Health & safety programs are designed to prevent injuries, illnesses, and property damage.  Such incidents are curtailed through safety policies, procedures, and training. That’s how it should be.  However, despite your best efforts, an emergency could occur at any time.  Advance preparation will go a long way toward minimizing the impact of an emergency.  Is your workforce ready?

Emergency preparedness ensures your organization is ready to deal with sudden events.  Many workplaces centre their efforts on the creation of an emergency response plan (ERP), that is, a document.  The development of an ERP is a vital part of the preparedness process, but there’s much more needed to be really ready.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Make it a group effort.  It takes a lot of work to create a truly effective emergency response capability.  Form an emergency planning group so that one person isn’t doing all the work.  Draw together participants from a cross-section of departments and levels in your organization.  Solicit support, and participation, from your senior managers.

Examples of Workplace Emergencies 

• Flood, windstorm, snow/ ice storm
• Loss of electrical power or other utility
• Injury or medical emergency
• Chemical spill
• Transportation incident
• Fire / explosion
• Structural / equipment failure
• Robbery/ bomb threat/ violence

2.     Conduct a risk assessment.  Identify all the possible emergencies that could occur in your workplace.  Do this by touring the workplace and by talking to employees, supervisors and managers.  Then assess both the probability and the severity of each emergency.  You’ll end up with a list of emergencies ranked in order of risk.

3.     Prepare your workplace and your workforce.  Using the risk assessment results, start preparing for the high-risk emergencies first.  The emergency planning group should undertake or oversee preparedness tasks.

• Write an ERP which describes the chain of command, procedures for initiating and executing emergency response procedures, emergency contact information and details about your workplace (e.g., site plans, chemical inventory lists, emergency exits and assembly areas, locations of firefighting equipment and other supplies). 
• Prepare the equipment, tools and supplies that will be needed in an emergency.  Assign them to dedicated storage locations so they’ll be ready when needed.  Identify external suppliers who can provide additional items during an emergency, and list their contact information in the ERP.
• Train everyone.  Different levels of training may be needed depending on each person’s role (e.g. commander, responder, assembly marshal, evacuee).
• Share your ERP with the public emergency responders and your neighbours.

4.     Practice, practice, practice!  Organize exercises.  They provide practice for your workforce and will help debug your response procedures.  Exercises could entail “what-if” scenarios around the conference table, drills to practice specific response skills, or an all-out mock emergency using all necessary response resources.

5.     Keep everything up to date.  Change is constant.  Update your ERP whenever there are changes to emergency contacts, procedures, the work site, or other factors affecting the way your organization will respond to emergencies.  Back up changes with updated training and exercises.

Emergency preparedness is a critical part of your health & safety program.  Make sure that your workforce is ready.

Useful Resources:

• CSA Z731-03, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Canadian Standards Association
• Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness, www.ccep.ca
• Emergency Response Planning Guide, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety (CCOHS), 2004
• National Fire Code of Canada 2005, Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, National Research Council of Canada, 2005
• National Building Code of Canada 2005, Volume 1, Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, National Research Council of Canada, 2005

This article is provided for information only. Article Reproduced by Guzzardi & Associates with Permission.  Copyright 2006 Escalade Services Group Inc.