10 ways to Improve your Emergency Preparedness and Response

After business continuity strategies have been developed, it is time for the professional to take a look at how the organization is prepared to deal with the emergency itself.  While the continuity of operations is key to the continued financial well-being of your organization, emergency preparedness saves lives and therefore can be the most rewarding aspect of your career. 

Two priorities dominate the emergency preparedness and response area: protecting your people and property and establishing command and control. Emergency teams lead by an incident response commander will immediately begin protecting people and property at the affected site while the command and control team moves to the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).

Tip #1 Gain a broad understanding of potential in-house emergency resources

Perform a gap assessment. Create an emergency resource register that lists what resources your organization has that could be used during an emergency. Each section of the register would consider one aspect of dealing with an emergency situation at that location. List the resources that might be useful in the event of a fire, flood or other emergency. Determine what should be surplus to your response requirements and could be useful to others. Find out what you are missing but might need in an emergency and how it should be obtained. Use the register to train all members of the emergency response team.

Tip #2 Promote wide spread first-aid training

Most organizations have minimum requirements for first aid training under Health and Safety legislation.  Provide basic first aid training to any employee who is willing to participate and provide annual refresher courses. Advertise this benefit to new employees as part of the orientation package. All emergency response team members must have first aid and CPR training.

Tip #3 Create office “go” bags

Create a grab bag and place it at the main entrance to the building or at the reception desk and ensure the bag is taken out of the building as part of the standard evacuation procedure. The grab bag should contain, as a minimum, a copy of the response plan preferably laminated. You should also consider including essential contact details, any directions to recovery sites and other emergency reference material, recovery plans and supplies to suit your needs. Also include a current copy of the emergency resource register.

Tip #4 Plan for shelter-in-place scenarios

Often the evacuation scenario blinds us to the idea that our staff could be trapped inside our facilities. Create plans for securing the building, turning off heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and dealing with inevitable communication issues.

Tip #5 Develop the ability to assess damage quickly

To identify the damage, designate a Damage Assessment Team which could include contingency planners, security personnel, building engineers, branch managers, custodians, and representatives from critical function areas. Quarterly inspections of the facilities should be undertaken by the team members so that they become familiar with potential hazards and the current “pre-disaster” conditions. Photographic documentation during these inspections will help with damage assessment and with insurance claims. Be sure that the damage assessment team is involved in the business continuity exercises.

Create damage survey forms for use during assessments. Damage survey forms should include both a situation damage assessment (a description of what has happened); and a needs assessment (a statement of what needs to be done). Forms can be used to report the information to the EOC as it is needed. For example a Flash Report would be submitted very quickly to briefly describe the event,the steps being taken to cope with it, and to give a first indication of what relief may be needed. The Initial Report would follow the flash report as soon as possible (within a matter of hours). Its purpose is to inform the EOC of the severity of the disaster and to provide the information needed to start mobilizing resources. The report should therefore briefly summarize:

• the severity of the disaster (without necessarily providing precise figures);
• actions being taken at the site;
• on site available resources;
• the immediate priorities for relief, where it is required and in approximately what quantities; and suggest the best logistical means of delivering that relief;
• a forecast of possible future developments including new risks.

A reporting schedule should be set-up as the situation, needs and priorities will change over time.

Tip #6 Define the services provided by the EOC

Services provided by the EOC should be based on its mission and continuity requirements. During the planning phase, determine which services are offered only during emergencies and whether services will be performed by the EOC on an ongoing basis. Plan for a worst case scenario with damage to your workplace, data, people and technology. Determine how many people will need to be accommodated and for what length of time. Document methods of changing the scale of the response. 

Tip #7 Perform a risk analysis on the EOC location

The EOC location should be far enough away from your main facilities to insure that it is not affected by the same event.  It should be close enough that a rapid response can occur. Investigate transportation and housing issues.  Determine how long it will take and who will be responsible for the set up. Vendors that supply emergency operations centre should be able to have basic set-up completed by the time your people arrive. Vendor facilities usually have multiple customers who may need the facilities at the same moment.  On a first come basis you find you intended site occupied. Designate an alternate EOC that overcomes limitations of your initial EOC. For example, the alternate EOC may be further away, in the opposite direction or larger.

Tip #8 Determine which conditions require full activation of the EOC

Activation of the EOC can be very expensive. Determine what level of emergency constitutes a disaster for your organization.  Authority to declare a disaster must be understood prior to the event and a chain of command must be established. Determine if other special conditions could require activation of the EOC. For example, you may want to activate the crisis communications centre for specific types of events.

Tip #9 Restrict and monitor access to the EOC

Use coloured vests to clearly identify members of each team in the EOC. Security personal should be put in place to restrict access to the EOC to those who are actively working the emergency. Identification cards may be needed if the response team is large. The media should never be given access to the EOC.  Press conferences should be done elsewhere.  

Tip #10 Support the families of key employees and members of the response team

Employees will need to secure their family before any thought can be given to supporting the organization.  Offer emergency preparedness home kits to key employees and BC response teams. Emergency preparedness home kits are not expensive and can help your employees be available when needed during a disaster. You may save time by purchasing kits produced by the Red Cross or another reliable organization.

