Emergency Preparedness and Response

place to handle emergency situations, everyone should understand their role during an emergency and understand what needs to be done to keep themselves and their fellow employees safe.

The practice of having an emergency plan is to be prepared and organized when an emergency should happen. The reason is to inform and prepare everybody to work together in case of an emergency to ensure the safety of employees.

Your plan must include a way to alert employees, including disabled workers, to evacuate or take other action, and how to report emergencies, as required. Among the steps you must take are the following:

Make sure alarms are distinctive and recognized by all employees as a signal to evacuate the work area or perform actions identified in your plan.
Make available an emergency communications system such as a public-address system, portable radio unit, or other means to notify employees of the emergency and to contact local law enforcement, the fire department, and others.
Stipulate that alarms must be able to be heard, seen, or otherwise perceived by everyone in the workplace. You might want to consider providing an auxiliary power supply in the event that electricity is shut off.

Effective planning will:

• Safeguard your investment and critical resources (human resources/physical resources/business continuity).
• Help to determine your business vulnerabilities.
• Provide a logical sequence of events and tasks.
• Shorten the time to affect a recovery.
• Minimize the costs of the recovery.
• Avoid confusion and reduce exposure to error in the recovery process.
• Avoid duplication of efforts during the recovery process.

It is important to pay attention to emergency escape routes, assembly points and refuge bays in the work area. During an emergency Evacuation all staff members or employees should:

• Know the location of all building exits.

Emergency preparedness drills need to be practiced continually to ensure that all employees are aware of their responsibilities during an evacuation. Fire Drills are advised to be held twice a year, and all employees must also receive information regarding safe evacuation during their health and safety induction training, when they commence work at your business.

Naturally, it is vital to ensure that all the requirements in emergency preparedness is noted as controls towards the protection of the employees, other person and the company, on your risk assessment, and as mentioned, these control measures need to be implemented, monitored and improved on where required, continually.