Emergency Preparedness Checklist (Office/Workplace)
Emergencies in the office or workplace, while hopefully rare, are inevitable. Even though you can’t prevent disasters or emergencies from occurring, you can take proactive steps to prepare your organization for an impactful event. It’s important to clarify that office-related emergencies call for different preparations than, say, home or car emergencies.
With that said, there are steps you can take and items to have handy that will greatly assist in your organization’s resilience during an impactful event.
How to Prepare for an Emergency in the Office
If you’re in an emergency in the workplace, you’ll usually either evacuate and go home or shelter-in-place in the office. Shelter-in-place is the most common reaction to an emergency or disaster in the office. It can last anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours, so it’s important to have the necessary items and commodities for your team:
Healthy snacks
Plenty of bottled water
Portable toilet with a privacy barrier
Cell phone chargers of all types
Laptop
A deactivated cell phone that can still make emergency calls
WHAT IS A SHELTER IN PLACE ROOM?
Shelter-in-place rooms are rooms that have little to no windows, vents that are able to be covered or closed off, and that have all of the supplies listed above. Break rooms or conference rooms, if they have few windows or vents, are a great option. Depending on the size of your organization, you may need multiple shelter-in-place rooms that are easily accessible and able to safely accommodate all of your staff members.
EMPLOYEE SAFETY IN THE OFFICE
Know that employees are not required to shelter in place, so you should also have a system of keeping track of who decides to leave before procedures take place. Your organization may also have a number of staff members who work remotely, whether exclusively or hybrid, so you should have measures in place to accurately account for these employees as well. Proactively, you should have a set goal of having at least 25% of staff members trained in Floor Warden Training and at least 75% trained in Active Shooter Safety in the last 12 months.
REGULARLY PARTICIPATE IN COMPANY-WIDE TRAINING EXERCISES
The importance of regular training exercises cannot be stressed enough. Very few people can think clearly and logically during a crisis, but routine run-throughs of scenarios allow your staff members to become more comfortable with making decisions under pressure. How roles and responsibilities will shift during an impactful event should be communicated clearly and staff members should have an understanding of how they may need to adapt during an emergency. You can notify employees of upcoming drills, however it’s also recommended to hold surprise drills to have a runthrough that’s as close to real as possible. After each exercise, evaluate its effectiveness with your staff members to find possible areas of improvement.
Download the Preparedness Checklist for Leaders
The Preparedness Checklist for Leaders is a simple list of questions during emergency scenarios that will allow you to review your current plans and identify what you may be missing. You’ll run through questions regarding business continuity and organizational resilience, as well as life safety in the workplace. It’s free to download and will be delivered right to your inbox within minutes. Keep scrolling and pop in your email address below to get started!