It’s tempting to envision preparedness as a race towards an end. The focus is on completing key steps, obtaining stakeholder buy-in, developing robust emergency plans and training your staff to implement specific actions during an emergency to protect your organization’s assets. Once those steps have been completed, you’ve achieved an acceptable level of preparedness, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Consider two of the three main factors at play. Over time, your organization is likely to undergo any number of changes, such as the acquisition or loss of assets, staffing changes and evolving priorities. Its vulnerability to emergencies and disasters will shift accordingly. Or new hazards may arise in your community and introduce additional risks to your organization. It makes little sense for your emergency plans to be remain static.
In fact, allowing your organization’s preparedness documents to fall out of date can be disastrous. Under 29 CFR 1910.38(b), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires businesses with at least 10 employees to have a written Emergency Action Plan (EAP). To meet OSHA standards, the EAP must address certain minimum elements, including evacuation procedures, the contact within the organization for information about the plan and details of those trained to assist with emergency procedures. If an organization’s EAP is made obsolete because of changes to its operations or personnel restructuring, the business is at risk of non-compliance with OSHA’s standards. Moreover, your staff depends on accurate plans. Attempting to implement outdated documents in the face of an emergency or disaster may result in a delayed response, prolonged interruptions to operations and — in the worst-case scenario — injury and loss of life.
MAKE UPDATING YOUR DISASTER PLANS ROUTINE Updating your emergency plans does not need to be a burden. Organizations can integrate review and update sessions into their normal operations at predetermined, regular intervals. By planning to complete these activities, they will ensure that their plans remain up to date with little disruption to day-to-day activities.
At a minimum, your emergency response planning committee should meet at least once a year, although some committees find it beneficial to meet as frequently as once every quarter. During these meetings, the committee should review the top hazardous threats and any relevant initiatives undertaken by your organization to mitigate them. As this information changes, update your organization’s EAP accordingly.
It is also important that your organization’s resources are reviewed regularly to update its EAP; this includes maintaining current emergency contact information for new and existing employees and regularly inspecting your facilities for potential hazards. At least once a year, a designated person should work with your organization’s Human Resources department to collect a list of updated employee names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. Contact information can be verified with call trees, automated email verification tools, or by asking employees to review their information on file.
Your organization should plan to inspect its facilities at least annually, although regulations and local ordinances may require more frequent inspections. These inspections allow you to confirm that your organization’s physical assets are in good working order, which will reduce the likelihood that they will either impede response efforts during an emergency or malfunction and cause an emergency themselves.
During inspections, pay particular attention to the functionality of equipment, the presence of safety signs, the availability of emergency supplies and whether any hazards may endanger the health and safety of employees or the public. The Ready Rating Resource Center offers a Safety Inspection Checklist that can facilitate this process. As part of this inspection, your organization should also evaluate its alert system. Utilize the Alarms and Notifications Checklist to determine if your organization’s system works correctly; checklists unique to schools and houses of worship are also available in the Resource Center.
As a Ready Rating member, your organization should update its self-assessment at least every 12 months. After receiving your updated Next Steps Report, your organization’s emergency response committee can then choose at least three areas that require improvement and aim to address them by the time the next self-assessment is completed. Doing so not only ensures that your organization meets the terms of the Ready Rating membership agreement but also allows you to measure its level of preparedness and track improvements over time.
SUSTAINING EMPLOYEE KNOWLEDGE AND READINESS Maintaining preparedness is more than just updating documents. It’s also crucial that organizations provide regular training and drill opportunities to their employees. Staff should be trained so that they are prepared to implement your organization’s plans. Drills help identify plan vulnerabilities so that they may be corrected before an emergency or disaster occurs.
Employee training should occur regularly, or at least once a year. Training sessions are a great opportunity to provide background information to your employees on the hazards that pose the greatest risks to your organization and review the purpose and contents of the EAP. When developing your training plan, make sure to cover how important information, including alerts and warnings, will be communicated; how to locate the EAP, contact information for key personnel; staff roles and responsibilities during a disaster; the designated shelter-in-place location; and evacuation guidance. If your organization has existing relationships with other organizations in the community that can support you in developing your training, consider contacting them for assistance.
Consider holding drills to test specific parts of your preparedness plans, such as evacuation or shelter-in-place drills, or conduct a COOP drill to test the ability to continue essential business functions during an emergency. It can also be beneficial to hold drills based on the hazards specific to your community or organization. Where possible, involve skilled staff who can develop, conduct and evaluate these activities. Use their findings to improve your EAP and future preparedness activities. For guidance on how to conduct drills, visit the
When developing and implementing a schedule to review and update an organization’s preparedness plans, consider creating a master document to list key activities, the frequency with which they must be performed and the dates they are completed. The Ready Rating Preparedness Calendar Tool will give you a head start in creating a schedule that allows your organization to maintain its preparedness for years to come.