Emergencies require you to be prepared at all times. Regardless of your industry, calamities can strike without any warning, and you need to be ready to deal with them. If you’re left off guard, it can lead to a significant loss of life and property.
An Emergency Action Plan (EAP) includes the procedures that you need to follow to respond to a crisis. It’s a written plan that details the steps that you will take to ensure the safety of all the stakeholders and property. It’s a crucial part of every organization’s safety procedures, and if you don’t have one yet, it’s essential to draft it.
You not only need to create an EAP but also need to train your employees on how they can abide by it to reduce any damage to life and property. Whether you own a manufacturing facility or hospital, it’s essential to draft an EAP for your organization. However, before getting into the details of an EAP, let’s try to understand which emergencies require you to have one.
Which Emergencies Require An EAP?
An EAP can come in handy for a wide range of emergencies, from fires to active shooters. While your response may be different for each of them, many emergencies may require similar actions.
It’s thus important to identify all the potential emergencies that can affect your organization and design your Emergency Action Plan accordingly. Your EAP must outline the actions that you need to take for all the possible emergencies that can affect your organization. This is because you need to pick an appropriate response for each emergency whenever it strikes.
For instance, a fire would require you to run out of the building. On the contrary, a snowstorm would require you to run inside the building.
Once you’ve figured out the emergencies that can affect your organization, you can move on to creating your EAP. Here are the important components of an EAP.
Key Components Of An EAP
Every EAP is unique because all organizations will face a different set of emergencies. They’ll also have different building layouts, which lead to differing evacuation procedures. However, there are certain key components of EAPs that are almost always present in all the EAPs out there. These are:
1. Evacuation Procedures, Building Layouts, and Escape Routes
It’s essential to have these things defined clearly in your EAP, irrespective of the emergencies that can hit your organization. This is because you may need to refer to them during any crisis. The floor plan must clearly indicate all the emergency exits, and you should ideally mark all the escape routes too.
The idea is to make it easy for you to evacuate the premises during the emergency. This is especially true during emergencies such as fires, where you’d need to rush outside the building immediately. These procedures and routes can help you complete the evacuation quickly without any hiccups.
You must also ensure that all your employees know their nearest exit points. This can be accomplished by providing them with copies of your floor plan. It’s also necessary to conduct emergency evacuation training, such as fire drills, so as to prepare them should this ever occur.
2. Communication Plan
A communication plan is an integral part of any EAP. It outlines all the steps that you need to take to communicate information regarding the emergency to all the stakeholders. This plan also must include all the important emergency contacts, such as police or fire and rescue. It must mention the key people responsible for carrying out this communication too.
This plan is critical because time is of the essence when it comes to emergencies. Without a strategy in place, you won’t be able to respond quickly to the impending crisis. You should consider using an emergency notification system for such situations to inform all the stakeholders immediately. The usage of this system should also be described in the plan.
3. Accounting For People Post The EAP’s Implementation
The EAP must also outline the steps that you need to take after you’ve implemented the EAP. Once you’ve evacuated (or entered) the premises, you need to regroup at the rally point. The EAP must mention the location of this point as well so that people know where they need to gather.
The next step that you need to take is that of accounting for everyone after they’ve arrived at the rally point. Your EAP must include all the information required to carry out this operation. The purpose of this process is to identify if anyone was left-back, lost, or injured in the emergency.
The EAP must also detail the steps that you need to take after accounting for the people at the rally point, especially if some people are missing.
In the case of large organizations, you could have various rally points. In such a situation, you should also outline the steps that need to be taken for the coordination between all the rally points.
4. Staff Training
Your EAP should also include a part that is dedicated to training your staff. Whenever anyone joins your organization, they must be made aware of all the major procedures in your plan.
It’s also crucial to train them whenever there is any change in your EAP. Your EAP must also include information related to emergency drills and the process of conducting them. These drills should also be conducted regularly to ensure that your staff is always ready to face emergencies.
5. Policies For Updating The EAP
The EAP must also include all the policies for updating and maintaining the EAP itself. You need to update it regularly to keep up with the latest changes in your structural and floor layouts. These policies dictate when you need to update your EAP and also mention the people responsible for carrying out the same.
Final Thoughts
It’s essential for every organization to have an EAP to combat emergencies efficiently. Having this plan in place can help you reduce the damage to life and property. You must try to account for as many relevant emergencies as possible in this plan.
It must consist of all the evacuation procedures, floor plans, and escape routes to help you direct everyone out of the premises efficiently. Additionally, you should have a communication plan in place to coordinate with everyone during the crisis. It must also include the steps to account for everyone at the rally points.
Lastly, the EAP should have points related to staff training and policies related to updating and maintaining it as well.
Have you created an EAP for your organization yet? If not, start drafting one now.
