How to Plan for an Emergency in Your Workplace
Emergency planning is about much more than running a risk assessment. Preparing for disasters of all kinds should ensure that everyone knows how to react in the moment of an emergency and during the aftermath. The best plans can even reduce the event’s impact on both workers and businesses. Although every workplace will have different considerations when creating an emergency plan, here are some basic considerations to bear in mind.
Define Your Goals
Start by determining what you want to achieve with your emergency preparedness program and specify who will be responsible for each aspect of the program. Before continuing further, consider having a legal professional review the outline to ensure it covers everything and will minimize risks.
Assess Potential Emergency Situations
Create a list of every potential emergency by considering what hazards your workplace faces. Assess the likelihood of each and include the most probable in your plan.
Develop Your Plan
Once you have the above information, start working on a detailed emergency preparedness plan. This should cover:
How you’ll respond to ensure the safety of your employees, including evacuation and decision-making in critical situations.
How you’ll communicate with workers, clients, and other stakeholders during the emergency.
Policies for affected employees, including what kind of support workers will require. It’s best to divide employees into three categories: severely affected, experienced some issues, and not directly affected.
Contingencies for both operational and closed worksites.
Alternatives to your regular operation sites and options for backup staffing.
The training you’ll need to provide to workers.
How you’ll comply with government reporting requirements.
Evaluate the Program
After creating your program, you’ll need to test it to ensure there’s nothing you’ve overlooked. This will also ensure that workers know how to respond in an emergency. Make sure you run a variety of exercises to test all the probable disasters you defined earlier.
Hold Periodic Reviews
Circumstances often change — and this can mean a plan that was previously perfect is now outdated. Set a schedule for reviewing your emergency preparedness plans to check they remain appropriate. Remember to assess against changes such as expansions, new locations, and changes to management. Also confirm employees’ emergency contact information and ensure you’re working with up-to-date government protocol.
You can receive a variety of workplace safety and prevention services from MHSA. We offer courses for businesses in the manufacturing sector to handle and prevent emergencies, reduce injuries, and keep employees safe. Check out our calendar to book one of our upcoming courses.