- An enraged man concealing a Glock .45 enters your facility to hunt down his ex
- A visitor loses consciousness during a meeting, and no one knows what to do as the critical first four minutes tick by
- The fire alarms go off, you think all of your people have evacuated, but you can’t account for all of them as required by law
- A company in your same building receives a serious bomb threat, but no one alerts you
- When you call 911, it takes a least four to eight minutes for help to arrive. You don’t realize during these first life-threatening minutes, you are on your own.
You can’t stop crazy, but…
Every employer can prepare for crazy. In fact, it’s required by federal law.
The first step is a commitment from top management.
Good leaders protect their people
The belief “Nothing bad will happen to us” does not protect people or property–or comply with federal and state laws.
If top management or a board of directors needs convincing, I’ve found either of these actions can result in buy-in and commitment:
- Conduct a tabletop exercise in your conference room. This simulates an unfolding emergency, engaging key people across multiple departments
- Conduct an assessment of your foreseeable emergencies and current emergency planning
What a tabletop exercise covers
A foreseeable emergency of your choosing is simulated in your conference room. Your employee emergency commanders and senior management are involved.
We unfold the emergency, with participants making “what to do” and “how to respond” decisions each step of the way as the emergency accelerates.
Top management attends, but does not have a voice, simulating their being offsite and unreachable. This allows them to fully observe the exercise, experience how it would be handled in their absence, and face no pressure to perform.
At the end, we provide a review, lessons learned, and recommend next steps.
What an emergency preparedness assessment covers
You learn how you stack up against four core responsibilities:
- Duty of care to ensure the safety of all personnel and stability of operations
- Legal compliance with complex regulations
- Collaborate with emergency services in your jurisdiction
- Sustain your plan with annual employee training
We personally:
- Conduct a walk-through of your entire facility
- Interview appropriate personnel
- Consult with your local emergency responders
- Inspect all pertinent documents related to your emergency plans, and
- Assess your current emergency/crisis team’s organization, command, control and communications
After our assessment, we deliver a comprehensive report including:
- Site description
- Strengths
- Vulnerabilities
- Opportunities
- Threats
- Real scenarios to consider
- A checklist of compliance issues
- Recommendations for addressing vulnerabilities
We also give you an action plan that outlines how any issues can be resolved. You get a detailed list of deliverables to bring you up to code and in compliance.
Your takeaway
In my 17 years of working with 250+ workplaces, including firms in high rises, manufacturers with hazardous materials, colleges with daycare centers, hotels, hospitals, summer camps and corporate campuses, I’ve learned emergency preparedness has to be embraced by top management.
Conducting a tabletop exercise or an emergency preparedness assessment can scare them into action.
Action step
Let’s see which one is a good fit for your organization. Call me at 203.563.9999.
If this was helpful, please let me know.