As someone responsible for employees and their safety while on the job, an emergent situation is one you never want to face. However, while a disaster may be devastating, nothing is worse than being unprepared. There are several crucial things to do ahead of time including research, training, creating materials and kits, and this guide will help you create your plan of action to keep your cool while keeping your employees safe.
You cannot control when emergencies happen ... but you can control how prepared you are when they happen.
*Note: Please be aware, some of these emergencies will not apply to your geographical location.
In the event of an emergency, you will want to know who you are responsible for, so make sure you have a record of who was in the office at the time of the incident. This employee manifest will serve as a way to account for everyone and put your mind at ease when you can't find someone because they weren't clocked in for the day. If your HCM is cloud-based, you should be able to view timekeeping right from your phone.
Additional information you should have access to in an emergency event includes, employee phone number and home address, along with two emergency contacts with phone numbers, one must be local. You should also have pertinent medical information, such as allergies, preferred hospital, and any critical medical directives.
Other valuable information to have offline includes emergency numbers for local resources. Look into contact information for:
911 - obviously, but this wouldn't be a complete list without it.
Establish as many viable escape routes as possible from various locations in the office. Escape routes should be quick exits, free and clear of clutter and visibly marked. It is essential to go over these routes and provide copies of maps to every employee in the office.
Also noted in training and on the maps should be locations of fire extinguishers. The building fire alarms should go off automatically, but someone can also use hand activated alarms. Make sure you test these alarms at least twice a year.
Make a plan, draw maps, write it up, practice it, train employees, communicate it, take a class on CPR if you want, do regular checks of employees information, assign helpers depending on the size of the firm, and a backup to you, put together emergency supplies/kits.