Emergency Response Planning

In the unfortunate event that an emergency situation befalls your company, having an emergency response plan (also known as an ERP) is absolutely critical in the successful management of the incident. At a minimum, the plan should include the following information:

• Emergency contact numbers for emergency responders (EMS, Fire Department and the local Police if 911 s not available in your area)
• A list of the company’s incident response representatives (Operations, Safety, Human Resources, Legal, Public Relations, and senior management designates are typically identified)
• Diagrams indicating reporting requirements and company representative responsibilities
• A clearly defined set of directions on how to access work sites
• Maps of your company’s work locations (both a general site map and a detailed structural diagram to indicate emergency exits and critical safety equipment)
• Contact information for applicable regulatory agencies, security contractors and environmental clean-up specialists, retained lawyers, communications spokespeople and retained medical professionals (as applicable)
• Employee Assistance Program representative contact information

 It is also important to conduct drills that test the plan that has been created. Drills can be easily scheduled in Outlook or other email system calendars for easy reminders and universal notification for the parties involved. More mature ERP systems will often require that the contact representatives learn the jobs of the response members that are junior and senior to their positions so that in the event that one of the representatives is unavailable, the process can still be seamlessly implemented.

The ERP system is a valuable tool in post-incident management and its complexity will vary depending on the size and nature of your business. For help implementing an emergency response plan for your business, visit the contact us page.