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With cyclonic winds buffeting the east coast, record rainfall and weather unlike anything witnessed in decades, it brings to the fore considering if your office has a plan in place for emergencies such as storms, floods or fires.
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Most offices may not plan for the worst until it is too late. It is vital to be prepared and have a plan of action in place for when adverse events occur.
Some steps that you may take in preparing your action plan:
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- Complete a risk-management assessment table with your risks, impacts to your business, mitigation strategies and contingency plans.
- Identify the areas of your business that you cannot operate without.
- Complete an emergency management and recovery plan, and communicate it to staff so they are aware of procedures.
- Include a list of emergency contacts such as trades, state emergency services, police, fire and ambulance. This list is also handy to give tenants, who won’t always know what to do when it comes to these emergencies.
- Develop an evacuation plan, ensuring you have covered alternative options for likely emergency scenarios.
- Prepare an emergency kit, including copies of key documents, phone numbers, torches, first aid kits, portable radios, plastic bags, spare batteries and water. Place these in a prominent location and ensure that staff are well informed.
- Appoint an emergency action team, rehearse your action plan – and, most importantly, keep your plan up to date.
- Check that your insurance covers for risks associated with your business.
- Store all important documents in a secure location, ensure you make regular backups of your digital data and secure, offsite storage for those backups.
- Research the virtual office services that could be useful in an emergency, such as a telephone answering service, mail forwarding or a remote secretarial service.
Above all, when it comes to any kind of emergency, stay safe, don’t put yourself at risk and leave what you can up to the emergency services, who are trained to deal with these matters.
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