What’s your Emergency Action Plan?

Scenario 1.

Its 7 am on a Monday morning, you get to work and there is fire & smoke billowing from your windows. The fire brigade is on site, what do you do next?

What is your emergency plan? An emergency plan is essential to all business to help implement a swift action plan & response.

Who are your emergency contacts? Where are these stored? Are they up to date? Who are your key contacts and do you have current details available? Who is your insurer?

Do you know if any staff is inside? Are they aware of the evacuation procedures? Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) obligations may vary between workplaces but there should be emergency plans in place.

As part of a good workplace action plan the response plan should be reviewed regularly, rehearsed, and updated for any changes.

Who is your office is responsible for this plan? What happens if they aren’t around?

Scenario 2

Your computer shuts down, a message appears on your screen “You have been hacked, pay up $10,000 Bitcoin within 24 hours”.

What is your action plan for this scenario? Who is in charge of the action plan?

What do you do first? Who do you call?

Does your insurance cover such an event? Are you sufficiently covered?

Do you have offsite backups? Are your phones linked to your computers?

As part of a good workplace action plan you should rehearse such a situation, talk to your IT providers and check your vulnerability, where are your emergency contacts held? Is staff aware of suspicious looking emails and do you have strong Spam filters set?

Scenario 3

A high-ranking staff member is killed in a car crash on the way to work.

What is your action plan for this scenario? Who is in charge? Who is their family contact? This situation is difficult and a response plan should be thought out.

Obviously you can’t plan for all situations that arise, but what you can do is try to think of different situations and put in place a solid emergency plan. Rehearse, update, revise, review and backup.

If you keep Murphy’s Law (“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”) in the forefront of your mind whilst building your emergency response then chances are you will build a strong backup plan.

Over the years I have scene many scenarios experienced by clients flood, fire, death, injury, hacking, theft etc. The common response of those without a plan is, in hindsight ……

Don’t get caught out, plan ahead. If you want to talk about any of the above issues feel free to call us.

Kerri Welsh – Senior Manager Poole Group.  07 54379900. 

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