Have your employees – at all levels – been trained what to do when there is an emergency situation or a disruption of business operations?
Ready.gov gives us a handy chart we can use.
All employees.
- Protective actions for life safety (evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, lockdown)
- Safety, security, and loss prevention programs.
Emergency Response Team (evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place)
- Roles and responsibilities as defined in the plan
- Training as required to comply with regulations or maintain certifications (if employees administer first aid, CPR or AED or use fire extinguishers or clean up spills of hazardous chemicals)
- Additional training for leaders including incident management
Business Continuity Team
- Roles and responsibilities as defined in the plan
- Additional training for leaders including management
Crisis Communications Team
- Roles and responsibilities as defined in the plan
- Additional training for leaders including management
- Training for spokespersons
Training Exercises
Training exercises give members an opportunity to ensure they know what to do, get them working together and identify ways to improve upon their plan. Exercises not only help you evaluate your preparedness program, but also:
- Identify planning and procedural deficiencies
- Test or validate changed procedures or plans
- Clarify roles and responsibilities
- Obtain feedback
- Improve coordination between teams (internally and externally)
- Increase awareness and understanding of hazards and potential impact of them