There is little doubt that there are more threats to our businesses than we ever thought 20 years ago. The world is generally more uunstable nowadays, and with the advent of technology, there has become a whole new world of threats through our computer networks – such that those geeks and nerds we used to tease in high school are now using their intellect to cause disruptions in many digital worksites. (OK, not all of them.)
As a safety officer, you are generally responsible for developing and implementing an emergency response plan, and those plans have become more comprehensive now than ever before. With so many businesses keeping personnel files, key company and industry trade secrets and other vital information (such as consumer and client data) on computers and servers, and so many having digital “storefronts” in the form of websites on the Internet, the importance of protecting those digital asserts cannot be understated. It is always a good business practice to have a plan in place for when there is an outage, your website does not go offline or your business stops working.
{Image courtesy of [AndreasS] from Flickr via a Creative Commons license}
When you think of company assets being protected in an emergency, do you think of assets that can move through an evacuation passage like this? While data and digital files are important, the real company capital comes from the human elements in your workforce. It’s good to make sure you keep them in mind in any emergency or evacuation plan.
But aside from the digital emergency plans, a comprehensive company plan should account for physical assets as well, such as buildings, furniture, and inventory in case of fire, burglary, robbery and the like. And while I will not presume that you would actually miss anything in your comprehensive plan, I would like to remind you to double-check your plan before submitting it for approval by the C-suite.
And one of the ways to double-check is to look at yourself in the mirror.
Are you, as an employee of the company – a human being – an asset to the company? If so, does that mean that every human being in that organization is an asset in his or her own right? Now take another look at your plan – does it account for the human assets in your company? Are there protections and evacuation plans for the people on the worksite? What if there is a fire, or a bomb threat? Does your plan give specific directions on conducting a proper human-asset evacuation? Take another look. You may know in your head how to get yourself out, but have you put those instructions in writing for everyone else?
As it dawns on you that this might have to be part of your plan, here are a few tips to help you include the human elements and assets into your company emergency response plan:
* First, think of all physical assets. This includes th building, equipment, furniture … oh, and not just employees, but also any visitors to the facility and any and all clients or customers who may visit your site. Consider the steps that should be taken to protect those assets in the event of an emergency oor an evacuation.
* Next, walk your facility and look at all the possible exit routes in case of an evacuation. Consider the floors and rooms usually occupied by people before or after business hours and draw up a map of where the closest exits are to those floors or rooms.
* Pay attention to the walkways or corridors that lead to possible exits. Are they narrow, able to fit only one or two people shoulder to shoulder? Or are the walkways wide, so there is plenty of room of people to move around as they evacuate? If a corridor is too narrow, it could be bottlenecked during an evacuation, and that loses precious time. In this case, rule out that particular exit route and find a new one.
* Of course, most elevators will be off-limits in an evacuation, so make sure stairwells are easily identified on a map of the floor or building. And under most circumstances, do not suggest windows as a possible escape route, even if they are ginormous.
* Have a careful look and awareness of each room that you are considering in your evacuation plan. Is there a room that houses dangerous or hazardous chemicals or heavy equipment that could pose a threat in an emergency situation? Account for these and devise a safe way to make them as irrelevant as possible when trying to get people out safely.
* Now picture the evacuation taking place. Everyone is leaving the building … but where are they going? Eatablish a single rendezvous point for all people in the building, so that supervisors and managers can easily account for everyone and further instruction can be communicated more quickly and efficiently.
Once you have accounted for all that, it is then time to make your evacuation plan public. Create a map with a computer design software package, but do not go into so much detail that it gets confusing. Focus on the evacuation routes from various floors or sections of the building. Print it out so it’s big enough to be seen in a high-traffic area, talk about the plan and teach everyone how to execute it.
Periodically, conduct evacuation drills and track its efficiency and make notes for areas of improvement and then refine the plan according to the data received. The point is to get everyone out of the building as quickly as possible without mass panic. You might want to conduct a couple of these drills within a short time frame so you can see the plan transferred from paper to real life and make the necessary adjustments quickly before a real evacuation need arises. After the plan is run at its peak, drills can then be more occasional and random, but training and reminders of the evacuation plan should happen somewhat regularly (every year, for example).
There are plenty of assets that should be protected at a company, no doubt. But to not address the human assets alongside the digital ones would serve to collapse the company because as many people know, a company is nothing without its people. It is not contained in the data, the equipment or the building. It is contained in the minds and bodies of those humans who come to work everyday. Keep that heartbeat going in the aftermath of an emergency by making sure it gets out safely and quickly.
After all, I need people to read my blog. Yes, I can make this all about me. (Sort of.)