In order to protect the health and safety of their employees and their businesses, business owners and managers should:
- Maintain an emergency supply kit that includes survival items such as water, flashlights and a first aid kit.
- Develop continuation of operations/business continuity plans before disaster strikes.
Over 40% of businesses NEVER reopen after disaster, and of those that do only 29% remained open after 2 years.
Recommendations to make sure your business survives disaster
Program Management
- Organize, develop and administer your preparedness program
- Identify regulations that establish minimum requirements for your program
Planning
- Gather information about hazards and assess risks
- Conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
- Examine ways to prevent hazards and reduce risks
Implementation
Write a preparedness plan that addresses:
- Resource management
- Emergency response
- Crisis communications
- Business continuity
- Information technology
- Employee assistance
- Incident management
- Training
Testing Plans and Exercises
- Test and evaluate your plan
- Define different types of exercises
- Learn how to conduct exercises
- Use exercise results to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan
Program Improvement
- Identify when the preparedness program needs to be reviewed
- Discover methods to evaluate the preparedness program
- Utilize the review to make necessary changes and plan improvement
