Emergency Planning for Businesses

An emergency is any unplanned event that can cause significant injury or death to employees, customers or the public; or can shut down your business, disrupt operations, cause physical or environmental damage and/or threaten the facility’s financial standing or public image.

When you start to develop your business's disaster plan, consider three areas:

• Human resources- your employees, customers, clients and any visitors
• Physical resources- your facility, your materials, your records
• Business continuity- how will you keep your business running, can you contact clients or vendors?  how will you begin to recover?

 

Start building your plan now.

Click Here for a planning worksheet.

Here are some other suggestions your organization may want to consider:

• Keep phone lists of your key employees and customers with you, and provide copies to staff members.
• If you have a voice mail system at your office, designate one remote number on which you can record messages for employees. Provide the number to all employees.
• Arrange for programmable call forwarding for your main business line(s). Then, if you can't get to the office, you can call in and reprogram the phones to ring elsewhere.
• You may not be able to get to your facility quickly after an emergency, so leave keys and alarm code(s) with a trusted employee or friend who is closer.
• Install emergency lights that turn on when the power goes out. They are inexpensive and widely available at building supply retailers.
• Back up computer data frequently throughout the business day. Keep a backup tape off site.
• Use UL-listed surge protectors and battery backup systems. They will add protection for sensitive equipment and help prevent a computer crash if the power goes out.