Tips for Improving Emergency Response Planning for your Workplace

Tips for Improving Emergency Response Planning for your Workplace

When it comes to emergency response, you can always get better. But, how can you improve it so that you can make it better for yourself, and for your workplace? Well, read on to find out how to create effective emergency response planning that your employees will use, and one that will keep everyone safe and sound.

Make it Shorter

If you are dealing with people who don’t read your emergency response plans, and you feel like it’s because they’re long, you should condense it. For example, having a bunch of text on one specific subject may be great, but in the event of emergencies, is it worth it?  Probably not, so making it shorter will help you in the long run.  Definitely don’t be afraid to take out the fluff, and keep all of the directions right there for people to read. 

Get Everything to OSHA Requirements

If possible, get your entire place to OSHA requirements.  If you have it like that, usually you’ll be able to prevent emergencies when they happen. Lots of times, the reason why workplace emergencies happen is because they don’t have everything to OSHA requirements.  Also, if your plan isn’t up to OSHA requirements, get it placed to that level because it could mean the difference between a safe and unsafe situation. it’s important to do this, and make sure that you spend time training and working on improving the workplace. 

Make your Plan Easy to Distribute

You should make it easy for people to get.  If you have it in one centralized location, you can tell employees to pick it up, and they’ll be able to read, consult, and learn from it too.

This also involves making it easy to distribute to each employee. For example, younger employees will want to have it as an app, so that they can read on their phones.  The internet allows for just about anything to be read off a device, so if you upload the plan to a cloud storage area, and give everyone the allowance to look at it, they can read it at their leisure.  Uploading to a Google drive for example and sharing with everyone is a great way to get your emergency response plan out.

But, if you have an office with older employees, you probably will want to give a small guidebook to them. Remember, keep it concise, and don’t just distribute some 100-page booklet.  Instead, make it a small little guidebook that they can have on hand.  Older employees tend to not be as used to the internet, and they also tend to not like dealing with apps and reading on a device, so giving them a physical copy might be better.

Regardless, make it so that the people will read it.  If they read, they will engage, and if they engage with it, chances are they’ll retain the information so that they’ll be able to respond in an emergency situation. 

Don’t Rely on The Internet

But, don’t just rely on the internet and keep it on a cloud drive.  Internet is great, and if you want to get people to read it right away, that works, but the thing is, if you do have a chance to put it on an app, you should do that instead. Apps are able to be stored on devices locally, and while technology is great, it is important to make sure that you have it somewhere where, if the internet does go down for any reason, you have a backup plan that works for you. If there is a storm or tornado, for example, lots of times the internet will be knocked out, and in turn that will make it unusable, so make sure that you don’t just rely on the internet to have the plan, but always have a backup as well. 

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If possible, always have a Paper Backup

Paper backups are good because, while technology is great, sometimes having a lack of technology is really important. A lack of technology is a blessing in some cases. After all, if you don’t just rely on technology, chances are when the internet does go out, you have a backup, and you’ll be able to still utilize your plans.  While technology is a great thing, you’re at the mercy of bad servers, wifi and internet crapping out, and even losing connection altogether if there is no electricity. it’s a blessing, but also a curse.

Paper can also be laminated in order to make it waterproof, which is great if you live in an area that does get bad storms, floods, or even hurricanes.  You should always have a paper backup easy to find, and even just a laminated master copy can make all the difference in your ability to work with whatever you want.

Work on Communication

If possible, always work on communication whenever there is a disaster or even an emergency.  Emergency personnel need to coordinate with you, so you should have a set number of agencies that you need to contact whenever there are emergencies, including but not limited to hospitals, EMS, and even the firemen and police officers.  In the event of disasters, you need coordination and communication. In your plan, have each person assigned roles, and if there is one person that everyone needs to go to in the event of an emergency, you need to definitely outline that, and let others know about it too.

You need to make sure you have the means to communicate too, especially in the event that either the phone lines or the electrical lines don’t work. While you may have to rely on some outdated technology, it’s better to have a means of communication than to just let everything go by the boards. 

Get some Training

Training is super important, and while fire safety training Sydney is a good start, especially since fires are the most common workplace emergencies that your entire team will have to prepare for, you should also make sure that you’ve got medical and nonmedical needs 2worked out as well.  If possible, have a few people you can turn to that have basic CPR and emergency training so that they can deliver first aid to the right people, and also have nonmedical training for others in the event that you need some help regarding a disaster.  Training is probably the one thing that you should always never skimp out on since these needs do vary based on a disaster.  You should consider in your emergency response plan to highlight all of the major emergencies, and also in your plan to discuss who has the training to do this.

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Emergency personnel need to be able to help fit these needs, and also having personal training on your end to respond to a disaster is imperative. On-the-job training that is able to be done, along with academic training, is definitely important, but you should always have your team trained and ready to respond.  Care should also be taken to outline what to do in the event of a chemical, biological, and even nuclear issues that may happen while on the job.

Highlight Where Protective Equipment Is

Also, highlight where you can get the protective equipment you need. This is a super important one because there are plenty of times when you may need something, but you don’t’ know where it is.  While you may get away with wasting a few seconds trying to find it, if it’s a real life-threatening emergency, this can mean the difference between being able to save someone’s life or not. Those precious seconds matter and even something as small as saying where the smoke alarms and fire extinguishers are is super important.  Even just saying where the fire alarm is located on the second floor could ultimately save a life.  Highlighting the major tools used in emergencies, along with also highlighting the areas where the medical treatment equipment is actually super important, for it can mean a difference between being able to save someone’s life or not.  Often, this is an overlooked point, but it’s something that you should definitely consider when you’re trying to create a better response plan.  This is probably one of the most important tips, for it can mean the difference between stopping an emergency and limiting victims or not.

Workplace emergencies do happen, and you should, as a manager or even just someone in the workplace, make sure that you have it all outlined in terms of where everything is, what to do, and how to get the contents. If you want to have quick and worthwhile responsiveness to emergency planning, this is ultimately how to do it, and you’d be surprised at the difference this can make.  Precious seconds can be shaved off, lives can be saved, and you can keep your workplace safe and healthy with just these tips for your office to use.  From there, everyone can be safer and happier within the workplace.

Author bio: Emily loves to write on issues related to Health and physio gold coast. She has been in this industry for 5+ years and specialises in writing educative content on Health. She loves to read trending news to keep her updated!