Plan to offer relief services to the families of key employees and response teams.  They may need temporary shelter, babysitting services or simply a place to wash-up.  Helping them deal with their home responsibilities will allow them to concentrate on restoring the business. It will also create goodwill and strengthen employee loyalty.    

Emergency preparedness and response is an attempt to bring some order and control into the chaos following a disaster.  As you exercise your plans you may gain some insight into how your response teams will perform.  Confidence comes with preparation, training and exercise. Following these ten tips will help protect your people and property and strengthen your ability to re-establish command and control.

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As the foundation of Business Continuity Management at your organization, a solid program initiation can help you to avoid many structural issues later on.  While you may be eager to demonstrate progress, investing sufficient time and energy into program planning will help to avoid costly delays and remove obstacles. This article will outline ten tips that can be used to improve your program initiation and management.    

Tip # 1 Assess current state of the business continuity program

You must be able to clearly describe where your business continuity program currently stands. Clarify whether any business continuity plans exist and when they were written. Examine how your organization currently manages corporate risks and how this is evolving. Determine how comfortable upper management is with their risk management maturity level. Outline what has changed in the risk and business environment that warrants a change in the company’s business continuity program. Find out what peer organisations are doing and whether the public, regulators or shareholders would be satisfied with your entity’s current state of business resiliency.  The executive sponsor will need this information in order to grant robust support.

Tip # 2 Establish an executive mandated business continuity program

Successful business continuity planning must have executive level support from the beginning.  Without this any program is doomed to failure. The business continuity program must have a designated executive sponsor who will sign-off as each milestone is reached. Ideally the program should be visible to the board of directors or to the deputy minister through annual or quarterly reports. The project sponsors name must carry enough political weight to open up key doors throughout the organization.     

Tip # 3 Develop a strong policy and governance structure

The policy must contain every aspect of the program including a:

1. Risk and threat assessment
2. Business Impact Analysis
3. Comprehensive set of plans (including emergency response, recovery, restoration and crisis communications)
4. Training and awareness program
5. Annual Exercise
6. Audit
7. Maintenance program

The business continuity program scope and objectives must be included in the policy. Policy language should spell-out the classical plan–do–check–act cycle and indicate that business continuity management is a continual process.

Do not forget to perform a risk assessment. Before you start looking for risks to the organization’s critical processes, look for risks to the success of your business continuity management program.    

Tip # 4 Tie program objectives to the organization’s strategic priorities

Understand the strategic goals and operational priorities of your establishment. The business continuity program objectives need to fit into these goals and priorities if you hope to obtain wide spread upper management support.

Tip # 5 Control scope and clarify objectives

Never allow the program to become unmanageable due to a scope that is too broad or objectives that are ambiguous.

Tip # 6 Obtain strong commitments and adequate funding

Again, successful business continuity planning must have executive level support and commitment from key staff. This is a corporate investment and must have a budget that reflects the scope of the program. Include in your budget money for adequate exercise and maintenance programs. Include in your requirements staff time commitment requirements which should include any additional staffing requirement or workload redistribution where business continuity planning responsibilities are added to existing staff.

Tip # 7 Lay out a roadmap for implementation of the program

Frame the implementation. It doesn't need to be a detailed program plan (that can come later) but it has to demonstrate that you have thought things through. Outline the program sequence including what needs to happen first and when projects will begin and end. Show how will they rollout across your organisation and who will be responsible for each rollout. List any ‘quick wins’.

Tip # 8 Set realistic target dates and clear accountability for meeting them

Set realistic target dates based upon consultation with your key partners and obtain their support for meeting them.  Performance measurement is often missed by many business continuity programs as they overlook establishing critical success factors. Demonstrate the value of your program. Indicate how you and your stakeholders will measure success. Determine where you need to be in six months, one year, or even five years in order to achieve your overall goals. Verify how often and in what manner you will report results to your program's stakeholders.

Tip # 9 Establish clear communication channels among project members

Do not allow the program to get off course due to poor communication among members. Try to set up regular team meetings in the same location and at the same time.  If possible, book the meeting room for the next year.  Establish an escalation process if team members are encountering roadblocks, are not meeting target dates or are missing meetings. 

Tip # 10 Ensure your planning team has the necessary technical expertise

The business continuity program manager should obtain comprehensive business continuity management training. They should have the skills needed to share their expertise with the team members.  Project management experience or training can be a very useful but is not absolutely necessary.   Designated members of the planning team should have the technical expertise needed to represent their business unit.

What differentiates the amateur from the business continuity planning professional?  The professional has a clearly formed plan to create and manage the business continuity program.  The amateur does not. Effective use of these ten tips will improve your program initiation and management and help you to avoid many structural issues, costly delays and obstacles and further demonstrate your dedication to professionalism.

• Planning for the worst. The 2012 Business Continuity Management Survey (March 2012)


• The Role of the HR Function in Emergency Planning


• Exercise Planning Article
  


• Striving for Business Continuity Excellence
  Proficiency Through Practice
   
• Staying Open for Business
  Emergency Preparedness for the Small Business Owner

• BIA Questions
  Sample June 2010 - Word Document

• Business continuity: Practice makes perfect
  Article by Brian Miller

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