Emergencies can strike at the most unexpected times, so planning ahead for them can help you be ready at any time of day or night. The right emergency plan makes it easy to deal with almost any disaster or emergency, and can even end up saving someone’s life. At work, having an office emergency plan is a good idea if you want to make sure that your employees are prepared for whatever may happen.
Be Prepared
No matter where your office may be located, emergencies can still happen. While it is important to take steps to minimize the risk of trouble, you cannot eliminate this danger completely. Because of this, it is important to spend some time coming up with an emergency plan so that everyone will know what to do when disaster strikes.
One of the most important benefits of having an emergency plan for your office is that it will help reduce panic. During many emergencies, injuries and other problems are often caused not so much by the emergency itself, but by people panicking and doing the wrong thing. Disasters are often survivable if everyone keeps a cool head and follows the plan.
Create a List of Emergencies
A good first step is to come up with a list of the emergencies that are most likely to happen at your office. This list may depend upon exactly where your office is located. For example, you might work in a part of the country where earthquakes are common, or your office building might be located near the coastline where a hurricane could strike. Find out which types of emergency are most common in your area.
Create Emergency Plans
Some emergencies that can happen almost anywhere include fires, storms, blackouts, and even crime. You need to make sure that you have a plan in place to respond to any and all of these situations. Of course, your plan will need to be different for each type of emergency, but there are a few common factors that should be included in any plan.
Have a safe emergency route out of the building so that your employees can exit the premises as quickly as possible. Make sure that there are multiple exits that people can use. The stairs should be accessible in case the elevators stop working or are unusable.
Run Emergency Drills
Running drills can be a good way to help your employees practice carrying out the emergency plan. For example, you can time everyone to see how quickly the building can be evacuated. Try to beat your previous time. Give everyone a specific duty or task to perform as part of the plan. Having a job to focus on will make it less likely that anyone will lose their cool and start to panic.
Having an office emergency plan is important if you want to make sure that everyone is able to stay safe during a dangerous situation. Work as a team to develop a plan, and then practice it regularly so that it can be put into effect as soon as it is needed.
Mick Chan has been working in safety supplies for many years. As a product manager for ESafetySupplies.com, he knows his merchandise and all the requirements from OSHA. He likes to write and share his ideas about the importance of safety and emergency prevention.