Emergency Preparedness:
Developing an Emergency Response Management Plan

by David Anderson, Principal Consultant, EORM, Inc.

Whether you call it disaster planning, emergency preparedness, contingency planning, or business continuity, ultimately the goal is the same: to ensure the safety of the workforce and minimize the organizational impact of a natural or man-made incident.

What if 33% of your workforce were unable to come to work for an extended length of time? Companies today are under increasing pressure from their customers and stakeholders to show that they have emergency management plans in place to ensure their products and services can continue to the supply-chain with minimal interruption.  

Emergency management and response plans are designed to protect the health of your employees and the public, mitigate any real or potential danger to the environment, and preserve the organization so that it can continue to offer its services and goods. They often focus on events that happen inside a facility’s “four-walls,” incidents that in many cases can be controlled and even prevented from happening by the business itself.

The cataclysmic events of the last decade have shown the need for emergency plans that address dangers outside the traditional borders of a company’s command and control. Besides ensuring the safety of employees at work, plans today address how a company assists in the protection of their workforce at home as well how to measure the impact of a community-wide disaster and ensure business continuity.

Getting Started

You do not need prior experience in emergency management to develop an effective plan. What you do need is a commitment from the very top of your company to promote emergency management as part of the business planning process and the authority to create a plan.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines four critical steps in developing an emergency management plan. This process can be used by manufacturers, retailers, corporate offices, utilities, or heavy industry.  The methodology applies to any company, whether they operate in a high rise building or in an industrial complex.

Step 1: Form a Planning Team

When recruiting members for your team, establish upfront whether they will play an active role or serve only in an advisory capacity. This decision is often dictated by the person’s full time job responsibilities and the amount of time they can devote to the process. In most cases, the majority of the work will be done by 2 or 3 members of the team. At the very least, you should strive to obtain input and/or representation from all functional areas in your organization.

The planning team needs to be visible to the rest of the organization. This is best accomplished by issuing an announcement from the CEO that defines the purpose and authority of the team and how the entire organization will participate.

Step 2: Identify Existing Resources, Capabilities, and Known Hazards

You should start by reviewing all internal plans, procedures, and policies that might be in effect during an emergency. This includes evacuation plans, procedures for shutting down critical equipment, OSHA emergency response plans, and employee notification systems.  As you review these existing documents, ask yourself how the plan could be used in a natural or man-made emergency or to identify a potential hazard.

You should also look outside your business for resources. Speak to government agencies and community organizations to understand what steps they have taken in preparing for an emergency. Seek out government agencies that are involved in emergency management. When meeting with these agencies, make sure you understand what their priorities are in a community-wide emergency. The list of outside resources should include suppliers of emergency equipment and services that might be used during an event.

Once you know what internal and external resources are available, you need to assess the vulnerability of your facility. List all the emergencies that could occur within your facility and in the community, taking into consideration the following:

For each emergency that could affect your facility, assess the probability of it happening. Then, assess the impact the emergency would have on humans (both the public and your employees), the facility or property, and on your business. Consider the cost to replace or repair equipment, as well as the impact if employees, supplies, or customers are disabled or unable to reach your facility.


Step 3: Develop the Plan

An emergency management plan usually begins with an executive summary which gives management a brief overview of the purpose of the document, the facility’s emergency management policy, the responsibilities of key personnel, and how response operations will be managed.

Your plan should have a section that briefly describes your company’s approach to the core elements of emergency management, including:

These elements are the foundation for the emergency response procedures that your facility will follow to protect personnel, equipment, and infrastructure, and to resume operations. Emergency response procedures state how the facility will respond in the event of an emergency. Specific procedures might be needed for any number of situations such as bomb threats or tornadoes, and for developing and managing communication, evacuation, and other emergency response activities during and after an event.

When you are ready to start drafting the plan, assign each team member a section to write. Determine the most appropriate format for each section and establish an aggressive timeline with specific goals. Provide enough time for completion of work, but not so much as to allow assignments to linger.

Once the plan is completed, get written approval from senior management. Then, distribute the plan to senior management, emergency response personnel, corporate headquarters, and the appropriate community agencies.

Step 4: Implement the Plan

A successful plan is one that is fully integrated into company operations. Continue to look for opportunities to build awareness, educate and train personnel, and test the procedures.  The plan should be reviewed annually; additionally, it should be reviewed following any emergency event to make sure it is effective and accurate. Changes and updates should be documented whenever they are made. All employees should know who to contact and how to proceed if they come upon either a dangerous situation or an actual emergency.

Members of the emergency response team must be trained in their roles and responsibilities in the event of an emergency. They should also conduct emergency response drills to become familiar with the procedures and the equipment they might use during an actual emergency. The drills should be designed to replicate the challenges responders would encounter in an actual emergency.

Remember: Emergency management is not just about having a plan. The plan is an important component, but isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on if no one is trained on how to initiate the specific procedures it calls for, or if drills are never conducted to practice the procedures and show proficiency, or if your emergency equipment is never checked or tested. Unless the plan implementation and on-going support become part of your business strategy and culture, the effectiveness of an emergency response plan to mitigate, respond to, and recover from an emergency will be marginal.

David Anderson, a Principal Consultant for EORM, has over 15 years experience working with companies to support EHS compliance and excellence, with a focus on regulatory programs, training and business continuity. He recently presented a webcast on Emergency Management. Click here to view the archived webcast presentation.

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