’ll want to assign roles that match the titles and brief descriptions below.
Your Emergency Response Team will be made up of as many members as we believe fit the best and that we believe will have a great synergy together.
Within the team, “Leaders” will be appointed by us, think of these roles to be similar to department heads within your business.
Incident Manager – When certain incidents that are deemed concerning or of crisis, will be reported to and directed by the incident manager.?This helps to keep all incidents organized, and easier to address rather than incidents spread out across different departments.
Health & Safety Officer – We will have one officer assigned to be sure the health and safety of your employees, the team members and working environment are as safe as possible.?Additionally, any issues of safety or personal wellness will be reported directly to this Officer.
Quarter Master – This person will be responsible to be sure that all items needed to help during an emergency or crisis situation are on hand and fully stocked.?That all equipment the team is trained on are operational and that the proper number of supplies have been ordered.
Quality Control Officer – This Officer is responsible to oversee the operations of each team member and be sure that no oversights have been made and be sure that the Incident Manager are informed of any shortfalls, mistakes, or concerns.
Public Information Officer – Your customers and community will be concerned about your business in many ways; is it sill in operation; is it safe to go/be there; are there ways they can support you in the days and weeks after the incident. This officer will communicate to the public exactly what you are doing to protect your employees and your customers.
Don’t let the process overwhelm you.?Take the development and implementation one step at a time and set real, reachable dates and deadlines as you move through your target goals. This is a time-consuming process, but in the end, one that could prove to save many lives.?As you know leaders often need to think outside the box and outside their comfort zones, this topic will most definitely be that for many.
Please let me know if you have any questions at all.??