Emergency Preparedness Planning: Prepare, Plan, Protect
In this day and age, we’re faced with frequent and growingly severe threats and hazards. The difference between organizations who survive and those that don’t after an emergency or disaster is how well prepared they are to face these kinds of events. After assisting numerous organizations in Emergency Management, it’s become clear that many organizations aren’t prioritizing their business continuity and resiliency. To help with that, we want to outline the threats and hazards to be mindful of, as well as how you can prepare your business to sustain the disruptions caused by them.
Identify Organizational Threats & Hazards
There are many factors that can threaten an organization’s safety in different ways, which is why it’s important to take multiple scenarios into consideration when preparing for an emergency or disaster. At Golden Hour Preparedness, we’ll take into account impactful events including:
Natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards, and earthquakes
Insider threats
Active shooter
Cyber-security attacks
Pandemic
Risk from hazardous material
Supply chain vulnerabilities
Industry- and organization-specific threats
THE ORGANIZATIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT
Using the Organizational Risk Assessment, we'll help you understand your organization’s threat landscape. This will form the foundation for the strategic planning needed to determine how your company will react to each threat or hazard thrown your way. Once we’re clear on your company's concerns and primary priorities, we’ll examine the relationship between risks and their impact on your organization’s strategic goals in order to identify your most likely risks and optimize efficiencies. If you have any processes already in place for emergencies, we’ll review those to see what other action plans need to be created. Plus, you’ll have support along the way from our team of experts.
Plan Your Organization’s Response to Emergencies
Once all of your threats have been identified, then we can start planning your organization’s strategic response. Our goal is to reduce the impact of these potential disruptions by determining and documenting a course of action before the event takes place. By having this documentation, you’ll also be able to track if and how well you’re improving your organization’s resiliency to emergencies (or vice versa).
THE EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN
The document that houses your strategic response is called the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). It details the action steps needed in order to successfully sustain your organization’s critical business functions during an emergency or disaster, or at least to resume them as soon as possible after a disruption. Critical business functions would be things like running payroll, communicating with clients about outages or delays, ensuring the safety of employees and visitors, or any function that without which your organization would no longer be in business or achieve its goals.
HOW AN EOP IS CREATED
Once senior leadership has had a facilitated discussion to identify the critical business functions needed to sustain the organization during a disaster, then those processes are documented in the EOP. These processes may be different from the standard operating procedure for that task (i.e. running payroll), which is why it’s important to have a separate plan to execute these functions. Ensure that sensitive information is only visible on a need-to-know basis to those who’ve already been identified to complete the tasks.
Implement Routine Training & Exercises
In order for your emergency plan to have the most effective outcome, it’s critical to implement routine training and exercises to help current and new staff members perform at their best during an impactful event. Having your decision makers run through scenarios without the pressure of a real-world event is invaluable.
USING THE EOP AS A TRAINING GUIDE
Your EOP will include a script of what’s supposed to happen during an emergency or disaster, so it should be used during training. With routine drills, your staff members will feel more comfortable running through these operations that are essential to successfully manage a disaster. You’ll also likely find during discussion-based exercises that there are improvements needed, like a document that needs to be produced in order to support the EOP or assumptions between departments about how quickly duties can be fulfilled. Encourage your staff members to be open about any questions or confusion they may have no matter how small. You never know the impact a small action or mistake could have during an emergency.
Start Creating a Culture of Preparedness within Your Organization
In today’s world, there are a number of disasters or emergencies that could come your way. Taking the opportunity to work proactively against these threats to your organization’s survival can make all the difference. At Golden Hour Preparedness, your recovery from emergencies and disasters is our number one priority. To get started working with experts who have your organization’s resiliency at the forefront, get in touch with us here.