Reduce risk and stay ready
New Zealand has been through the wringer in 2023 already, and it’s only March. Many businesses had their emergency response plans put to the test during Cyclone Gabrielle or the Auckland floods before that, while many others were made aware that they needed an emergency response plan.
Kiwis famously think that “she’ll be right”, and while that attitude is fun at parties it’s not so appealing when you have employees stranded in the Hawkes Bay with no method of communication. One of our clients found themselves in this situation. They were able to get messages to the wholesalers their electricians were buying supplies from, and these were passed along—now this “number 8 wire” attitude is one we can get behind! However, a clear emergency response plan would have made life easier for those stranded team members.
What is an emergency response plan and what might it include?
As an employer, you should be prepared to keep your employees safe in an emergency. Situations to consider include:
- Damage to your building or buildings in which staff are working.
- People being trapped in a location.
- A lack of transport.
- Broken lines of communication.
- Injuries, or threat of injury or illness.
- Risk of fire, flooding, and contamination.
While most businesses (and even many households!) have fire or earthquake evacuation policies in place for their premises, the recent weather events (and the recent pandemic) have demonstrated that more is needed. Your plan should include emergency procedures for fire, earthquake, tsunami, and other natural emergencies plus manmade ones such as a robbery or chemical spill.
You should think about evacuation procedures, assembly points, and warning systems. There should be procedures in place for when and how to contact employees, contractors, families, insurance providers, and any other relevant parties. Staff with limited mobility should be specifically thought of and catered for in the plan.
As our client learnt recently, if you have people on the road then you must include procedures for staff stranded away from home or your main work premises. For example, you might specify authorisations for use of company funds to procure accommodation and food where needed.
Risks: what do you stand to lose?
Any emergency situation, whether natural disaster or otherwise, is not good news—often, there will be effects for your business, whether those be people-related or financial. And of course, those can be directly attributed to the circumstance. However, without solid policies, procedures, and training that lay out how your team should respond, you are taking a bigger risk. A plan will help you to minimise consequences—or avoid the worst of them!
There’s the situation that our clients faced in the recent cyclone: staff members stranded, cut off from communication. You might have people trapped in a building. You could have teams that are scared and unsure about what action to take. Whatever the scenario, without a clear procedure in place there is more risk of bad decisions being made.
We have also talked before about how policies can reduce your legal liability, as they demonstrate the efforts you have taken to reduce risk. Read more about that here!
The benefits of an emergency response plan
It’s simple—a plan makes you prepared to respond better when disaster strikes! If everyone is aware of the plan and it is up to date, you stand the best chance of your people and property coming through it as unharmed as possible.
Financially, an ERP plan is a fantastic investment. Sure, you may never need to use it. But if you do, it could save you a huge amount of money and time. Even with the best insurance policies in place, the aftermath of something like a flood can be costly.
Create your plan
How do you go about making an ERP that’s effective and comprehensive? Here are our top tips!
- Review your current ERP, if you have one. Use real-life situations to identify gaps—for example, consider anything you experienced or other businesses experienced during the recent cyclone to decide what is missing from your plan.
- Whether you are updating your ERP or creating one from scratch, there are several resources you can use. These include the workplace preparedness page of the National Emergency Management Agency site and SiteSafe’s guide to emergency response planning. Sign up for the NZ ShakeOut earthquake drill and participate annually.
- In addition to paperwork, you should ensure that you have any physical equipment required for an emergency response, stored in appropriate places. For example: fire extinguishers, water and other provisions, PPE.
- Create a training schedule that takes emergency preparedness into account—having someone trained in First Aid is important for this and many other reasons.
- Test your plan! This Spiceworks survey of businesses across North America and Europe showed that while 95% of organisations had some kind of disaster recovery plan in place, but 23% of those never test their plan at all—eliminating opportunities to identify gaps and improve their response, and increasing risk.
TL;DR—What You Need To Know
Didn’t read the article? Read this:
- Evaluate: Do you have an emergency response plan? Is it up to date?
- Use your own reviews and real-life examples (i.e what Kiwi companies have faced during recent flooding and cyclones) to create or update the plan to cover all scenarios.
- Seek help if you need it. Emendas can help you to make sure you have covered your bases.
- Know that you’re prepared to fare better in an emergency!
Of course, the best way to ensure that your emergency response plan is a good one is to seek expert help. If you need guidance in creating an ERP and other important documentation for your business, get in touch with Emendas! It’s our job to make your business better, and we do it with a practical, realistic, no-nonsense approach that takes your unique needs and company culture into account.