What else should be included in a disaster preparedness plan?
After identifying all of these items, there is a hazard assessment form that uses data from prior experiences. Your team should complete that form, then grade it on the potential of that occurrence happening and its potential consequences.
You have to prioritize these items. If you have something with a very high potential of occurrence and catastrophic consequences, that would be your No. 1 priority to address. If something is rare and the consequence is minor, it can sit on the back burner if you can’t address it right now.
How can you be sure your plan will be effective?
Drills are important to understanding the training aspect of it. You can put the best plan in place, but unless you have a history of these things happening, there is always a degree of risk involved. Spend time to really understand what your risks are, implement a plan, train your people and work with a third party to support the plan.
Evacuation drills, fire, bomb, robbery —plan and train for these things, then if they do occur, your employees’ minds are more likely to jump to their training rather than create panic and confusion.
Envision yourself in the emergency. You won’t have time to grab your manual and say, ‘Step one, two and three.’ You have to get yourself ready to react to at least the first couple items because nobody carries their manual around with them. Training is a key part of it so people have an understanding of what needs to be done.
Also, review your plan annually, or any time there is a major change in operations.
Consider the recent Gulf oil disaster. Typically, those rigs are one of the safer operations in the world because there is such a high degree of risk that they stay on top of their training and there are measures in place to stop these things from occurring.
In this case, the disaster recovery plan had four-year-old information. One of its listed contact people was deceased. You’ve got to stay on top of it.
How can you help employees prepare for a disaster?
You have to have an understanding that employees are the lifeblood of any organization. When disasters occur, there are certain aspects you need to make sure they understand, like where payroll is coming from.
Give them a sense of certainty about their jobs, that they are coming back and that there is a plan. Training for disasters can really help employee morale, because in a disaster, there is a lot of uncertainty. Without a plan, they are going to be more worried than they would be if they’ve been trained for it and therefore know that they will survive for another day.
Jonathan Theders, CPIA, is president of Clark-Theders Insurance Agency Inc. Reach him at (513) 779-2800 or [email protected].
